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March 25th Storm: Debacle or Climo Defier? Discussion and Obs II


stormtracker

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That band over the Potomac north of DC looks like it's getting its act together.  Any one have obs? 

I'm on the eastern fringe in Clarksburg. Heaviest snow since last night. Temp has dropped a degree to 31.2F and winds have started moving again at 5mph from due north after being calm for hours. Snow is starting to accumulate again on concrete but not asphalt.

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Not necessarily. I've got 1.4 inches and I'm 10 miles north of the airport.

I'm 2 miles north and only 40' higher and got 4.75"

your city location and BWI measurements being taken in the middle of yards and yards of concrete and asphalt runways are similar in marginal temp events

I always do surprisingly better in these deals

otoh, in late JAN or FEB, BWI got 2" when I barely eeked out an inch because they were under a decent band in one of those clippers-that's the only time they'll beat me

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I saw some people live in the Thunder Hill/Oakland Mills neighborhood in Columbia? Didn't know I lived near anyone on the board. Haha. 4 inches here! Beautiful day in Columbia! Still snowing lightly.

 

I'm in Stevens Forest/Oakland Mills (right behind the pool and the only decent sledding hill in our neighborhood). I didn't measure but 4" seems about right. Super pretty!

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Was out of town that week. Had my wife measure and then verified with the obs vs the storm reports from the NWS employee who lives about a mile away. I do not have anything recorded for 1/17 and I don't remember why.

attachicon.gif10-11 snowfall.jpg

 

fair enough..I trust your measurements more than just about anyone.seems low to me, but maybe I over measured in Mt Pleasant...I may have been in a better spot that winter latitude/longitude and it was cold enough elevation may not have mattered as much...I also got measurable on 12/13-14 and 1/17 and more than you on 1/12 and 2/21-22....still only a 0.8 difference between us, but I would have figured you were closer to 13 - 13.5 that winter

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Bust on March 6th and anti-bust on March 25th.  Everyone was gunshy after that epic bust.  Understandably so.  I think telling folks 1-3" was the safest thing, but it was certainly a low confidence forecast no matter what.  

 

They happen all the time with complicated setups. The issue nws and on air mets have this time is they are still healing from one of the worst (and emabarassing) busts in a decade. I'm sure there was a whole lotta "oh god, here we go again" the last couple days. 

 

I think ma subforum did an excellent job covering the facets. The most important one was that this airmass was clearly better than march 6th. The wild card was the rates but I saw model run after model run drop .2-.5 from 12-18z. That was the window and it worked just this once. 

 

It's easy to toss #'s out when you're a weenie because busting is what we do best and smile about it. Not so fun when you have to advise the public. 

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I'm 2 miles north and only 40' higher and got 4.75"

your city location and BWI measurements being taken in the middle of yards and yards of concrete and asphalt runways are similar in marginal temp events

I always do surprisingly better in these deals

otoh, in late JAN or FEB, BWI got 2" when I barely eeked out an inch because they were under a decent band in one of those clippers-that's the only time they'll beat me

 

Agreed. This was pretty much my point. It was sort of a general point that I was trying to make that just because one is within a few miles of a certain official measuring spot does not mean that the measurements will be identical or even close to one another. I am in the city at almost sea level (I'm actually more like 7.5 miles NNE as the crow flies), BWI has tons of concrete, there are many areas near BWI that are neither sea level nor bathed in blacktop, and bands can be narrow and fickle. Go 10 miles west of BWI and you are in Columbia where some board members are mentioning close to 8".

 

FWIW it's now turned to light mix.

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They happen all the time with complicated setups. The issue nws and on air mets have this time is they are still healing from one of the worst (and emabarassing) busts in a decade. I'm sure there was a whole lotta "oh god, here we go again" the last couple days. 

 

I think ma subforum did an excellent job covering the facets. The most important one was that this airmass was clearly better than march 6th. The wild card was the rates but I saw model run after model run drop .2-.5 from 12-18z. That was the window and it worked just this once. 

 

It's easy to toss #'s out when you're a weenie because busting is what we do best and smile about it. Not so fun when you have to advise the public. 

It's sort of natural to go too far in the opposite direction after a bust.  I think LWX should have had WWAs up for the entire area as of yesterday afternoon so as to get them on the evening news.  I completely understand not issuing warnings, even though probably most counties near or north of I-95 will verify 5".  

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I wonder if they are still bitter and jealous about my 0.2" cartopper the other morning when they got nothing

 

nah, they both broke character today. mitch was optimistic and phin was happy with what he saw. paradigm psychological shift. they probably even look different now. 

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I'm in Stevens Forest/Oakland Mills (right behind the pool and the only decent sledding hill in our neighborhood). I didn't measure but 4" seems about right. Super pretty!

Oh wow that's close. Our apartment is on Basket Ring Road and we can see the pool from outside our deck. lol. Hopefully that band makes it here later. Nice sized flakes now.

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