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Central Pennsylvania Late Summer-Fall 2013

Eskimo Joe

By Eskimo Joe,
in Upstate New York/Pennsylvania

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Jmister

Jmister

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I was a Student at Penn State during those years. and remember, there was also Hurricane Andrew in August of 1992 during that stretch. so I got to see them all in State College.

 

I always thought how amazing it would have been to begin at PSU in fall '92. You would have gone through 3 of the top 4 winters in at least the past 30 years including two 25"+ blizzards back to back! I hadn't even thought about Andrew thrown in there too during your first week of classes. What a great time to be a weather weenie undergrad!

 

post-1406-0-73528300-1378217755_thumb.jp

 

I, for one, can't wait to transition through fall. The foliage changes here are way more intense than back in the Philly area where I grew up.

 

What do you all think about the timing of the first snowflakes of the season? This will be my 7th fall in State College, and I think there have been flakes 5 of the last 6 Octobers (not to mention TWO accumulating snowfalls!) 

 

 

Throw out your guesses for first flakes for a few places:

 

Bradford: 10/14

Johnstown: 10/14

State College: 10/22

Harrisburg: 11/3

 

  :snowman:

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djr5001

djr5001

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Well we closed out August without a single 90 degree day in Harrisburg (last time was 1994).  I ended up with almost 2" more rainfall than MDT did (5.06" vs 3.11") mainly due to the one heavy overnight storm on the 22nd...

 

Temperature wise - average highs of 80.9 degrees is coolest since 1994 (80.8 degrees), average lows of 63.9 degrees was the second coolest since 1994 (62.4 degrees) with 2008 being cooler at 62.3 degrees, and average daily temperature of 72.4 degrees is coolest since the 71.6 degree average in 1994. 

 

With all of the comparisons to August 1994... hopefully the upcoming winter doesnt match that winter after August of 94-95 too (9" of snow in Harrisburg)

 

I also saw that August 2013 was only 6th time in last 54 years to not have a single hurricane form in the month as well.

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Eskimo Joe

Eskimo Joe

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Gonna be another rough winter for snow weenies (Neutral ENSO, Poorly Aligned PDO, lackluster downstream blocking, you name it).  Probably on par with last year.

 

First Flakes Officially Reported:

Bradford: 10/31

Johnstown: 11/2

State College: 11/12

Harrisburg: 12/27

 

 

First Inch Officially Reported:

 

Bradford: 11/4

Johnstown: 11/16

State College: 12/2

Harrisburg: 1/4/14

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canderson

canderson

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Well we closed out August without a single 90 degree day in Harrisburg (last time was 1994).  I ended up with almost 2" more rainfall than MDT did (5.06" vs 3.11") mainly due to the one heavy overnight storm on the 22nd...

 

Temperature wise - average highs of 80.9 degrees is coolest since 1994 (80.8 degrees), average lows of 63.9 degrees was the second coolest since 1994 (62.4 degrees) with 2008 being cooler at 62.3 degrees, and average daily temperature of 72.4 degrees is coolest since the 71.6 degree average in 1994. 

 

With all of the comparisons to August 1994... hopefully the upcoming winter doesnt match that winter after August of 94-95 too (9" of snow in Harrisburg)

 

I also saw that August 2013 was only 6th time in last 54 years to not have a single hurricane form in the month as well.

I had about 9.5" snow this past winter, maybe the winter just jumped ahead of the August this time.

 

Doubtful, I know. This winter looks to be weak, despite what the lovely Farmers' Almanac would like us to believe.

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djr5001

djr5001

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I had about 9.5" snow this past winter, maybe the winter just jumped ahead of the August this time.

 

Doubtful, I know. This winter looks to be weak, despite what the lovely Farmers' Almanac would like us to believe.

 

 

I'll take a repeat of '94 if it means a repeat of '96 as well.

or if we are going backwards this time... a repeat of 93 too?... :-)

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sauss06

sauss06

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Well we closed out August without a single 90 degree day in Harrisburg (last time was 1994).  I ended up with almost 2" more rainfall than MDT did (5.06" vs 3.11") mainly due to the one heavy overnight storm on the 22nd...

 

Temperature wise - average highs of 80.9 degrees is coolest since 1994 (80.8 degrees), average lows of 63.9 degrees was the second coolest since 1994 (62.4 degrees) with 2008 being cooler at 62.3 degrees, and average daily temperature of 72.4 degrees is coolest since the 71.6 degree average in 1994. 

 

With all of the comparisons to August 1994... hopefully the upcoming winter doesnt match that winter after August of 94-95 too (9" of snow in Harrisburg)

 

I also saw that August 2013 was only 6th time in last 54 years to not have a single hurricane form in the month as well.

2002 and 2010 are part of that list correct?

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Laurel Highlands Wx

Laurel Highlands Wx

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Had a rough day yesterday.Just got into state college now. I was home for Labor day when the storm it. From 6 to about 830 we picked up about 2 to 4 inches of rain. The whole town was hit with major flash flooding. Lucky for us we didn't get to much water in our house. But our neighbors weren't so lucky. Our backyard was a lake from all the rain. Our one neighbor had to open his garage just to let all the water out. My mom's classroom was flooded really bad. Checked it out this morning, there was still some water there. WTAJ (which is the CBS affiliate) filmed her classroom. So for all the locals who are in the region should watch the news to check it out. I will upload a link later for all the Harrisburg crew.    

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Jim Marusak

Jim Marusak

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I always thought how amazing it would have been to begin at PSU in fall '92. You would have gone through 3 of the top 4 winters in at least the past 30 years including two 25"+ blizzards back to back! I hadn't even thought about Andrew thrown in there too during your first week of classes. What a great time to be a weather weenie undergrad!

 

attachicon.gifpost-1406-0-63862200-1352303330.jpg

 

I, for one, can't wait to transition through fall. The foliage changes here are way more intense than back in the Philly area where I grew up.

 

What do you all think about the timing of the first snowflakes of the season? This will be my 7th fall in State College, and I think there have been flakes 5 of the last 6 Octobers (not to mention TWO accumulating snowfalls!) 

 

 

Throw out your guesses for first flakes for a few places:

 

Bradford: 10/14

Johnstown: 10/14

State College: 10/22

Harrisburg: 11/3

 

  :snowman:

 

It was also kind of ironic. But in a way, it makes you appreciate more the field you were stepping into with all of that going on. You got to remember all that went on at that time....

 

  • hurricane andrew
  • the 3 blizzards
  • the opening up of the internet with Mosaic and Netscape 1
  • Real Player first came out, and was actually quite a clean app
  • the main models when I started were the LFM, NGM, and the AVN. the ETA was just coming out, we still used "magic charts" for the trajectories at times
  • the main computers were vax mainframes (they didn't switch them out until after I graduated in 1997)
  • campus weather service was using the telephone to deliver all the forecasts, not even imagining using the internet or specialized studios and the TV side used the map-walls that you actually had to hand-draw the features on them; and Jon Racy was the CWS president
  • Hypercard just came out on Macs
  • we still had the old SA format for the Observations and were just starting to transition to METARS in 1996
  • we actually had to read the FOUS data to make grid-scale forecasts before Texas A&M started extrapolating the numbers
  • we still had most of the model maps come in via the old difax machine (replaced with a laser printer in 1995 or 1996)
  • Jon Merritt, Dr Chelius, Dr Fraser, Dr Bohren, Dr Forbes, and other classic figures in weather lore around there were still active as teachers/professors in the Dept
  • there was no BUFKIT (even though I did have a vision for something like that, it was really developed after I left, ahead of my time)
  • State College's NWS was just starting up over on Beaver and Burrowes Aves
  • all the home games for the basketball team were played over at Rec Hall (until the pepsidome opened up), including the double OT classic against Indiana were Greg Bartram got screwed over by Sammy Lickliter's crew
  • Section E was the rowdiest and crudest crowd in all of club hockey (some of the chants would be more than banned these days)
  • Accu-Weather's main buildings were over on College Ave near Gill St
  • we still could get creamery ice cream over at the old building
  • the type of secret santa "showcase" i was able to give away one winter in Irvin (the EMS interest house) wouldn't turn many faces these days
  • we had only gotten cable on TV in the rooms on campus back in 1994, and with the CBC showing the junior curling championships I found out a dorm-mate had the hots for the hot-looking Quebec Girl's Curling Team
  • Penn State got screwed over by the pollsters against Nebraska
  • and they actually had a traffic light headed onto Atherton right next to Walker Bldg where the IT building now sits

It was actually kind of a cool time in weather-transition history to see all of that going on. I also was classmates with Paul Markowski among others.

 

 

As for first snowfall dates:

 

flakes:

  • BFD - Oct 14
  • JST -  Oct 15
  • UNV - Oct 22
  • MDT - Oct 28
  • AVP - Oct 28

first 1":

  • BFD Oct 21
  • JST  Oct 21
  • UNV Oct 31
  • MDT Nov 1
  • AVP Oct 31
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Jmister

Jmister

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Wow. It really is amazing how different things were even 15-20 years ago. I bet it really made you appreciate the internet and the advance of technology as a whole! I kinda wish I had experienced the world of meteorology back then.

 

I have only known Accuweather to be out by Science Park road (which I'm sure wasn't even a road in the 90s), and the NWS over at Innovation Park. 

 

The only transition I experienced here was going from the "analog" e-wall my freshman year to the beautiful monitor-filled e-wall that the department boasts today. When I tell the younger students about what it used to be, they seem fascinated. That's how I feel about what you described. I'd love to see some sort of "PSU Meteorology Through the Years" website or book. 

 

 

Anyway, back to the weather...I wouldn't change a thing about the week ahead!

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JamieOber

JamieOber

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Gonna be another rough winter for snow weenies (Neutral ENSO, Poorly Aligned PDO, lackluster downstream blocking, you name it).  Probably on par with last year.

 

First Flakes Officially Reported:

Bradford: 10/31

Johnstown: 11/2

State College: 11/12

Harrisburg: 12/27

 

 

First Inch Officially Reported:

 

Bradford: 11/4

Johnstown: 11/16

State College: 12/2

Harrisburg: 1/4/14

Eh, I'd take it. We had normal snowfall. 

 

First Flakes Officially Reported:

Bradford: 10/20

Johnstown: 10/20

State College: 10/27 (7 of last 10 Oct had trace at UNV...playing the odds)

Harrisburg: 11/27

 

 

First Inch Officially Reported:

 

Bradford: 10/30

Johnstown: 10/30

State College: 11/11 (Been reading a lot lately about a lousy winter but a pretty chilly November)

Harrisburg: 12/19

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