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Let's Put To Bed That Colder Temps Always Mean Higher Ratios, Poster Event 1/28-1/29 Added.

Rainshadow

By Rainshadow,
in Philadelphia Region

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Rainshadow

Rainshadow

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Nice map. That actually looks really good to me. I did another core melt from a different location and found .78 LE so take a few hundreds off for sublimation and 17:1 is right in line.

 

This was a fluffier snow than the last one, so with all the blowing and drifting, there probably were catch issues even with the CoCoRaHS gages. Taking core samples, I never was great at it myself. One day, you have to let me in on the Monmouth County secret to snow.  ;)

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Absolute Humidity

Absolute Humidity

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This was a fluffier snow than the last one, so with all the blowing and drifting, there probably were catch issues even with the CoCoRaHS gages. Taking core samples, I never was great at it myself. One day, you have to let me in on the Monmouth County secret to snow.  ;)

I think it's really luck, but some say it has to do with enhancement off LI sound Atlantic and Raritan Bay with a pinch of lift off the hills of the northern shore. There was a 5 page thread discussing the topic a few years ago. I'll see if I can dig it up.

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famartin

famartin

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Anyway here is the latest event:

We had a great textbook case here, where the higher ratios were with the frontogenetic band and snow growth/omega cross hairs along I95. I've attached an MPE map, but I think these pcpn estimates are on the high side. Maybe because people worked today, the CoCoRaHS collection was less than average, so I had to do a bit more combining of counties than last time to get at least 5 or more in most of them. As my math professors would say, as the student can readily see, lower ratios occurred with colder temperatures northwest of the band. Beside above, the lighter intensity probably helped cause more settling. Rain contamination(*) I think was limited to Sussex and Cape May. Here goes:

Maryland Eastern Shore...15:1

Kent and New Castle........18:1

Sussex DE*.....................13:1

Poconos.........................14:1

Berks..............................12:1

Lehigh Valley....................13:1

Chester............................19:1

Montgomery.....................17:1

Bucks/De/PHL..................18:1

Sussex NJ........................13:1

Warren..............................17:1

Morris...............................14:1

Hunterdon.........................16:1

Somerset..........................18:1

Middlesex.........................17:1

Monmouth.........................17:1

Mercer...............................18:1

Burlington...........................17:1

Ocean...............................12:1

Camden.............................18:1

Gloucester..........................17:1

Cumberland & Salem...........12:1

Atlantic...............................11:1

Cape May*..........................10:1

24hr-20140122.12z.png

Good stuff Tony, thanks as always! :thumbsup:

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Absolute Humidity

Absolute Humidity

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I think it's really luck, but some say it has to do with enhancement off LI sound Atlantic and Raritan Bay with a pinch of lift off the hills of the northern shore. There was a 5 page thread discussing the topic a few years ago. I'll see if I can dig it up.

This was a fluffier snow than the last one, so with all the blowing and drifting, there probably were catch issues even with the CoCoRaHS gages. Taking core samples, I never was great at it myself. One day, you have to let me in on the Monmouth County secret to snow.  ;)

Here's the thread:

http://www.americanwx.com/bb/index.php/topic/1347-who-gets-more-snow/

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Isotherm

Isotherm

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This was a fluffier snow than the last one, so with all the blowing and drifting, there probably were catch issues even with the CoCoRaHS gages. Taking core samples, I never was great at it myself. One day, you have to let me in on the Monmouth County secret to snow.  ;)

 

 

Miller B's tend to perform well here compared to most of the rest of NJ due to our longitude, and proximity to the Atlantic where band enhancement can occur. This storm was like a weaker version of the January 22nd 2005 Miller B with its swath of jackpot snows across CNJ. Interestingly enough the highest totals occurred near Millstone Twp/Manalapan Twp in that event, similar to the recent storm.

 

We've had a ton of strong nor'easters since 2000 moving close to the benchmark position, and generally we are positioned well for the bigger events, where the jackpot totals have usually been east central NJ northeastward through Suffolk County Long Island. They have seen an even more impressive period of winter weather since 2000.

 

So I think it's that mean storm track, which since 2000, has favored areas close to the coast, in concert with the high frequency of MIller B's over the past 10-15 years which tend to favor east central NJ and Long Island.

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RU848789

RU848789

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It almost looked like they spent too much time in the "dry slot".  They were stuck between the fgen banding and lack of pva until the evening.  By then the jet aloft was offshore.

Gotcha, thanks.  Great job, by the way by you guys in the NWS on the forecast for this storm.  I do weather updates for coworkers and family/friends and I almost always use info from the NWS (with links of course). 

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Absolute Humidity

Absolute Humidity

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Miller B's tend to perform well here compared to most of the rest of NJ due to our longitude, and proximity to the Atlantic where band enhancement can occur. This storm was like a weaker version of the January 22nd 2005 Miller B with its swath of jackpot snows across CNJ. Interestingly enough the highest totals occurred near Millstone Twp/Manalapan Twp in that event, similar to the recent storm.

 

We've had a ton of strong nor'easters since 2000 moving close to the benchmark position, and generally we are positioned well for the bigger events, where the jackpot totals have usually been east central NJ northeastward through Suffolk County Long Island. They have seen an even more impressive period of winter weather since 2000.

 

So I think it's that mean storm track, which since 2000, has favored areas close to the coast, in concert with the high frequency of MIller B's over the past 10-15 years which tend to favor east central NJ and Long Island.

Excellent post. I believe the same can be said, geographically speaking for Norlun events that have benefited the county as well.
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KamuSnow

KamuSnow

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Call it what you want, but having grown up in snowless Cumberland County, and now living in Monmouth County for the past 10 years or so,  it's like Buffalo or Syracuse to me here every winter!  ha ha ha I'm in snow heaven! Let's keep this lucky streak going Monmouth!! ha ha ha

 

All right all right, don't rub it in. Seriously, good for you guys!

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Rainshadow

Rainshadow

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I'm curious to learn what the ratios for the Jan 22/23rd 2005 mega clipper blizzard were now that were at its 9th anniversary.

 

Mine at home was 13:1.  I think that event from what I remember at the office had 10:1 & 20:1 phases wrapped up within it.

 

Thank-you for the link and also for the comments Tom.

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RU848789

RU848789

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In identical conditions... yes, higher ratio snow melts faster.

Just to clarify, the ice crystals, themselves, melt at the same rate, regardless of ratio (assuming the surface is exposed to roughly equal amounts of the same temperature air and other factors), i.e., 32F is still the melting point in both cases.  However, the high snow/liquid ratio loses more depth per unit time at the same conditions than an equal depth of low ratio snow, since there's less snow per inch of depth in the high ratio snow (more air present). 

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famartin

famartin

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I'm gonna have my brother take a larger standard rain gauge back to my parents house.  Its rated for much more snow and it can pretty much just sit there holding it til someone can get over to empty it.  That way the possibly less-than-adequate siting at my brother's house won't be a permanent record-affecting problem.

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Rainshadow

Rainshadow

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If only I started with this one:

 

Sorry, had catching up to do and couldnt post this sooner.  This event was the ultimate on how omega areas (acy sounding had a double omega look) in the snow growth area combined with temps below 20F gave the largest ratios I remember for a winter storm event.  Notice how ratios fell outside of where that fgen/omega band was that night. These from CoCoRaHS again.  Counties not included, we either had no reports or snowfall averaged < 0.3".  We only had two reports from Kent De.

Lower Maryland Eastern Shore....20:1
Sussex DE...................................14:1
Kent DE.......................................55:1
New Castle DE.............................20:1

Cape May....................................29:1
Atlantic.........................................30:1
Cumberland..................................n/a
Salem..........................................26:1
Gloucester.................................22:1
Camden....................................22:1
Burlington..................................19:1
Ocean.......................................25:1
Mercer.......................................12:1
Hunterdon..................................11:1
Somerset...................................11:1
Middlesex..................................12:1
Monmouth..................................16:1
Morris.........................................11:1

Chester.......................................19:1
Montgomery.................................16:1
Bucks...........................................14:1
Philadelphia/Delaware...................13:1

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Absolute Humidity

Absolute Humidity

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Kent DE.......................................55:1. You could probably see right through that.

I remember seeing ridiculous ratios like that, even more so at the end of the blizzard of 96. As the ULL was squeezing every last water molecule out of the atmosphere, the last inch of snow to accumulate on the shoveled areas was so dry you could actually see clearly through it. The snow looked more like dandelion fluff than snow.

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Absolute Humidity

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Low ratio event. My total precipitated liquid for the Feb 3rd event was 1.37" extremely NAMish. Rah rah even the NAM has to win sometimes. Anyway, out of that a total of 1.05" QPF fell as snow. I had 7.5" snow here. Ratios here may seem really poor, they were, but .1" inch was sleet. Still about a 7:1 event. Paste job for sure.

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