Interesting tidbit from the 2000-01 Winter...

[Heisy]

This was the first winter I started looking at models. The first half of December 2000 was fairly mild/boring. However, there was a monster cold front that basically dropped the hammer on the AO. I remember watching NBC 10 during dinner towards the 2nd half of December. Hurricane was talking about how the NAO was about to tank and it could lead to cold and snow. That was when I googled the AO and weather forums, found TWC & Wright-Weather (and the rest is history).

 

Here is a 500mb representation of the big ULL that caused the hammer to drop around Dec 17-18. I recall a line of really heavy thunderstorms in the morning of the 17th. 

 

 

After this storm I remember DT hyping up the pattern towards the end of DEC. It eventually lead to the Dec 30 2000 storm, which was the epic bust for DC and western burbs of Philly. I got lucky with around 7-8" in NE Philly...

 

That leads me to the interesting tidbit. Leading up to this storm, as I recall, there were some model runs that phased the Dec 30 2000 ULL with the southern branch creating an epic storm.

 

Here is the 500mb representation of the two branches JUST missing each other. We had a sweet west-based NAO, very nice PNA....I remember watching TWC and one of the meteorologists was talking about how we just escaped a monster storm since the two shortwaves just missed phasing.

 

 

Once they missed phasing it was up to the ULL to create a Miller B storm which it eventually did (the Dec 30 storm)

 

 

So while most people remember the epic March 5 2001 bust where some model runs 4 days out were dropping 3-4 feet from DC to NYC, a lot of people forget the DEC 30 bust. While Philly did just get lucky enough to get snow from Dec 30 event, not a lot of people realize how close it was to being an epic storm. 

[famartin]

13 in TTN, right on the edge of the big stuff.  2'+ in parts of north Jersey.

[JCT777]

I felt very fortunate living in central Montgomery County to get 6 inches of snow from the Dec 30, 2000 storm.  Places only 15 miles to my west got a coating.

 

That winter should be best remembered for the Feb 5th, 2001 storm (at least those of us living from the city north & west). Early morning forecasts of mostly rain changing to a bit of snow late in the day turned out to be a driver's nightmare when it snowed very heavily from mid-morning through late afternoon.

[famartin]

I felt very fortunate living in central Montgomery County to get 6 inches of snow from the Dec 30, 2000 storm.  Places only 15 miles to my west got a coating.

 

That winter should be best remembered for the Feb 5th, 2001 storm (at least those of us living from the city north & west). Early morning forecasts of mostly rain changing to a bit of snow late in the day turned out to be a driver's nightmare when it snowed very heavily from mid-morning through late afternoon.

 

I remember both vividly.  February 5 2001 was first and I think only time I walked all the way across the Rutgers New Brunswick/Piscataway Campus.  It was faster than taking a bus and sitting in traffic.  Note that the route typically involved 2 miles on Route 18, a 55 mph freeway.  It was funny passing all the vehicles on foot.

[White_Mtn_Wx]

This was the first winter I started looking at models. The first half of December 2000 was fairly mild/boring. However, there was a monster cold front that basically dropped the hammer on the AO. I remember watching NBC 10 during dinner towards the 2nd half of December. Hurricane was talking about how the NAO was about to tank and it could lead to cold and snow. That was when I googled the AO and weather forums, found TWC & Wright-Weather (and the rest is history).

Here is a 500mb representation of the big ULL that caused the hammer to drop around Dec 17-18. I recall a line of really heavy thunderstorms in the morning of the 17th.

After this storm I remember DT hyping up the pattern towards the end of DEC. It eventually lead to the Dec 30 2000 storm, which was the epic bust for DC and western burbs of Philly. I got lucky with around 7-8" in NE Philly...

That leads me to the interesting tidbit. Leading up to this storm, as I recall, there were some model runs that phased the Dec 30 2000 ULL with the southern branch creating an epic storm.

Here is the 500mb representation of the two branches JUST missing each other. We had a sweet west-based NAO, very nice PNA....I remember watching TWC and one of the meteorologists was talking about how we just escaped a monster storm since the two shortwaves just missed phasing.

Once they missed phasing it was up to the ULL to create a Miller B storm which it eventually did (the Dec 30 storm)

So while most people remember the epic March 5 2001 bust where some model runs 4 days out were dropping 3-4 feet from DC to NYC, a lot of people forget the DEC 30 bust. While Philly did just get lucky enough to get snow from Dec 30 event, not a lot of people realize how close it was to being an epic storm.

Awesome recollection!

[Fringed]

I remember that one. I lived in Easton at the time. Forecasts were for 10-16 and we ended up with about 6". I also remember not long after driving out rt 80 to east Rutherford to see the devils/flyers play and you could tell parts of north jersey out past lake hopactong had got absolutely dumped on. Until this thread I hadn't really thought about that bust being followed just over two months later by the mother of all busts. Didnt know what it was at the time but I did some serious weenie-ing out over those two!