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March 5th Storm Obs/Nowcasting


nj2va

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Final obs:6.4", snow ending for me now and picked up another 0.2" when the snow resumed, looks like the light snow will come to an end at 9pm in the eastern and southern suburbs.

Another fun event as many are here, the different forecasts and styles leading up to and during.

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I just spent 2 hours diggin snow. Plow left a 3 foot berm of snow in front of three of my neighbor's driveways. Well, they called upon Jeb.

I am gonna sleep for about 8 hrs then go out and dig more ppl out. That plow is completely out of control. He leaves 3 foot berms composed of gigantic snow boulders right in the entrances to my neighbors' driveways. I am going to be busy thru tomorrow.

I got my snow fix --- For now.

You need your own plow truck. You could get a Jebman logo on the side of the truck lol. You could go for Jebdrives.
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My final is 9.25" which is the exact same amount that I got on 2/21.  I liked the windiness of the 2/21, south wind no less, but undecided as to which one I prefer.  Need to sleep on it I guess.  Anyhow, this storm raises my season total to 43" making this the second season in a row to reach 40+ inches (last year was nearly 83", so roughly half of that surprising winter).  

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Final obs:6.4", snow ending for me now and picked up another 0.2" when the snow resumed, looks like the light snow will come to an end at 9pm in the eastern and southern suburbs.

Another fun event as many are here, the different forecasts and styles leading up to and during.

Your "we're all going to die" style rocks.

Final (compressed?) measurement in Reston 7".

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First legit snow fall this year... as far as I'm concerned.

 

As I was digging through the many inches that fell today... I stumbled upon blue snow. I haven't seen that in quite a few years. KAOS approves . :snowing:

 

 

 

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This has been a great storm! My gut feeling was that we could have a high impact given the moisture tap from the pac and gulf into arctic air. I also commend the map you put out. Worked very well.

As did the NWS narrative. Big score for a number of folks. Well communicated and well planned for.

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First legit snow fall this year... as far as I'm concerned.

 

As I was digging through the many inches that fell today... I stumbled upon blue snow. I haven't seen that in quite a few years. KAOS approves . :snowing:

Yes! As I was shoveling I saw blue too. Reminded me of 2010.

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First legit snow fall this year... as far as I'm concerned.

 

As I was digging through the many inches that fell today... I stumbled upon blue snow. I haven't seen that in quite a few years. KAOS approves . :snowing:

 

I saw some blue effect too! Heart-attack snow. This has been a fun one...I ended up with 5.75". I agree with what jnis said somewhere about the cloudy and cold ending, that was sweet. I don't like to see the sun too soon.

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LOL, someone hijacked my location or NWS Blacksburg made an error on the snow reports, says I sent in a 6.0 at 4:33 pm......nope, last I sent in was 3.0 at 1:03 before heading in to work. Not saying that is not right, 'cuz it poured for about 2 hours after that, just wasn't me. :whistle:  

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The blue light is the product of a relatively long travel path through the snow.

 

As with water, this color is caused by the absorption of both red and yellow light (leaving light at the blue end of the visible light spectrum).

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I'm addicted to looking out the window. What a scene. All Norman Rockwell and stuff

I've been obsessively looking out my sliding glass door at this path I shoveled through my backyard to my firewood stash. The way the flood lights hit it, it looks really deep. I've had this path for almost 3 weeks! I couldn't be happier about this winter.
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What about blue snow?

 

I was going to attempt something in my own words but naaah. Found this:

 

Generally, snow and ice present us with a uniformly white face. This is because most all of the visible light striking the snow or ice surface is reflected back without any particular preference for a single color within the visible spectrum. The situation is different for that portion of the light which is not reflected but penetrates or is transmitted into the snow. As this light travels into the snow or ice, the ice grains scatter a large amount of light. If the light is to travel over any distance it must survive many such scattering events, that is it must keep scattering and not be absorbed. The observer sees the light coming back from the near surface layers (mm to cm) after it has been scattered or bounced off other snow grains only a few times and it still appears white. However, the absorption is preferential. More red light is absorbed compared to blue. Not much more, but enough that over a considerable distance, say a meter or more, photons emerging from the snow layer tend to be made up of more blue light than red light. Typical examples are poking a hole in the snow and looking down into the hole to see blue light or the blue color associated with the depths of crevasses in glaciers. In each case the blue light is the product of a relatively long travel path through the snow or ice. So the spectral selection is related to absorption, and not reflection as is sometimes thought. In simplest of terms, think of the ice or snow layer as a filter. If it is only a centimeter thick, all the light makes it through, but if it is a meter thick, mostly blue light makes it through.

 
Source: NSIDC researcher, Richard Armstrong. For a complete treatment of this subject, see Bohren, C. F. 1983. Colors of snow, frozen waterfalls, and icebergs. J. Opt. Soc. Am. 73(12):1646-1652.
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Several measures on the deck, table on the deck, railing, were in the 6" - 6.25" range. One around 6.5" but I'll throw that out. I'll go with 6.25" because it's so g/d pretty out now, it deserves the benefit of the doubt. And that pales in comparison to what was measured (at 6 PM no less) at the National Arboretum, which is about 150' less in elevation than I am.

 

That's a funky reading for sure. Probably bogus in one way or another, but it is an open area with no buldings around so if they take it by, say, the columns (which is unlikely) ... well, during Commutageddon, when I had about 6"- 6.25" or so at my house, a half mile or so away, in the middle of Fort Reno Park, at the end of the storm, I stuck a ruler in the ground and got 8". Lackadaisical measuring technique, yes. There are no structures in several hundred feet in all directions in the middle of the soccer/baseball field there (just north of Chesapeake Street). The elevation there is 30 or so feet higher than where I am, that doesn't seem significant.

 

Anyway, this is my third or fourth most memorable March storm of all time. (93 Superstorm, St. Patty's last year are 1 and 2.) Don't remember 2009 that well. I'm sure there have been others.

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The storm was great. I told Matt yesterday that all I wanted was a couple hours of low vis heavy snow. I got that and more. Made for a great day.

It was nice. Certainly the lowest vis snow i saw since 2010. And the bonus was shoveling the blue snow. Now unfortunately the plow made its first appearance on my street so now i have a 3 foot high ice and rock solid snow birm. Too late to go back out to clear. Not looking forward to tackling it tomorrow. Great event. Swamp next week.

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