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1/23-24/16 #1 All Time KNYC Snowfall-please add Obs, Accums, Pics

WeatherFox

By WeatherFox,
in New York City Metro

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Snowberd

Snowberd

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Guess it's hard to say but how much do you think you have in Oceanside? I measured 18" or so in Boxing Day, but the photos I saw were definitely more than we had then, and the band was parked overhead for another few hours, JFK coming in with over 30" also leads me to believe parts of S Nassau really did have over 2 feet.

i just finished shoveling and was looking for level spots to measure have drifts over 4 feet and level spots look to be easily over 2'... We def were in that killer band at the end and I woke up around 2am. Snow let up before that but didn't stop and it was still blowing snow. If I had to guess I'd say we were def in the 25-27 if not more range
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RU848789

RU848789

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Did one last shovel (#6) - toughest one as the plows had just come by and tossed all the heavy wet stuff into the mouth of my driveway.  Anyway, after that I took a quick spin to the middle school since I knew that was the only place I could get a good measurement. Final tally for Metuchen was 22", which is the 3rd most I've seen in my 24 years in Metuchen (28" for Jan-96 and 23" for Dec-2010).  Helluva storm.  

 

Worth repeating that I experienced a lot of difficulty getting a consistent measurement in my backyard, which is a good size with few trees, and has usually been good for previous storms: the variance was much greater than previous storms.   I'd take 20 measurements and the range would be something like 7 to 13" with a mean of 10",and a pretty high standard deviation - in addiiton, I was afraid my sample selection was biased.  So earlier today I went to the local school ball fields, which showed far less variance, providing much more confidence that the measurement was correct and unbiased.  For example, I took about 10 measurements and basically saw almost no variability on my 18.5" measurement at 5 pm or my 22" final measurement at 11 pm.  

 

Given the variance I observed, presumably due to the high winds and low moisture content snowflakes, which made drifting worse than I've seen before, I do wonder a bit about the accuracy of some of the reports published by the NWS or reported here.  Not that I suspect inflation, per se, it's just that the variance made it easy to obtain an erroneously high or low result.  

 

So, this morning, I'm watching TWC and I see that someone else in Metuchen reported 27.7" (vs. my 22" measurement in the huge field) and it made it into their graphic.  There's just no way that's correct, even if one were using a snowboard.  I usually use a snowboard and wipe it clean every 6 hours, but I also always double check total snow depth and the amount of compaction is maybe an inch or so even in a 15-20" snowstorm.  I use the snowboard, though, as I want the "official" measurement. 

 

As I said above, I went to the big field yesterday, since I simply couldn't find a decent sized area that seemed reasonably consistent in snow depth (too much variability) and this would've still been an issue with a snowboard.  If I had thought ahead, I could've used the board in the big field, but since I haven't had such a tough time measuring in my yard in the past, I didn't think of it.  Anyway, it was a great storm and it doesn't matter that much, but I don't like to see what I think are measurement errors. 

 

Edit: And Metuchen is one square mile, so I highly doubt there's a true 5" variability across town. One more thing: I just don't see Metuchen having as much snow as areas that were under that mega band for hours yesterday, like NYC, Essex/Union, Southern Morris and north/central Somerset and Hunterdon, where 27-31" were reported by many folks (like NYC, Newark, Millburn, Bridgewater, etc.).  22" makes more sense, since that band just missed us by 5-10 miles most of the time (mind you, it was still snowing hard, just not insanely). 

 

Also, nobody within 5-10 miles of us got over 24" - all of the Middlesex County reports had 20-24" reported...

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jm1220

jm1220

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Moderate coastal flooding meets the 20"+ snowpack here along the Great South Bay

in SW Suffolk this morning. You can see the world famous iceberg effect with the

tide flooding the streets and driveways along the Great South Bay.

 

attachicon.gifTDBZ12416L.jpg

 

attachicon.gifUSGS.01309225.01.62619..20160118.20160125..0..gif

Wow. Go figure, this high tide was the one that caused more widespread flooding. The west end of Long Beach also reported flooding this morning. 

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SnowGoose69

SnowGoose69

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this storm reminds of of the 1996 storm though central park only got 20.2 inches.. many areas got over 2 feet to 30 inches...

There are many storms where the measurements at some sites make no sense. 1983 I think NYC had 17 which I never understood because if LGA had 22 and EWR 20 something and the snow was mostly moving SW to NE how did NYC see so much less. EWRs measurement in 2/11/94 also seemed high as did NYC in 1996 as we all know

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wxman

wxman

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So, this morning, I'm watching TWC and I see that someone else in Metuchen reported 27.7" (vs. my 22" measurement in the huge field) and it made it into their graphic.  There's just no way that's correct, even if one were using a snowboard.  I usually use a snowboard and wipe it clean every 6 hours, but I also always double check total snow depth and the amount of compaction is maybe an inch or so even in a 15-20" snowstorm.  I use the snowboard, though, as I want the "official" measurement. 

 

As I said above, I went to the big field yesterday, since I simply couldn't find a decent sized area that seemed reasonably consistent in snow depth (too much variability) and this would've still been an issue with a snowboard.  If I had thought ahead, I could've used the board in the big field, but since I haven't had such a tough time measuring in my yard in the past, I didn't think of it.  Anyway, it was a great storm and it doesn't matter that much, but I don't like to see what I think are measurement errors.  And Metuchen is one square mile, so I highly doubt there's a true 5" variability across town. 

 

 

You're dead on. Measuring near a house is a fool's errand when there's wind.  If you want the best real estimate, take the lowest report from an honest guy.   I think it would be pretty rare to find amounts greater than 25" on the ground in an open field in this past storm anywhere in central Jersey. 

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jm1220

jm1220

Posted
Posted

Just saw a report from Baldwin-28". :yikes:

 

Undoubtedly some of the higher end totals will be inflated from blowing/drifting, but JFK coming in with 30.5" makes me think that some of these totals in Nassau have to be legitimate. The radar never looked that different between JFK and Nassau, even much of Suffolk. 

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Snowberd

Snowberd

Posted
Posted

Just saw a report from Baldwin-28". :yikes:

Undoubtedly some of the higher end totals will be inflated from blowing/drifting, but JFK coming in with 30.5" makes me think that some of these totals in Nassau have to be legitimate. The radar never looked that different between JFK and Nassau, even much of Suffolk.

most level I got was 27" in my own backyard in Oceanside

e242ffe22cb382c3036422d4df1feaae.jpg

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RU848789

RU848789

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You're dead on. Measuring near a house is a fool's errand when there's wind.  If you want the best real estimate, take the lowest report from an honest guy.   I think it would be pretty rare to find amounts greater than 25" on the ground in an open field in this past storm anywhere in central Jersey. 

 

Thanks.  I'm sure people actually measured what they're reporting (except for those few nimrods who like to inflate), but I think there are many people who don't take extreme care in ensuring that what they measure is correct, with regard to potential variability due to drifting.  I had many places in my yard that were 25-30", but also many places that were 15-20" - my "mean" of 25 measurements in my yard was around 22-23", but I easily could've reported 27" if I had been less vigilant. 

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bkviking

bkviking

Posted
Posted

Measured about 20" in Miller Place - which corroborates local totals - but live on sod farm with no barrier to winds so I'm prone to so much drifting so don't bother doing my storm spotter duties.

Thankfully I got a Subaru this year and just drove through 3' drifts with ease..

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yhbrooklyn

yhbrooklyn

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I wonder if JFK was always measuring snow on the roof because even their totals in storms in the 80s and 90s were less than LGA. Supposedly they have stopped measuring that way but I remember that story coming out in the 2013-14 winter

I measured 18 so their totals for that storm were probably legit.
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Stormlover74

Stormlover74

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Posted

Thanks. I'm sure people actually measured what they're reporting (except for those few nimrods who like to inflate), but I think there are many people who don't take extreme care in ensuring that what they measure is correct, with regard to potential variability due to drifting. I had many places in my yard that were 25-30", but also many places that were 15-20" - my "mean" of 25 measurements in my yard was around 22-23", but I easily could've reported 27" if I had been less vigilant.

I had quite a variation as well. If I took the highest vs the mean it would be a 5" difference

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Rjay

Rjay

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Posted

You sure? JFK was 30". It doesn't seem based on radar anyway there was much difference between there and you. It's only 20 minutes on Sunrise Highway from you.

I guess that's fair. I came up with an average of 25" in a field last night but I didn't trust the measurement enough to report it.

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PB GFI

PB GFI

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I guess that's fair. I came up with an average of 25" in a field last night but I didn't trust the measurement enough to report it.

After looking at the area airports I think you will see the Central Park get adjusted to number 1.

It may take a few days but there were 28 to 30 inches amounts to its E S and W .

They will chalk it up to a missed hour etc IMO.

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