Blizzard92 Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 Congrats Harrisburg! Incredibly jealous to have missed this event! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TugHillMatt Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 one of the items with this storm though that should be looked into other than the model performance is how sharp the actual gradient in snow amounts was. this storm had a much sharper gradient than most storms of this type, at least in my observation. After all, going 0.5" to 8" in 8 miles like happened in Lackawanna County? 2" to 20"+ in about a 30 mile stretch near Columbia County? 1" in Exeter to 18" down just south of Hazleton in ~30 mi? 5" in Milton to 16" in Sunbury just 10 miles away ? when does anyone hear about that dramatic a snow gradient outside of Lake-effect events? I don't remember that many with anything close, personally. But I'm sure you guys might remember a few more. http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/wx/afos/p.php?pil=PNSBGM&e=201601240016 http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/wx/afos/p.php?pil=PNSCTP&e=201601232308 A paper on these sharp gradients in general the last several years would be something. It's amazing that these have become the norm. These events actually seem sort of common across eastern PA. I remember several of them while growing up as a teen in the 90s. Often with noreasters that slam the Philly area, there is a tight cutoff right at the Lancaster/Chester county lines. March 31/April 1st 1997 comes to mind. http://www.raymondcmartinjr.com/weather/1997/31-Mar-97.html Dec 2000 is the other one spoken about: http://www.raymondcmartinjr.com/weather/2001/30-Dec-00.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PennMan Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 Even after shoveling 3 times today we will still have our work cut out for us tomorrow. 12-18" drifted across half the driveway and three completely buried cars to extract. I took a number of depth measurements around part of the yard about 45 minutes ago. Averaged 27", not bad considering compaction and drifting. Calling the final total 31-32", for the largest storm we've ever experienced. Time to go pass out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAG5035 Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 one of the items with this storm though that should be looked into other than the model performance is how sharp the actual gradient in snow amounts was. this storm had a much sharper gradient than most storms of this type, at least in my observation. After all, going 0.5" to 8" in 8 miles like happened in Lackawanna County? 2" to 20"+ in about a 30 mile stretch near Columbia County? 1" in Exeter to 18" down just south of Hazleton in ~30 mi? 5" in Milton to 16" in Sunbury just 10 miles away ? when does anyone hear about that dramatic a snow gradient outside of Lake-effect events? I don't remember that many with anything close, personally. But I'm sure you guys might remember a few more. http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/wx/afos/p.php?pil=PNSBGM&e=201601240016 http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/wx/afos/p.php?pil=PNSCTP&e=201601232308 I was pretty amazed at the gradient of this system, that was another thing the NAM had really suggested with this system. Def seemed to be tighter than Feb 2010. As I had mentioned earlier, the rates I observed last night at times didn't really match up with what the radar had overhead, especially when the heaviest snow was in this area. Ratios were certainly in play as well, as the best bands where the excessive snow piled up were probably >15:1. CTP was referencing up to 20:1 in their disco overnight last night. But yea the gradient was just brutal, locally it went from 2001kx's 1-2" (Clearfield 40 miles north)... to here that had 11".. to Altoona (8 miles south)... which had a general 16-19"..to Hollidaysburg (another few miles south) which had 21". There's also a report of 30" in Roaring Spring, which is about 20 miles south of here, but I'm not sure how authentic it is. Either way, one gets the point. What's the over under on NESIS rating? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk At least at 4 and probably a high end one at that. The only reason(s) I don't think it'll be a 5 is cuz it likely isn't going to get Boston as hard as the 96 blizzard and it had a tighter northern gradient than 96, which was a tight one too. Just an unbelievable storm though, it's amazing to see the huge numbers the computer models had been putting out day after day last week actually come to fruition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAG5035 Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 Started a new thread for general discussion going forward. We can probably carry on for a bit in this one with stuff related to the storm and post-storm disco, pics, obs, etc. http://www.americanwx.com/bb/index.php/topic/47733-central-pa-late-january-2016/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flatheadsickness Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 Abc 27 reported 24" in Newcumberland. I live in Fairview a few miles south west of Newcumberland. My son and I took several measurements in a large open field at around 8:30pm and found no less than 28" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunny and Warm Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 does anyone know where NWS State College hides their public information statements? I'm trying to find storm reports for this region, and having a difficult time finding it. No problem in other regions, and thought the home pages were all the same for NWS sites, but obviously not. tia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vogan Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 Final number for Ephrata is 21" The 26 hour duration makes this a special storm. Definitely worth waiting for this winter. The 1996 storm is still my personal best at 30" Unfortunately my precipitation total is skewed high from blowing snow. I came up with almost 3" total precip but I know that is high. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubbler86 Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 does anyone know where NWS State College hides their public information statements? I'm trying to find storm reports for this region, and having a difficult time finding it. No problem in other regions, and thought the home pages were all the same for NWS sites, but obviously not. tia http://www.weather.gov/ctp/recentSnow Press link that says "Press here for latest statement" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunny and Warm Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 http://www.weather.gov/ctp/recentSnow Press link that says "Press here for latest statement" thank you!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blizzard of 93 Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 30.2 inches at MDT ! This shattered the old record of 25 inches from 1983. Maybe this record will stand for another 33 years, Or maybe it will just last 33 days ? According to the good long range seasonal forecasters, February is supposed to best the best winter month for snow because of this year's El Niño and other factors that impact the pattern. Maybe this record setting storm just got the party started ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pawatch Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 Before this is locked down this is only fitting for this storm. Looking at the totals there are a lot of 30" reports. 35.5" is the highest I seen. Anyone see any higher? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I-83 BLIZZARD Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 Finished with what appears to be 32 inches. Just an incredible storm! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarlislePaWx Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 Well, I'm kind of bummed. Just looked at the PNS report for snow from CTP and they did not include my report of 35.0". They did have a coop observer report from Mechanicsburg with 36.9", so it's not like my report didn't look credible. However, one interesting thing is that I am only about one mile from the Carlisle Water Plant, which is an official COOP site, and they only reported 26.0", which I have a really hard time believing. I might just go over there and pay them a little visit to speak to their observer to see how he did the obs. I'm wondering if he was even there throughout the storm at all or if he just took a ground depth measurement for his report? I will get to the bottom of this mystery. Anyway, here are my final stats: Total snowfall for storm = 35.0" Duration of continuous snowfall = 28 hours Snowfall began at 1430 on 1/22/16 and ended at 2030 on 1/23/16 Snowfall recorded through 2359 on 1/22 = 3.5" Snowfall recorded on 1/23 = 31.5" Total liquid for storm = 2.36" Ratio for storm = 14.8 : 1 MAG had commented about the ratios a few posts back. In one of my obs yesterday I talked about how the ratio of the snowfall that fell during the approximately 6 hour period I was under that incredible band with 2.5 - 3.5"/hr rates was 26:1. The rest of the snow that fell while not under that band had varying ratios of between 12:1 to 15:1. I'm going to contact CTP to ask them about including my obs in their report. Maybe they'll listen to me. I even have hour-by-hour video proof of my accumulations...lol. Congrats to all. We witnessed history yesterday. I'll bet it will be quite some time before MDT breaks their new 30" record. Probably not even in my lifetime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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