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March 12/13/14 Blizzard/Winter Storm/WWA etc


Bostonseminole
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51 minutes ago, Typhoon Tip said:

its interesting to come in here and see this discussion, because I'm debating snow totals with my group of friends in an IM that don't really do weather stuff... 

anyway, I'm saying that I maxed here in Ayer at my place at 14.5" and it doesn't jive with the 18 to 21" being reported around me.  Either: someone ended up in a weird nadir total; someone doesn't know how to measure snow depth; someone is lying... 

Not sure which of those, but I just measure the stack depth ... I didn't clear anything every 6 hours.  I just have a perfect snow board region that is out of the wind and it lain with 14.5" new as of midnight when I crashed, and there was no evidence of accumulation when I awoke this morning. 

So, I am left with a quandary as to how much really fell:  my 14.5" ..or, the average of 18 to 20" ... I really don't believe the latter, however.  I suppose it is possible that there was a 4 to 6" gap that shielded just my street, if not my yard...from the rest of the town...but somehow I find that less likely too - heh

In a similar conundrum myself here in Methuen. 28.3" here and 27.3" in Dracut on the NWS statement and the Methuen one was a trained spotter. I sit right on the line and couldn't find anywhere around my house over 19 inches with 10 plus measurements taken. Definitely interesting.   

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I believe about 10-15 towns could have recorded 30" yesterday if they properly cleared every 6 hours.

Anytown that recorded 23"-24" w /o clearing is in the running. I watch the radar like a hawk. That could include plenty of towns in nh and Maine as well.

My point is I believe Ray and a number of folks sw w nw and well ne (of him).could lay claim to 30". 

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22 minutes ago, OceanStWx said:

I know up here we have 5 climate sites. PWM and CON have paid observers measuring every 6 hours, GYX obviously is staffed round the clock and does 6 hour measurements, and MHT as far as I know reports their 24 max snowfall at midnight (AUG doesn't have snow obs :()

I agree with you and Will about the 6 hrs. It just makes more sense to me with all the reasons stated. 

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5 minutes ago, KoalaBeer said:

In a similar conundrum myself here in Methuen. 28.3" here and 27.3" in Dracut on the NWS statement and the Methuen one was a trained spotter. I sit right on the line and couldn't find anywhere around my house over 19 inches with 10 plus measurements taken. Definitely interesting.   

huh.. .interesting.. 

well, I've decided that I received 14.5" where I am... and let the surrounding village people have their way. 

I'm at 74" even on the season after yesterday's event, ~ 30 of which has taken place in these first two weeks of March - impressive either way.  

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5 minutes ago, STILL N OF PIKE said:

I believe about 10-15 towns could have recorded 30" yesterday if they properly cleared every 6 hours.

Anytown that recorded 23"-24" w /o clearing is in the running. I watch the radar like a hawk. That could include plenty of towns in nh and Maine as well.

My point is I believe Ray and a number of folks sw w nw and well ne (of him).could lay claim to 30". 

I believe as well. Even the previous storm the guy in ridgefield ct had a ruler pick of 23” but being how temps were marginal through the entire event, it was probably closer to 30”. You have to wonder how much snow really fell in Mar 1888 then. 

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2 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

I agree with you and Will about the 6 hrs. It just makes more sense to me with all the reasons stated. 

Forgot MWN too (but they aren't climate). They are 6 hourly, but a crapshoot with the wind.

We have a very old group of Coops up here, and they are pretty much uniformly walk out at 7 AM and measure snow. We know this because some bad mornings they say they don't have snow just yet because they haven't walked outside (too icy, windy, cold, etc). But it's also hard to convince someone to volunteer their time to meticulously measure how much snow falls. It's a commitment to be around all the time and have a back up for when you're on vacation.

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15 minutes ago, STILL N OF PIKE said:

I believe about 10-15 towns could have recorded 30" yesterday if they properly cleared every 6 hours.

Anytown that recorded 23"-24" w /o clearing is in the running. I watch the radar like a hawk. That could include plenty of towns in nh and Maine as well.

My point is I believe Ray and a number of folks sw w nw and well ne (of him).could lay claim to 30". 

Hey I get what you’re saying but is it proper or not?   Glad I take a ruler and average a few areas when I bother to measure.  I’m not that obsessed with the mby total vs established climo record.  Which is why I’m happier if Logan gets 25 and me 15 vs the other way around.

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A storm like yesterday is a prime example of how you will get a much lower number if you just stick a yardstick in the ground at the end of the event. Your losing several inches at least.

Same concept measuring and clearing once every six hours too. Yesterday your probably losing a few inches of whatever fell when you take a reading at 6 hour intervals.

Sucks because it makes the storm seem less impressive.

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17 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

Airports have 6 hour measurements going back to the 1940s even...though not all of them did.

The 6 hour clearing method will probably be more accurate in the long run than a coop who only sticks a ruler in the ground at 7am every morning. You lose way too much snow in the latter. Most NWS people I have talked to don't enforce the changes because they are pretty subjective and sometimes impractical. Besides, there is the subjective element of "when instructed"...and the NWS people can just say they instruct them to continue measuring with 6 hour increments. What is the point now of having a homogeneous record broken if someone has been measuring snow for a decade using the clearing method? Only in storms that have a big fluff band will the differences be really obvious anyway.

I'm not sure the Fort Kent co-op did even that, at least when I lived there 1976-85.  Their obs were more consistent with having looked at total depth and recording the difference from the previous day's total.  We lived a half mile east and maybe 20' higher elev than the co-op site for 4 years, and my one-a-day measurements averaged 111"/winter during that span while the co-op had 90".  Made no sense.

1 NNW New Sharon      14.0   700 AM  3/14  Contains 1 24-hr ob
Actually 2 measurements, as noted in my previous post.  :P

 

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9 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Just amazing stuff happening.

If these models are right about another .5-1.0" QPF through tomorrow afternoon it is going to get ridiculous.  It's already pushing the boundaries of what is deep and skiable in terms of seeing where you are going.

29178434_10155195215227382_4937331826084

29178320_10103358583623360_5476118817484

Storm is over dude. 

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1 hour ago, OceanStWx said:

I know up here we have 5 climate sites. PWM and CON have paid observers measuring every 6 hours, GYX obviously is staffed round the clock and does 6 hour measurements, and MHT as far as I know reports their 24 max snowfall at midnight (AUG doesn't have snow obs :()

I measured every 6 hours,  and once again they have removed my measurement.

Done with BOX....last report I submit.

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1 minute ago, 40/70 Benchmark said:

I measured every 6 hours,  and once again they have removed my measurement.

Done with BOX....last report I submit.

Some of it may be removing it for the final snow map purposes. Even if your report is accurate, if it sticks out enough from surrounding obs you'll get a pretty ugly bullseye with the mapping and it helps to smooth things to remove it. The only way to do that is by taking it out of the PNS (because the software pulls the metadata at the bottom to create the map). 

It may not necessarily be a commentary on your reporting.

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Let’s just totally reinvent the wheel. Create an automated sensor that measures 0.0-1.0” of snow that clears the board automatically after every 1.0”...fluff or not. Throw one on the ASOS, Kevin’s Davis, and the Maple Hollow valley. Now everyone can stay warm inside and compare how many 1” increments they received.

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3 minutes ago, 40/70 Benchmark said:

I measured every 6 hours,  and once again they have removed my measurement.

Done with BOX....last report I submit.

I find it funny that they retweeted this other guy from Wilimington who had 23 an change and a 3.2" liquid core. LMAO. 

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5 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

What is the 24 hr total there.

18" was the last reading at 9am on the mountain.

I got about 13" at home and it's down to flurries while we wait for stronger NW flow.  Figure the mountain is good for another 8-12" while 3-6" here at home.

Mreaves got like over two feet or something like that near Montpelier. 

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