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Fall Banter, Observation and General Discussion 2018


CapturedNature

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1 hour ago, CoastalWx said:

I’ve sort of made peace with snow measurements not being perfect. It’s the least accurate ob for a type of weather phenomenon or variable we have. 

You also get a ton of wind in storms.  Up here in the mountain valleys it seems to fall straight down almost all the time, like even big storms do that until the backside wind kicks in.  I always think your measuring is probably what it's like to measure up this way at 1,500-2,000ft or above... you have to have the right location and have it dialed to really be confident.  The wind is always blowing up at that height.  

Anything under like 1,200ft here that's not in the Champlain Valley (funneling effects) has the vast majority of snow fall straight down.  The stuff where you've got like 4" on power lines and it's not even wet snow...there's just no air movement at all.

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3 hours ago, CoastalWx said:

 I’d say if storm is under a foot your measurements are pretty good. But when they get bigger, you get a little excited and the amounts may be slightly higher than actuality. 

That's how the ski industry is too, haha.  Once past 10-12" I am convinced no one actually measures anything... just ohh it's gotta be 16-18" or whatever.  I just walked from the parking lot to the lifts and there has to be two feet!!

I honestly don't think anyone tries to purposefully be wrong (except Jay at times I think they know), but skiers are like weather weenies, they get excited and 9 out of 10 skiers I know will over-estimate snowfall.  

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2 hours ago, powderfreak said:

You also get a ton of wind in storms.  Up here in the mountain valleys it seems to fall straight down almost all the time, like even big storms do that until the backside wind kicks in.  I always think your measuring is probably what it's like to measure up this way at 1,500-2,000ft or above... you have to have the right location and have it dialed to really be confident.  The wind is always blowing up at that height.  

Anything under like 1,200ft here that's not in the Champlain Valley (funneling effects) has the vast majority of snow fall straight down.  The stuff where you've got like 4" on power lines and it's not even wet snow...there's just no air movement at all.

It definitely effects snow reports. Sometimes windy areas near the coast aren’t getting less snow, it’s just wind compacted a bit. You see that a lot in he biggies. The snow seems dense despite it not being wet. It’s just packed down good.

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50 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

It definitely effects snow reports. Sometimes windy areas near the coast aren’t getting less snow, it’s just wind compacted a bit. You see that a lot in he biggies. The snow seems dense despite it not being wet. It’s just packed down good.

I give you guys big credit for even being able to get a measurement.  Every time I see a photo from eastern Mass or coastal wind areas, where there's a 2-3 foot drift around the corner of the house or against a fence or car, while there's exposed grass blades in the middle of the yard... I have no idea how you figure out how much snow fell.  

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13 hours ago, powderfreak said:

I give you guys big credit for even being able to get a measurement.  Every time I see a photo from eastern Mass or coastal wind areas, where there's a 2-3 foot drift around the corner of the house or against a fence or car, while there's exposed grass blades in the middle of the yard... I have no idea how you figure out how much snow fell.  

Sometimes I have to think about visibility when figuring this out. Like 1/4SM is at least 1-2/hr etc. It’s not easy. If you clear an area, it either blows off the board or blows in the area you cleared out.

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7 hours ago, CoastalWx said:

Sometimes I have to think about visibility when figuring this out. Like 1/4SM is at least 1-2/hr etc. It’s not easy. If you clear an area, it either blows off the board or blows in the area you cleared out.

Yeah I tend to estimate 1/4SM being 1+/hr, 1/2SM being 1/2"/hr. 

Of course there are some events in the shoulder seasons or in a weird warm column where 1 1/2SM is like 1"/hr stuff (I think we had one last winter). 

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15 hours ago, OceanStWx said:

Yeah I tend to estimate 1/4SM being 1+/hr, 1/2SM being 1/2"/hr. 

Of course there are some events in the shoulder seasons or in a weird warm column where 1 1/2SM is like 1"/hr stuff (I think we had one last winter). 

Sometimes you get the higher vis fluff stuff where 1SM is exactly that. 

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36° F for my low, so no September freeze here. My "growing" season has now reached the 5 month mark as my last sub freezing min was on 4/30, when we had a couple inches of wet snow.  I put growing in quotation marks because I had some residual snow OTG until May 13. 

I had a 33° F in mid May, so this is my coldest since then. Big snow at this location, but I don't radiate well at all like those valleys up north. Low diurnal temperatures is where I win out. I wonder if I snow before I freeze...

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3 minutes ago, wxmanmitch said:

36° F for my low, so no September freeze here. My "growing" season has now reached the 5 month mark as my last sub freezing min was on 4/30, when we had a couple inches of wet snow.  I put growing in quotation marks because I had some residual snow OTG until May 13. 

I had a 33° F in mid May, so this is my coldest since then. Big snow at this location, but I don't radiate well at all like those valleys up north. Low diurnal temperatures is where I win out. I wonder if I snow before I freeze...

36F is practically the coldest temp in Mass this morning...colder than most of Coos too. It sounds like you have no problem radiating.

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Posted by NWS Boston

[September 30th, 1992: Trace of Snow in Worcester] Remarkable cold air invaded the region on this date back in 1992.  Worcester, MA had a low of 30 with the high only reaching 46. They also received a trace of snow, the only known occurrence in September for Worcester.

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