January Banter 2019

[Itstrainingtime]

Folks...on behalf of the really good people from the Commonwealth of PA, please accept my apologies for the intruder Snowwhateverheis5921. 

Thing is, I don't think I've ever seen him post up in our forum. #trollingthecrapoutofyou. 

[Cobalt]

Not sure if it was posted already but..

[66degreesnorth]

Lurker here, who enjoys the excellent analysis offered by the top posters. Random been counting question ---- for what DC itself received in the storm, would y'all label this a SECS, MECS, or none of the above?

Will help me have some context when those terms are thrown around in the future.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[Cobalt]

5 minutes ago, 66degreesnorth said:

Lurker here, who enjoys the excellent analysis offered by the top posters. Random been counting question ---- for what DC itself received in the storm, would y'all label this a SECS, MECS, or none of the above?

Will help me have some context when those terms are thrown around in the future.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk
 

I'd assume SECS. From what I've seen, that's around the 6-12" range. MECS 12-24", HECS 24-36", BECS 36"+.

 

Could be wrong though, but that's what I remember. 

[CAPE]

2 hours ago, leesburg 04 said:

Is it time to start talking about how much this winter sucks again or is it too soon?

I might. Your area stole all my modeled snow yesterday.

[Mrs.J]

Sun melted the snow off half of our solar panels. Had the avalanche come down. Went out into the street to see what was left and if sunny tomorrow the other side will go. 

[aldie 22]

I want to set the record straight on something. Bob keeps touting the Moco-Hoco deathband but I would like to point out that as far back as 2007 I spoke about how deform bands love Leesburg...look I'm not a rock star on FB...I'm fairly insignificant on here...I DEMAND that from now on it is called the Leesburg Moco Hoco deathband. If it isn't then I'm changing my name to Snowstormsnjokoma04

[WxUSAF]

I’m really sick of not working and not getting paid

[JakkelWx]

Totally off topic: If you translate a select post on google translate from English to another language, then back to English again it comes out with a weird result. Some of it is funny.

 

[George BM]

On 1/13/2019 at 6:23 PM, Cobalt said:

I swear when I'm inside I can see snow falling. Not snow falling outside, snow falling inside. I don't think this has happened before. 

I often experience actually being able to "see snow falling" as well when I have my eyes closed after a longer snow event. I also saw trees swaying in the wind while my eyes were closed right as the March 2nd wind event was winding down. 

Aaaaaaaaand now you all think I'm crazy sauce. I'll stop while I'm ahead.

21 hours ago, stormtracker said:

I can tell you this:  It's good for absolutely nothing. 

I can find good use for it especially in the August-October timeframe.

[snjókoma]

34 minutes ago, George BM said:

I often experience actually being able to "see snow falling" as well when I have my eyes closed after a longer snow event. I also saw trees swaying in the wind while my eyes were closed right as the March 2nd wind event was winding down. 

Aaaaaaaaand now you all think I'm crazy sauce. I'll stop while I'm ahead.

I can find good use for it especially in the August-October timeframe.

Holy hell, the same thing has been happening to me. Seeing tiny snowflakes falling to the ground everywhere I look. I thought I was going crazy.

[DCAWx]

3 hours ago, WxUSAF said:

I’m really sick of not working and not getting paid

You need a tissue??

[yoda]

Uh oh *runs and hides*

[H2O]

6 hours ago, DCAWx said:

You need a tissue??

Post more.  you seem nice

[aldie 22]

All the classy people out this morning 

[CAPE]

2 minutes ago, leesburg 04 said:

All the classy people out this morning 

RVArook be a name callin'. 

[H2O]

His new year's resolution to be nice lasted 15 days.

[Prestige Worldwide]

Wow- it’s getting a little feisty in here this morning. Can’t imagine what things will be like if snow doesn’t materialize in the next couple of weeks. Buckle up 

[CAPE]

1 minute ago, Prestige Worldwide said:

Wow- it’s getting a little feisty in here this morning. Can’t imagine what things will be like if snow doesn’t materialize in the next couple of weeks. Buckle up 

What was your snowfall total for this last event?

[adelphi_sky]

Never thought I'd be worried about rain at a mountain ski resort (Massanutten) in the dead of winter. But, it's that great mid-Atlantic winter! Will definitely go further north next time. Guess we'll be inside the entire weekend. 

[RDM]

6 hours ago, southmdwatcher said:

UKMET has surface temperatures near 32 at 138, falling into the teens at 144 at DCA. RIC is 60 at 138 falling to 21 at 144. 700 mb level humidity is near 100 percent from the Blue Ridge to the coast at 144, 850mb humidity is near 100 percent from Columbia MD...Warrenton...CHO and east at 144

Last time I remember such a quick temp crash like that was the Blizzard of 78 growing up in Ohio, on 25 Jan, 78.  We lived just North of Dayton where it gets really flat - not much to stop the wind.  Was at our town's little airport with my dad the evening before it hit working on his Beechcraft and the barometer was dropping so fast there were times we could adjust the altimeter in the plane every 2 minutes (mechanical altimeters back them worked on air pressure).  My dad said something special was coming even though temps were warm with driving rain.  Remember him being in awe at the pressure drop which eventually bottomed out at 28.23, one of the lowest ever recorded in the US.  The normal threshold for cyclogenesis is 24mb drop in 24 hours - the blizzard of 78 had a drop of 70mb in 24 hours.  You could feel your ears popping and the pressure drop actually induced labor in a number of pregnant women - my dad was a paramedic and delivered at least one baby in the back of our town's 4x4 rescue squad. 

The winds came in overnight and temps went from mid/upper-40's and driving rain to lower teens and sn++ in a fraction of an hour with winds that eventually reached 70+mph.  Woke up at 6am wondering why it was so cold in the house and wondering that "noise" was outside - it was the wind howling like I'd never heard before.  The flash freeze of all the standing water made it all the more difficult to clear the snow, which drifted so bad it shut-down the GL and Ohio Valley for days.  I was a sophomore in HS and believe we missed a week and a half of school. 

Power outages were wide-spread with many stranded for days before they could be rescued, often by snowmobile - there's some pics on Wikipedia of the Ohio Turnpike.  Governor of Ohio activated the Nat Guard to deliver supplies by helo to stranded farmers with livestock in danger of freezing and starving.  Many did loose a LOT of lifestock anyway and the financial impact was terrible. 

We only received about 12" in Dayton, with more as you went North.  But the drifts were incredible and 20+ feet in places.  Many of the roads, to include interstates, were closed until the snowblowers from major airports could get to them.  We had some local roads closed for over a week in our area.  It started getting really serious when the one grocery store in our town of 6000 was nearly out of anything edible.  The shelves were bare by the time they could get trucks in to restock the shelves.  People start to do desperate things when they get hungry.  Will never forget it.... 

[Prestige Worldwide]

40 minutes ago, C.A.P.E. said:

What was your snowfall total for this last event?

Missed out totally on the 2nd wave. Between 3.5 and 4 inches in the first wave. 

[EastCoast NPZ]

16 minutes ago, adelphi_sky said:

Never thought I'd be worried about rain at a mountain ski resort (Massanutten) in the dead of winter. But, it's that great mid-Atlantic winter! Will definitely go further north next time. Guess we'll be inside the entire weekend. 

You might want to pick a bigger mountain next time.

[adelphi_sky]

2 minutes ago, EastCoast NPZ said:

You might want to pick a bigger mountain next time.

Wife picked this one. We had friends with timeshare there. So, it is $100 for the whole 3-day weekend. I wanted to take my son snow-tubing for the first time. I will definitely go further north and a higher elevation. Maybe before the winter is out. Any suggestions? 

[mappy]

25 minutes ago, EastCoast NPZ said:

Or the democrats.

not the place for this. thanks. 

[MN Transplant]

12 hours ago, WxUSAF said:

I’m really sick of not working and not getting paid

Same.  Getting more and more stressed about all of the crap virtually "piling up" on my desk.

[WxUSAF]

8 hours ago, DCAWx said:

You need a tissue??

You PMing me some motivational material?

[WxUSAF]

6 minutes ago, MN Transplant said:

Same.  Getting more and more stressed about all of the crap virtually "piling up" on my desk.

And I will have to charge my research grants for all this furlough time so I’ll have less time to do the work I’m supposed to do.

[mappy]

2 minutes ago, WxUSAF said:

You PMing me some motivational material?

 

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

1 hour ago, RDM said:

Last time I remember such a quick temp crash like that was the Blizzard of 78 growing up in Ohio, on 25 Jan, 78.  We lived just North of Dayton where it gets really flat - not much to stop the wind.  Was at our town's little airport with my dad the evening before it hit working on his Beechcraft and the barometer was dropping so fast there were times we could adjust the altimeter in the plane every 2 minutes (mechanical altimeters back them worked on air pressure).  My dad said something special was coming even though temps were warm with driving rain.  Remember him being in awe at the pressure drop which eventually bottomed out at 28.23, one of the lowest ever recorded in the US.  The normal threshold for cyclogenesis is 24mb drop in 24 hours - the blizzard of 78 had a drop of 70mb in 24 hours.  You could feel your ears popping and the pressure drop actually induced labor in a number of pregnant women - my dad was a paramedic and delivered at least one baby in the back of our town's 4x4 rescue squad. 

The winds came in overnight and temps went from mid/upper-40's and driving rain to lower teens and sn++ in a fraction of an hour with winds that eventually reached 70+mph.  Woke up at 6am wondering why it was so cold in the house and wondering that "noise" was outside - it was the wind howling like I'd never heard before.  The flash freeze of all the standing water made it all the more difficult to clear the snow, which drifted so bad it shut-down the GL and Ohio Valley for days.  I was a sophomore in HS and believe we missed a week and a half of school. 

Power outages were wide-spread with many stranded for days before they could be rescued, often by snowmobile - there's some pics on Wikipedia of the Ohio Turnpike.  Governor of Ohio activated the Nat Guard to deliver supplies by helo to stranded farmers with livestock in danger of freezing and starving.  Many did loose a LOT of lifestock anyway and the financial impact was terrible. 

We only received about 12" in Dayton, with more as you went North.  But the drifts were incredible and 20+ feet in places.  Many of the roads, to include interstates, were closed until the snowblowers from major airports could get to them.  We had some local roads closed for over a week in our area.  It started getting really serious when the one grocery store in our town of 6000 was nearly out of anything edible.  The shelves were bare by the time they could get trucks in to restock the shelves.  People start to do desperate things when they get hungry.  Will never forget it.... 

I made a mention of this in the medium range thread, when the discussion turned to the possibility of a "flash freeze" here on Sunday afternoon.  I also experienced the "White Hurricane" (as we called it in northeast OH...I grew up in the Cleveland area at the time).  That still stands as the fastest and most dramatic temperature drop I've seen, a 30 degree drop in two hours (mid-40s at about 4AM to the teens by 6AM), and it came with a blast on 70+ MPH gusts.  It was a brutal storm, not really so much from the snow (we got 6-12" in NE Ohio, on top of some old snow), but the extreme cold and wind.  I also remember the low pressure associated with that storm, it bottomed out at 28.28" (957 mb) at KCLE, and it set low pressure records across a large area.  It was highly unusual to have a system "bomb out" like that over land, as it moved north out of the Gulf, through Ohio, and finally north of Lake Erie into Canada.

I recall a lot of what you describe, the various stories, etc.  On the 30th anniversary of the storm (2008), I was able to get an electronic copy of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which had a sort of historical remembrance of it.  Also have a weather almanac by Dick Goddard, who was a local Cleveland meteorologist (he was very good, and very well-liked there)...he covers that storm in there.  Since you're from Ohio, you might want to check out the book "Thunder in the Heartland" (by Thomas W Schmidlin & Jeanne A Schmidlin), they cover a wide range of significant Ohio weather events (not just winter stuff...but they do also have a great discussion of the 1978 blizzard).