March Banter 2019

[mappy]

25 minutes ago, snowmagnet said:

Is there some place online to find information about past snowstorms (other than those that made the news?)  I'm looking for March 1, 1969 for a snowstorm that hit Maryland and Virginia.  

 

Google tells me there was a nor’easter March 6-7 that dropped snow on the eastern shore. 

[PrinceFrederickWx]

27 minutes ago, snowmagnet said:

Is there some place online to find information about past snowstorms (other than those that made the news?)  I'm looking for March 1, 1969 for a snowstorm that hit Maryland and Virginia.  

 

This page is a great resource- I use it all the time. Select your state and you can pull up data for any of the airports going back over 100 years.

https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/IPS/lcd/lcd.html

Also it may be in LWX's historic winter storm page:

https://www.weather.gov/lwx/winter_DC-Winters

[Sparky]

27 minutes ago, snowmagnet said:

Is there some place online to find information about past snowstorms (other than those that made the news?)  I'm looking for March 1, 1969 for a snowstorm that hit Maryland and Virginia.  

 

Ha!  I remember that one.  Lived in NE Baltimore then.  It was a nice storm for this weenie.  Started on a Saturday, wet steady snow from about late morning and throughout the day left only a slushy coating.  Once the sun went down and temps cooled the snow started sticking on all surfaces, say around 7pm.   Snowed heavy at times into the night and early Sun. morning with continued lighter wet snow into midday Sunday or thereabouts.   I think we got somewhere between 8-10 inches by the end.  Sadly, schools didn't close for Monday, schools weren't as scared of snow as they are today.

[mappy]

1 hour ago, Sparky said:

Ha!  I remember that one.  Lived in NE Baltimore then.  It was a nice storm for this weenie.  Started on a Saturday, wet steady snow from about late morning and throughout the day left only a slushy coating.  Once the sun went down and temps cooled the snow started sticking on all surfaces, say around 7pm.   Snowed heavy at times into the night and early Sun. morning with continued lighter wet snow into midday Sunday or thereabouts.   I think we got somewhere between 8-10 inches by the end.  Sadly, schools didn't close for Monday, schools weren't as scared of snow as they are today.

I love that you can recall these events so vividly. Any chance you recall a November snowstorm in the late 80s that had thundersnow? It was close to thanksgiving, I think. I have such vivid memories of that storm but have no idea the year. 

[Sparky]

17 minutes ago, mappy said:

I love that you can recall these events so vividly. Any chance you recall a November snowstorm in the late 80s that had thundersnow? It was close to thanksgiving, I think. I have such vivid memories of that storm but have no idea the year. 

The only occurrence of thundersnow in November that I remember is the Veteran's Day storm in '87.  The thunder and lightning in that storm was quite dramatic at times.

[KAOS]

Current observations.... Cold Rain.

 

[HighStakes]

52 minutes ago, mappy said:

I love that you can recall these events so vividly. Any chance you recall a November snowstorm in the late 80s that had thundersnow? It was close to thanksgiving, I think. I have such vivid memories of that storm but have no idea the year. 

1989. Area wide 3-6. Dont remember thunder snow. Most of east coast got in on the action. Started snowing early evening on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and lasted into the early morning hours.

 

[snowmagnet]

2 hours ago, Sparky said:

Ha!  I remember that one.  Lived in NE Baltimore then.  It was a nice storm for this weenie.  Started on a Saturday, wet steady snow from about late morning and throughout the day left only a slushy coating.  Once the sun went down and temps cooled the snow started sticking on all surfaces, say around 7pm.   Snowed heavy at times into the night and early Sun. morning with continued lighter wet snow into midday Sunday or thereabouts.   I think we got somewhere between 8-10 inches by the end.  Sadly, schools didn't close for Monday, schools weren't as scared of snow as they are today.

I'm glad you can remember it!  My parents got married that day in Maryland.  The family story was that they followed a plow from Maryland to Williamsburg for their honeymoon.  My mom passed away in July, but today would have been their 50th.  I got me thinking about that snowstorm and trying to find actual documentation of the storm.  I will check out some of the sites people suggested.  

[snowmagnet]

58 minutes ago, mappy said:

I love that you can recall these events so vividly. Any chance you recall a November snowstorm in the late 80s that had thundersnow? It was close to thanksgiving, I think. I have such vivid memories of that storm but have no idea the year. 

I remember the 1987 Veterans Day storm, and then the 1989 storm right before Thanksgiving.  I was in college in NC and was driving home to Maryland for Thanksgiving.   My mom called me to tell me that it was going to snow, so I skipped classes and got out early on Wednesday.  My boyfriend (now husband) and my roommate went home with me as well.  We drove in rain until right around Lake Anna when it started to change to snow.  The worst part was crossing the Harry Nice Bridge from VA into Southern MD.  It was a stressful drive, but nice snowstorm in the end!  

[snowmagnet]

2 hours ago, PrinceFrederickWx said:

This page is a great resource- I use it all the time. Select your state and you can pull up data for any of the airports going back over 100 years.

https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/IPS/lcd/lcd.html

Also it may be in LWX's historic winter storm page:

https://www.weather.gov/lwx/winter_DC-Winters

Thanks for the resources!  I found the storm on the noaa site.  And the historic winter storm page is great!

[mappy]

1 hour ago, Sparky said:

The only occurrence of thundersnow in November that I remember is the Veteran's Day storm in '87.  The thunder and lightning in that storm was quite dramatic at times.

Yeah, it wasn’t then. This one was definitely around thanksgiving. 

1 hour ago, HighStakes said:

1989. Area wide 3-6. Dont remember thunder snow. Most of east coast got in on the action. Started snowing early evening on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and lasted into the early morning hours.

 

Ahh, that makes more sense, my sister was alive in 89, not 87 and she was there. I was living in Pasadena and it definitely thundersnowed. Thank you!

[nj2va]

Huge win by the Caps tonight!

[Plow'n]

53 minutes ago, nj2va said:

Huge win by the Caps tonight!

Damn right, should've been 2-0, offsides goal but they gave that one back with the "oshie goal". 

[CAPE]

0.77" of 34 degree rain overnight.

Cant wait for tomorrow night- should be a good inch of rain, with temps in the low to mid 30s. Has to be some sort of record here. Used to get 45-50 degree rainstorms.

Actually, I am looking forward to a week of cold and dry. It will be a nice break before the next cold rain event towards next weekend.

[WxUSAF]

4.6” to hit 30” for the season. A high bar for tomorrow but not impossible. 

[WVclimo]

8 hours ago, mappy said:

Yeah, it wasn’t then. This one was definitely around thanksgiving. 

Ahh, that makes more sense, my sister was alive in 89, not 87 and she was there. I was living in Pasadena and it definitely thundersnowed. Thank you!

I was living in Laurel during that storm in 1989 and we also had some thunder.  The cold air really fed in from the N/NE during the event.

[CAPE]

This winter has been a classic forum splitter. It has not been because of the typical temp issues for the most part, but rather odd dry holes/poorly modeled qpf, and late arrival in CAD situations with transient cold for eastern and even NE portions of the area. Everyone has endured too much cold rain, but the frozen events have all under-performed/minimized in southern and eastern areas, except for maybe the cold powder light snow event. I wonder how much snow the Annapolis area has had so far? I would guess not much more than 12". Yet not too far NW in Howard county it's pushing 30".

[Lowershoresadness]

I asked winter to set me up with one beautiful snow storm this year and instead she sets me up with Maude from behind the deli counter.

[mappy]

54 minutes ago, WVclimo said:

I was living in Laurel during that storm in 1989 and we also had some thunder.  The cold air really fed in from the N/NE during the event.

Oh good, glad my memories at 5 years old didn’t deceive me! Thank you! 

[nw baltimore wx]

18 hours ago, PrinceFrederickWx said:

Kids here in Calvert have no spring break and they took away President's Day this year to use as a snow make-up day. Won't get into politics but as a parent whose child is enrolled in school, I am definitely not a fan of the "Hogan schedule".

In my opinion, Hogan and Franchot are not the problem. In my opinion the problem is a combination of teacher unions (I'm a member) and education "experts" that live and die behind the slogan "studies have shown." I submitted a schedule to the union of our district that begins the day after Labor Day and ends the first Friday in June by adding 30 mins to each day. I also put five snow days in the schedule so it would start as early as September 2nd and end as early as June 1st (8th with snow days), and as late as September 7th to June 7th (14th with snow days). It takes into account all the days off we already have (which are ridiculous. We have way too many non-five day work weeks), and has the same number of hours of class time but instead of 180 days, it's 168 days. 

The two main arguments from both the admin and teacher unions I've heard are:

- shortened year would mean less salary, which is not true. Right now my salary is based on a 7 hour day (hahahaha!) and 35 hour work week for 192 work days, of which 180 are school days and 12 are something else (saying "professional" days in education is hysterical). Make it a 7.5 hour day by adding 30 mins to the school day and we have 168 school days and 180 work days (7x180 = 7.5x168 = 1,260 hours).

- "studies have shown" that a longer summer break translates to learning loss, especially among low income students. My idea isn't that learning should stop but should be different for summer. Schools should be "day camps" during the summer that are led by high school students. I can't understand how coming back from winter, spring, and summer break, kids tell me that they were bored. They're bored because they sit around all day doing nothing (like us in the winter looking at weather models). Why not open the schools and have opportunities for kids to do activities in a safe environment while high schoolers earn community service hours? Will it cost money? Sure, but it's well spent money. And affordable. Even providing low cost meals (free to FARM students) would be a drop in the bucket to the overall budget.

I think the benefits would far outweigh the negatives. Parents would love to have a safe and affordable place for their kids to go during summer. I firmly believe that more young people now lack socializing skills that most past generations take for granted. I don't blame the kids or the parents. It's just what we are now. We are a self-centered culture. All of us. But I think that providing a safe place for kids to interact, play, and learn in a non-competitive and non-assessed environment would be a good thing for their overall physical and mental health. It's not "school," but it's still learning.

I could go on but I'll do everyone a favor and step off the soap box. 

[Bob Chill]

3 hours ago, WxUSAF said:

4.6” to hit 30” for the season. A high bar for tomorrow but not impossible. 

Same boat here. Long range guidance will have a lot of influence on measuring tomorrow. If it looks like tomorrow is the last stand then I'm measuring 5" even if it's all rain. 

[wxdude64]

27 minutes ago, Bob Chill said:

Same boat here. Long range guidance will have a lot of influence on measuring tomorrow. If it looks like tomorrow is the last stand then I'm measuring 5" even if it's all rain. 

Ratios, ratios, ratios........

[midatlanticweather]

3.5" here would break 30" - what a weird way to go above normal for snow in the season! Did not make it the way I wanted! Missed the hecs and wanted some better fun. But, like has been mentioned, we have had far worse winters with little snow! This one was not too bad. I think what made it worse was the false long leads on a stellar pattern that did not come true!

 

[BlizzardNole]

3 hours ago, C.A.P.E. said:

This winter has been a classic forum splitter. It has not been because of the typical temp issues for the most part, but rather odd dry holes/poorly modeled qpf, and late arrival in CAD situations with transient cold for eastern and even NE portions of the area. Everyone has endured too much cold rain, but the frozen events have all under-performed/minimized in southern and eastern areas, except for maybe the cold powder light snow event. I wonder how much snow the Annapolis area has had so far? I would guess not much more than 12". Yet not too far NW in Howard county it's pushing 30".

One of the main reasons I left Calvert County.  That place could be demoralizing in winter sometimes.

[Sparky]

So Annapolis didn't do well in the Jan. storm that pummeled MoCo, HoCo, and points south?

[NorthArlington101]

This storm is the worst storm since the last storm where I only got rain

[Deer Whisperer]

20 minutes ago, NorthArlington101 said:

This storm is the worst storm since the last storm where I only got rain

We should start a 33 and rain support group

[CAPE]

2 hours ago, Sparky said:

So Annapolis didn't do well in the Jan. storm that pummeled MoCo, HoCo, and points south?

Probably too far east. The "part 2" of that storm was primarily focused on DC and points just west and north. I would guess 5-6" from that event.

[CAPE]

11 minutes ago, Deer Whisperer said:

We should start a 33 and rain support group

Start a thread. I am sure it would fill with posts from Ji and others who have 25- 30" of snow, complaining about all the cold rainstorms that could have been another 25-30.

[Fozz]

21 hours ago, PrinceFrederickWx said:

Kids here in Calvert have no spring break and they took away President's Day this year to use as a snow make-up day. Won't get into politics but as a parent whose child is enrolled in school, I am definitely not a fan of the "Hogan schedule".

Taking away a kid's spring break is cruel. Even in 2002-03 they didn't do that to us (in Baltimore county).