10 Years Since Snowpocolypse, et al

[kickingupastorm]

I was a second semester Senior in college down in Washington DC at the time. I had no regular scheduled Monday and Friday classes which meant that the way the two back to back snowstorms hit meant that I ended up with 2 weeks between classes! Almost as long as the approaching Spring Break in March.

My apartment mates and I were drinking for days. Ha! Absolutely mental!

I had never seen so much snow! What were the combined totals for those two storms?

Snowmegeddon, Snowpocolypse, Snowzilla - what a time to have been alive. Best winter by far. Winter 2009-2010.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowmageddon

 

[KamuSnow]

55 minutes ago, kickingupastorm said:

I was a second semester Senior in college down in Washington DC at the time. I had no regular scheduled Monday and Friday classes which meant that the way the two back to back snowstorms hit meant that I ended up with 2 weeks between classes! Almost as long as the approaching Spring Break in March.

My apartment mates and I were drinking for days. Ha! Absolutely mental!

I had never seen so much snow! What were the combined totals for those two storms?

Snowmegeddon, Snowpocolypse, Snowzilla - what a time to have been alive. Best winter by far. Winter 2009-2010.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowmageddon

 

•  

 

I lived in Newtown Square, PA at the time, and Feb. 5th and 9th were amazing. 30" for Feb. 5th and 18" for the 9th. It was surreal during that Wednesday afternoon, never seen so much snow on the ground in this area, with heavy snow ongoing. Beautiful!

[Hurricane Agnes]

On 1/25/2020 at 7:57 PM, kickingupastorm said:

I was a second semester Senior in college down in Washington DC at the time. I had no regular scheduled Monday and Friday classes which meant that the way the two back to back snowstorms hit meant that I ended up with 2 weeks between classes! Almost as long as the approaching Spring Break in March.

My apartment mates and I were drinking for days. Ha! Absolutely mental!

I had never seen so much snow! What were the combined totals for those two storms?

Snowmegeddon, Snowpocolypse, Snowzilla - what a time to have been alive. Best winter by far. Winter 2009-2010.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowmageddon

 

I don't have the individual totals IMBY as I think it may have been on an older computer (plus I discarded the running totals each year when I updated my sigfile) - but I had almost 6ft of snow for the season that year - Snow/sleetfall 2009 - 2010 season = 70.38" [Calendar year 2010 = 57.50"]

One of my younger nieces had a 4th birthday during February of 2010 and we were trudging through snow to get her to the facility for her party and her then-19 year old sis thankfully got there too since she was also in college out-of-state (Delaware) during that time!

[KamuSnow]

I remember that after those two snows, PHL was ahead of Buffalo, NY for seasonal snow. Don't know about the final tally, but that was a rare feat at the time.

[JTA66]

I go back and forth regarding my all time favorite winter -- 1995/96 or 2009/10. Either way, that first week of Feb 2010 is my all time favorite week of winter.

[RedSky]

Got epically screwed in Qtown that early February so badly i have blocked out the memories of the confluence from hell storms. The 11" little blizzard late month was my good storm for the month and winter.

Lucky though 2014 came when it did to ease the pain being a far better winter up county. I would take either of these last non winters over 2010 and watching all that heavy snow squashed just to my south. The 6" in storm #1 felt like flurries to me man what a let down. 

 

 

 

[The Iceman]

Oh man it was freshman year of college for me. I was in Lancaster PA and we got around 45" between the 2 storms. Most snow I've ever seen in my life. By far my favorite week in my life when it comes to winter. Everything about those storms was magical for me.

[ChescoWx]

One thing we have in common with that winter was very little snow in January. Folks forget but we only saw 2.6" of snow in January 2010 in Chester County (we have had 3.8" so far this January. However, in 2010 we quickly made up for that with our 2nd snowiest February on record with 62.8" falling including 3 storms with over 1 foot of snow.

• 2/5-2/6 - 18.3"
• 2/9-2/10 - 26.8"
• 2/25-2/26 - 13.5"

Our snowiest February in 1899 included the single biggest individual snowstorm in Chester County history when 45.3" fell between the 12th and 14th. 1898-99 was our snowiest winter with  95.0" falling - 2009/10 ranked 2nd with a total seasonal snow of 86.6"

[WarrenCtyWx]

3 hours ago, RedSky said:

Got epically screwed in Qtown that early February so badly i have blocked out the memories of the confluence from hell storms. The 11" little blizzard late month was my good storm for the month and winter.

Lucky though 2014 came when it did to ease the pain being a far better winter up county. I would take either of these last non winters over 2010 and watching all that heavy snow squashed just to my south. The 6" in storm #1 felt like flurries to me man what a let down. 

 

 

 

What did you get in the 2/10 storm that winter? I thought that was epic from Philly to Allentown.

[RedSky]

41 minutes ago, WarrenCtyWx said:

What did you get in the 2/10 storm that winter? I thought that was epic from Philly to Allentown.

Not sure since i mentally blocked that week out, i want to say 10"

 

[Voyager]

4 hours ago, RedSky said:

Got epically screwed in Qtown that early February so badly i have blocked out the memories of the confluence from hell storms. The 11" little blizzard late month was my good storm for the month and winter.

Lucky though 2014 came when it did to ease the pain being a far better winter up county. I would take either of these last non winters over 2010 and watching all that heavy snow squashed just to my south. The 6" in storm #1 felt like flurries to me man what a let down. 

 

I wish I could truly remember the actual totals for the back-to-back 2010 storms up here, but the confluence was so bad that I don't think we saw 6 inches combined for both storms. It's where I developed my incredible disdain for 1-3/2-4 type events.

One of those storms the confluence was so bad, and the cut off so dramatic, that while watching the radar (for hours) the heavy snow would literally dry up at the Blue Mountain.

Most of the day featured "pixie dust" falling from the sky.

[RedSky]

2 hours ago, Voyager said:

I wish I could truly remember the actual totals for the back-to-back 2010 storms up here, but the confluence was so bad that I don't think we saw 6 inches combined for both storms. It's where I developed my incredible disdain for 1-3/2-4 type events.

One of those storms the confluence was so bad, and the cut off so dramatic, that while watching the radar (for hours) the heavy snow would literally dry up at the Blue Mountain.

Most of the day featured "pixie dust" falling from the sky.

Watched every model run for days and was sure they would bump totals NW because the gradient would be impossible. Nope they did remarkably well for 5+ days out with their depiction of a screw job lol.

 

[Voyager]

I think it was the Christmas Day storm, ironically to close out 2010, where NYC got pummelled, and guess what? We were on the edge of the storm near another sharp cut-off and got, yup, another whopping 2-4 inches. That one was particularly painful because we had a WSW for 12-18 inches, but the storm tracked farther east (and again the confluence) than expected.

[Voyager]

10 hours ago, RedSky said:

Watched every model run for days and was sure they would bump totals NW because the gradient would be impossible. Nope they did remarkably well for 5+ days out with their depiction of a screw job lol.

 

I think it was the Christmas Day storm, ironically to close out 2010, where NYC got pummelled, and guess what? We were on the edge of the storm near another sharp cut-off and got, yup, another whopping 2-4 inches. That one was particularly painful because we had a WSW for 12-18 inches, but the storm tracked farther east (and again the confluence) than expected.

[BBasile]

The most snow I've ever seen on the ground at once.  Was awesome.  Wish I could find my good photos of it.   

 

 

[Mikeymac5306]

 Those "bumps" are cars I had to plow around. 

[jwilson]

That was a good winter, for sure, but as others have already mentioned, January was very quiet and there were extremely sharp gradients with each of the storms.  Here's one example:

Through the first two major storms, I had received HALF of what Philadelphia measured.  The December storm and the first in February were only about a foot each in my backyard (12-13"), while the official measurements for those two storms were 23.2" and 28.5", respectively.  The northern portions finally hit a bit better on the February 10th storm, where I received ~23" relative to the 15.8" official total.  That 23" was broken up in two pieces, however (7" overnight, then a lull, followed by 16" with the remainder).

I have quite a few pictures from that winter.  I guess I'll share a couple from each storm.  Caption underneath.

• This is unrelated to the three snowstorms, but it is to help illustrate how dynamic the weather was in December that year.  These were poorly defined mammatus clouds from an early December storm front (12/9).  We received hail from this storm and intense wind.

 

• What I always thought was remarkable about the December system: down in the Gulf was what amounted to an eye on the central low pressure.

 

• Perhaps the most interesting element of the December storm: giant icicles.  The snowfall itself was relatively tame compared to the later snows.

 

• This was the "table setter" event from February 3rd.  Not much, but it was probably more than any storm from this winter.

 

• From the first main February storm (2/6).  Snow emergency route looks about right.

 

• Cars on the street.  This will be important for comparative purposes in a little bit.  Same February storm (2/6).

 

• Here is a view during the morning lull between the overnight snows on 2/9 and the bulk of the snow on the 10th of February.

 

• During the height of the storm.  This is as low as visibility dropped, down to about 500' or so.  The camera really doesn't do it justice.  You can compare the snow depth to above.

 

• Stock photo of bank on the same day.  I trekked through Hatboro during the storm.

 

• Quiet streets during a snowy day.  The roads are relatively clear in this pic, but I remember walking through some areas that hadn't been plowed.  Snow up to and above my knees made walking difficult.

 

• RIP Big Marty's.  The snow didn't kill it.

 

• Visibility drops, though some people either had to or chose to brave the conditions via automobile.

 

• This is night-time snow depth on the road after the plows had essentially given up.  Close to a foot there, footprints visible for scale.

 

• The snow and wind continued during the night.  I remember watching the blue lights in the sky from transformers sparking.  Signs obscured by blowing snow that piled up.

 

• Sorry for the blurriness, but my digicam at the time wasn't capable of great night pics without a flash.  Almost final snow depth, again considering comparing to above.  Car almost completely buried.

 

• We'll end with a brief video during the main snow on 2/10.  Quality looks like it was shot in 1980, but I assure you it wasn't, just "old" technology.  Wish I had my phone from today then.  Also, sorry for the guerrilla-style videography.

 

That about sums it up.  I have more stuff from that winter and others.  Seems like too much to dump unless I had a website like Ray's.  Hope you enjoyed your pictorial tour of 2009-10.

[Lady Di]

I was thinking I could resurrect an old thread.  I'm sure those storms are the reason I signed on here and as I'm typing this this ---we were part of a different forum back then?  Or am I getting dementia?

 

 

[Lady Di]

Found this and this was called Eastern back then.

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/weather/stories-weather/snow-totals-feb-6-2010/1845432/

[Hurricane Agnes]

19 hours ago, Lady Di said:

I was thinking I could resurrect an old thread.  I'm sure those storms are the reason I signed on here and as I'm typing this this ---we were part of a different forum back then?  Or am I getting dementia?

 

 

I had looked back on the archive here and it only goes back to around January 2011.  I don't know if Randy and crew ever archived the old EasternWx site or what.

[jwilson]

20 hours ago, Lady Di said:

I was thinking I could resurrect an old thread.  I'm sure those storms are the reason I signed on here and as I'm typing this this ---we were part of a different forum back then?  Or am I getting dementia?

Your best bet is trying to sample from archive.org.  Here's the generic archive link for the forum itself: https://web.archive.org/web/2019*/www.easternuswx.com.

From there, you can attempt to get more information by using individual forum pages and putting those into the wayback machine.  For example, here's one using the link provided in that NBC news article: https://web.archive.org/web/20100301000000*/http://www.easternuswx.com/bb/index.php?showforum=15  ... There's a few hits from February 2010 in there.

Being that it's a forum, not every page is saved through the archive, of course.  You'll hit lots of dead ends, but you'll also find the occasional goody.  I even found one of my old posts from back in the day:

Well, this ended up being a pretty good prognostication.  Looking back, I see the last true snow of that season occurred on the 25/26th.  March was empty.  Then 2010/11 provided a respectable follow-up.  Something about a blind squirrel...

What I don't know is if any of the old administrators have the entire forum saved or backed-up somewhere in an archive that isn't available online.  You'd have to ask those people individually.  I remember there was another forum prior to EasternUSWX, but I can't remember what that forum was called.