December 16 2020 CTP Snowstorm Disco and Obs

[Hoar_Frost]

5 hours ago, MAG5035 said:

Wow that's impressive, are you in State College? That's a pretty big difference from State College to down here in Altoona if so. I'm between 9.5"-10". Just didn't get those rates in that timeframe with the deform banding settling just west and NW of here. 

Yep, in State College, near the Wal-Mart on North Atherton.  A couple of friends nearby on the north side also measured similar.  I just woke up and am going outside in a few minutes to see what the balance of the storm left.  

EDIT:  Final measurement was 2.9" since 11:00 PM, yielding a final total of 19.1".  

[kerplunk]

1 hour ago, Hoar_Frost said:

Yep, in State College, near the Wal-Mart on North Atherton.  A couple of friends nearby on the north side also measured similar.  I just woke up and am going outside in a few minutes to see what the balance of the storm left.  

EDIT:  Final measurement was 2.9" since 11:00 PM, yielding a final total of 19.1".  

Hmm...I'm in Toftrees near the Ale House, so not far from you.  Only measured 16", but I didn't clear board, etc. Still, that's a 3 inch difference which could definitely be due to localized bands.

[Hoar_Frost]

3 minutes ago, kerplunk said:

Hmm...I'm in Toftrees near the Ale House, so not far from you.  Only measured 16", but I didn't clear board, etc. Still, that's a 3 inch difference which could definitely be due to localized bands.

I cleared the board four different times.  My current snow depth, which includes that kind of settling, is ~15", so that's consistent with your measurement.  A friend in Woodycrest (located between you and me) had similar measurements as me.  My liquid equivalent was 1.32", a 14:1 snow-liquid ratio.  

Pretty legit storm for the Happy Valley, though, either way!  

[kerplunk]

3 minutes ago, Hoar_Frost said:

I cleared the board four different times.  My current snow depth, which includes that kind of settling, is ~15", so that's consistent with your measurement.  A friend in Woodycrest (located between you and me) had similar measurements as me.  My liquid equivalent was 1.32", a 14:1 snow-liquid ratio.  

Pretty legit storm for the Happy Valley, though, either way!  

Yeah, that explains it. Agreed...very nice storm!  And just saw WU calling for 3" or so on Christmas day with a high of 28º. Still pretty far out, but that would be some nice icing on the cake.

[pawatch]

I ended up with 22" 

[Superstorm]

10” or so here in Lancaster. 1” of sleet.


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[Blizzard of 93]

After round 1 of snow, the nearly 4 hours of Sleet, then several hours of back end snow, I made it to 10 inches here in Marysville!

It was a great storm for the LSV, especially by historical December standards. 
 

It looks like MDT will land in the top 5 for December snowstorms on record. They measured 9.3 yesterday as of Midnight, and there should be a couple of inches that get added today for the few hours of snow after midnight. It will be interesting to see where the 2 day total lands officially!

Have fun digging out of the snow today!

[jm1220]

2 hours ago, Hoar_Frost said:

Yep, in State College, near the Wal-Mart on North Atherton.  A couple of friends nearby on the north side also measured similar.  I just woke up and am going outside in a few minutes to see what the balance of the storm left.  

EDIT:  Final measurement was 2.9" since 11:00 PM, yielding a final total of 19.1".  

Very nice! Much bigger than any event I saw living there 2004-2009. Was hoping you guys could crack over 20” but still, looks like the best event since maybe 1994? 

[Superstorm]

On my way to work in North East Maryland and extreme southern portion of the county had a lot of freezing rain

 

 

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[BooneWX]

Dropping in to say congrats to all of you. Us southerners are living vicariously through you right now. Enjoy the historic storm! Absolutely absurd rates, can’t even imagine that type of snowfall. 

[KPITSnow]

I ended up somewhere around a foot in the north hills of Pittsburgh. I’m really shocked we beat a lot of you out.

Also want to say the euro really nailed it in our area...the GFS was absolutely dreadful though. As little as about 12-24 hours out it showed us getting 3-4 inches.

[canderson]

Calling this at 11.25” or so - damn you, sleet!

[dj88]

looks like 13-14 inches in Elysburg.  Sleet didn't help.  Should be enough to get a white Christmas! 

[Voyager]

The wind last night my have skewed my numbers a little, but between the snow and sleet, we got somewhere in the 10-12 range here. 

[MN Transplant]

7 hours ago, CoralRed said:

What does "jebwalked" mean?  

Popping into from the mid-Atlantic board out of pure jealousy.

There is a poster named Jeb who used to live in the DC area.  He was an eccentric sort and would talk about his obsession for snow and going out in it.  Jebwalking in the snow became a common saying on our board and it filtered around.

[Hoar_Frost]

23 minutes ago, jm1220 said:

Very nice! Much bigger than any event I saw living there 2004-2009. Was hoping you guys could crack over 20” but still, looks like the best event since maybe 1994? 

I will look for sure in a bit, but it might be on par with a 2010 storm.  Otherwise, probably best since '96.  

[Itstrainingtime]

Final total was 10.8". 9.7" of that was snow. Congrats to all of us! Great storm...

[KPITSnow]

The difference in reaction from this sub to say DC is amazing. If DC was forecasted to get 18-24 but “only” got 10-14 the meltdown there would be epic. 
 

I think many of us are much more snow starved. This is our best storm since feb of 2010 out here pretty easily, while I feel like DC and NYC have had multiple 15+ inch storms since then.

[Itstrainingtime]

Officially the 3rd largest storm on record in Lancaster at 10". 

[Itstrainingtime]

4 hours ago, Caveman said:

Etters, PA (northern York County)...9" total with a liquid equivalent of 0.98".  Had light sleet and very light snow for several hour period from about 6-10 pm or so.  Just not nearly as much precip fell as was being modeled by numerical guidance.  This storm very much underperformed for northern York County.  To be sure it was a good snow event and it's very wintry (and pretty) outside, but it most certainly was not what was being touted in terms of a winter storm of major proportions...Side note; the official observation at KMDT (9.3" as of midnight) for one of the few times had a greater snowfall than I am reporting!

Agree. I'm shocked that I ended up with more than you. It simply came down to banding.

[Itstrainingtime]

1 hour ago, BooneWX said:

Dropping in to say congrats to all of you. Us southerners are living vicariously through you right now. Enjoy the historic storm! Absolutely absurd rates, can’t even imagine that type of snowfall. 

Thanks! I was chatting back and forth with you a couple of years ago. My wife was in Boone during the big December storm you good folks had, and you and a few others were extremely helpful providing tips on timing, routes, etc. If I remember correctly, you ended up somewhere around 18-19" from that storm, correct? I think that was 2018. (2017?)

[Itstrainingtime]

34 minutes ago, KPITSnow said:

The difference in reaction from this sub to say DC is amazing. If DC was forecasted to get 18-24 but “only” got 10-14 the meltdown there would be epic. 
 

I think many of us are much more snow starved. This is our best storm since feb of 2010 out here pretty easily, while I feel like DC and NYC have had multiple 15+ inch storms since then.

We talk about that in here a good bit. Things got way out of whack in respect to historical climatology along the I-95 corridor over the past 10-15 years, and it really spoiled a lot of people, especially younger ones who I believed that they assumed what was happening was "normal". Entitlement. Sort of understandable, but they really needed a bit of a reality check. On the flip side, they had a dreadful year last year, so add that in and they're starving. 

Even here in Lancaster, our climate history suggests double digit snows come about once or twice a decade. I've had double digit snows 8 times in the past 11 years. I appreciated this storm because I know that it's not normal nor should it be expected. 

[MAG5035]

1 hour ago, Hoar_Frost said:

I will look for sure in a bit, but it might be on par with a 2010 storm.  Otherwise, probably best since '96.  

The February 2003 storm (PD2) had 18.2" measured on campus. And there was a sneaky forgotten about nor'easter Jan 6, 2002 that dumped about 13-15" in UNV. I think the Feb 5-6, 2010 storm was also about 13-15" in the UNV area as the really high totals were just south. So sounds like you guys did about as good or better than the Feb 2003 event, that's pretty good company to be in. 

[sauss06]

just heard someone around or in Bradford county got 40"

Edit- can't say for certain on totals as i didn't measure yesterday. But last evening i did shovel 4 different times when the driveway hit an inch. This morning the driveway measured 10" but who knows with as much blowing. My friend told she had about 15" up in Western Perry County

[CarlislePaWx]

35 minutes ago, Itstrainingtime said:

Final total was 10.8". 9.7" of that was snow. Congrats to all of us! Great storm...

 

1 hour ago, Blizzard of 93 said:

After round 1 of snow, the nearly 4 hours of Sleet, then several hours of back end snow, I made it to 10 inches here in Marysville!

It was a great storm for the LSV, especially by historical December standards. 
 

It looks like MDT will land in the top 5 for December snowstorms on record. They measured 9.3 yesterday as of Midnight, and there should be a couple of inches that get added today for the few hours of snow after midnight. It will be interesting to see where the 2 day total lands officially!

Have fun digging out of the snow today!

Good morning guys!  Just got caught up on all the overnight posts.  I can't tell you how thrilled I am that north central (and further west out towards PIT) hit the huge jackpot!  It's funny that the models kind of got it wrong showing the axis of heaviest snow starting down here in the MDT area and running northeast from there with you guys north and west missing out on the mega-totals.  Down here we have been spoiled with big ones, especially in the past 5 years.  I know I've had at least 3 different storms that delivered a foot or more since 2016.  It was almost becoming commonplace...lol.  I was even fortunate enough to be the jackpot winner of the January 2016 storm when I recorded 35"...the biggest single storm of my life.

Here is the rest of my storm data:  12/16 snowfall before the sleet= 5.3"; sleet = 1.5"; additional snow up until midnight= 1.5";  Total pure snow= 6.8";  Total frozen = 8.3"

12/17 (snowfall after midnight) = 2.0"; 2-day storm total = 10.3"

Liquid equivalent snowfall before the sleet = 0.61" (SLR=9:1); Liquid equivalent of the sleet = 0.43" (SLR=3:1); Liquid equivalent snow up to midnight = 0.15" (SLR 10:1); Total liquid for 12/16 = 1.19" (SLR= 7:1)

12/17 Liquid Equivalent = 0.20" (SLR=10:1); Total Liquid for 2-days = 1.39" (SLR = 7.4:1)

Finally, had the storm delivered 100% snow, my storm total would have been 12.8".  I see many of us in the LSV got just around 10" which confirms my measurements.  I wonder when our next snowstorm will be??

[Hoar_Frost]

7 minutes ago, MAG5035 said:

The February 2003 storm (PD2) had 18.2" measured on campus. And there was a sneaky forgotten about nor'easter Jan 6, 2002 that dumped about 13-15" in UNV. I think the Feb 5-6, 2010 storm was also about 13-15" in the UNV area as the really high totals were just south. So sounds like you guys did about as good or better than the Feb 2003 event, that's pretty good company to be in. 

That sounds about right.  As far as 24-hour totals go, today was the 12th time a 24-hour total of 15" or more was recorded at State College since records began in the 1890's and the first time that has happened in December.  

[intentionallove]

Around 9-10" here in Middletown with 4 hours of heavy sleet.  Its a bear to shovel....sticky as all get out!  Anyone bored?? Lol

[canderson]

This sh1t got super heavy. But it’ll be here for Christmas! 

[Itstrainingtime]

1 minute ago, CarlislePaWx said:

 

Good morning guys!  Just got caught up on all the overnight posts.  I can't tell you how thrilled I am that north central (and further west out towards PIT) hit the huge jackpot!  It's funny that the models kind of got it wrong showing the axis of heaviest snow starting down here in the MDT area and running northeast from there with you guys north and west missing out on the mega-totals.  Down here we have been spoiled with big ones, especially in the past 5 years.  I know I've had at least 3 different storms that delivered a foot or more since 2016.  It was almost becoming commonplace...lol.  I was even fortunate enough to be the jackpot winner of the January 2016 storm when I recorded 35"...the biggest single storm of my life.

Here is the rest of my storm data:  12/16 snowfall before the sleet= 5.3"; sleet = 1.5"; additional snow up until midnight= 1.5";  Total pure snow= 6.8";  Total frozen = 8.3"

12/17 (snowfall after midnight) = 2.0"; 2-day storm total = 10.3"

Liquid equivalent snowfall before the sleet = 0.61" (SLR=9:1); Liquid equivalent of the sleet = 0.43" (SLR=3:1); Liquid equivalent snow up to midnight = 0.15" (SLR 10:1); Total liquid for 12/16 = 1.19" (SLR= 7:1)

12/17 Liquid Equivalent = 0.20" (SLR=10:1); Total Liquid for 2-days = 1.39" (SLR = 7.4:1)

Finally, had the storm delivered 100% snow, my storm total would have been 12.8".  I see many of us in the LSV got just around 10" which confirms my measurements.  I wonder when our next snowstorm will be??

Great information Stephen, thank you for sharing the QPF amount in particular. Had the 2" of QPF that was being advertised a few days ago come to fruition, snow and ice amounts would have been close to what was expected.

[MAG5035]

15 minutes ago, sauss06 said:

just heard someone around or in Bradford county got 40"

Where that band set up and sat last night over those north-central counties got in excess of 2 feet, so a 3+ foot total somewhere isn't out of the realm of possibility. The models having the 20-30+ swath for days ended up being right in the end, just that it ended up being more W than what any model had and then it did arc over to Williamsport.. although the worst of that band was actually north of IPT for awhile and they still got what they did. 

I don't know what happened here. Looking at you guys' totals this morning, my 10.7" is on par with @Itstrainingtime and the Lancaster folks with some of the ones around Harrisburg actually doing slightly better even with the sleet. This was a big bust for me personally, as I was expecting mid teens here and when yesterday mornings models came in at the beginning of the storm I thought 20" was realistic. I think that intense band setting up just to the west of here for awhile got me into a subsidence zone. I never got the 2-4/hr rates. I'm still happy, it's a double digit snowfall in December either way. Roads are still a mess this morning and my back street hasn't been plowed yet. Couldn't imagine folks that ended up with more than twice of what I got.