January 31-February 2, 2021 Major Winter Storm Observations

[LVwxHistorian]

No new thread for the upcoming storm??

[Birds~69]

1 hour ago, LVwxHistorian said:

No new thread for the upcoming storm??

The mostly rainy Fri storm or the pretty much miss Sun one? Which?

[LVwxHistorian]

Oh sorry, I didn't hear the bad news about Sunday!

[RedSky]

A final storm note- drifting was very minor despite the awesome wind. Imagine this storm suffered the same fate as 2006 in that the snow was too wet.

Still nothing for me has compared to 1978,1979 and 1983 in drifting.

 

[Birds~69]

10 minutes ago, RedSky said:

A final storm note- drifting was very minor despite the awesome wind. Imagine this storm suffered the same fate as 2006 in that the snow was too wet.

Still nothing for me has compared to 1978,1979 and 1983 in drifting.

All 3 were great but 83' was probably my best.

I was  1'-2' shorter during that whole period which made everything seem huge. Just walking during the height of those storms w/the drifts was a real struggle....

[zenmsav6810]

25 minutes ago, RedSky said:

A final storm note- drifting was very minor despite the awesome wind. Imagine this storm suffered the same fate as 2006 in that the snow was too wet.

Still nothing for me has compared to 1978,1979 and 1983 in drifting.

 

Curious I had some pretty bad road conditions tonight coming home on rt 23. Way worse than this morning.

[RedSky]

3 hours ago, zenmsav6810 said:

Curious I had some pretty bad road conditions tonight coming home on rt 23. Way worse than this morning.

Not blowing snow onto the roads, I had that even today. But yards that looked like sand dunes with 3 and 4' drifts. Those 3 storms had that.

[RedSky]

3 hours ago, Birds~69 said:

All 3 were great but 83' was probably my best.

I was  1'-2' shorter during that whole period which made everything seem huge. Just walking during the height of those storms w/the drifts was a real struggle....

Had a vcr tape with footage of 1983 that did not survive 

[Birds~69]

11 minutes ago, RedSky said:

Had a vcr tape with footage of 1983 that did not survive 

That sucks:(

The really cool part of that storm was I listened to KYW all day while coming in and going outside while Elliott Abrams kept upping the totals, it seemed like every hour or two. It was a cold/dry snow which added to the drifting. I think temps were in the mid teens or so.... 

[Kevin Reilly]

1 minute ago, Birds~69 said:

That sucks:(

The really cool part of that storm was I listened to KYW all day while going coming in and going outside while Elliott Abrams kept upping the totals, it seemed like every hour or two. It was a cold/dry snow which added to the drifting. I think temps were in the mid teens or so.... 

I was living in NE Philadelphia and the winds were howling down the driveways between row homes.  One side was completely bare of snow maybe an inch the other side 5-6 foot drifts. I was 9 years old so snow was up to my waist and the drifts in some cases over my head.  I remember the thunder and lighting and also the graupel mixing in with the snow while we had the lighting and low rumbling thunder.  I think the next day under the strong Feb 12th sun it made it into the upper 30s.  Almost like the storm mixed out the arctic air and replaced it with modified Atlantic air.  
 

Reason I say this last sentence because the air out there at 32 down here doesn’t feel Arctic anymore feels like modified Atlantic air that storm basically flipped every thing. 
 

looking over the models looks like a bit of a war setting up medium long range with the Southeast Ridge and cold coming back from Canada.

Next two weeks could get interesting up and down the east coast with an awakening subtropical jet in play. 

[RedSky]

7 minutes ago, Birds~69 said:

That sucks:(

The really cool part of that storm was I listened to KYW all day while coming in and going outside while Elliott Abrams kept upping the totals, it seemed like every hour or two. It was a cold/dry snow which added to the drifting. I think temps were in the mid teens or so.... 

Dry snow was the key. 1996, 2006 and 2016 didn't have the dry snow either. 2003 and 2010 didn't have the wind.

 

[Birds~69]

17 minutes ago, Kevin Reilly said:

I was living in NE Philadelphia and the winds were howling down the driveways between row homes.  One side was completely bare of snow maybe an inch the other side 5-6 foot drifts. I was 9 years old so snow was up to my waist and the drifts in some cases over my head.  I remember the thunder and lighting and also the graupel mixing in with the snow while we had the lighting and low rumbling thunder.  I think the next day under the strong Feb 12th sun it made it into the upper 30s.  Almost like the storm mixed out the arctic air and replaced it with modified Atlantic air.  
 

Reason I say this last sentence because the air out there at 32 down here doesn’t feel Arctic anymore feels like modified Atlantic air that storm basically flipped every thing. 
 

looking over the models looks like a bit of a war setting up medium long range with the Southeast Ridge and cold coming back from Canada.

Next two weeks could get interesting up and down the east coast with an awakening subtropical jet in play. 

Yep, I lived in those types of situations where the air merges between two structures and creates a hurricane like blast then the snow creates it's own pattern. Blacktop showing then not that far away a huge drift up the side of a building. 

[ncforecaster89]

USnowpack update from Nazareth/Easton, PA line:

After temps above freezing, light rain, and further compaction, the snow depth is down to 17.5".  Big reduction from 24 hours ago!

Edit: Please see my second post below for an accurate measurement.  This wasn't!  

 

[Birds~69]

11 minutes ago, ncforecaster89 said:

Snowpack update from Nazareth/Easton, PA line:

After temps above freezing, light rain, and further compaction, the snow depth is down to 17.5".  Big reduction from 24 hours ago!  

 

Light rain? And it's hard to believe a reduction of 10"+ inches w/highs in the 30's and overcast much of the day...

[ncforecaster89]

29 minutes ago, Birds~69 said:

Light rain? And it's hard to believe a reduction of 10"+ inches w/highs in the 30's and overcast much of the day...

We had light rain here for about 4 hours (1130-330) before precip finally ended.  That and temps above freezing most of the day here really did a number on the pack.

As I noted previously, I don't buy those 3' reports...but certainly believe this area exceeded 30" totals, without any doubts; of course, snow pack would be significantly below that over a 3 day storm.  To your point, that does seem way too low.  Consequently, I'm going to measure again up the road in a neighborhood as opposed to what I measured here at the hotel.

Edit:  Important to note that I didn't measure the snow pack last night, but the difference relative to 24 hours ago is very substantial.

[ncforecaster89]

2 hours ago, Birds~69 said:

Light rain? And it's hard to believe a reduction of 10"+ inches w/highs in the 30's and overcast much of the day...

Ok, I just spent the last two hours walking a one mile perimeter around the general vicinity of the hotel.  The depths varied greatly from a low of only 17.3"  on up to a high mark of 24.7"!

These measurements were taken in completely open and exposed areas well away from buildings and roadways.  The vast majority of readings were between 22.3" & 24.4".  In all, I took 18 different measurements.  Discarding the highest and lowest (considering such significant drifting occurred here), I get an average current snow depth of 23.2".  

Based on the visual observations from more than 30 hours ago, late Tuesday night, I'm going to estimate we lost roughly 3 to 4" in pack during that time.  So, the peak snow depth could've been as high as 26-27" late Tuesday night IF the peak didn't actually occur prior to that time (maybe 12 hours earlier on Tuesday AM).

Lastly, I want to genuinely thank you for inspiring me to do a very extensive and thorough measurement process rather than simply relying on that singular reading I made a few hours ago...which was an inaccurate representation of what actually remains on the ground, here!

[ncforecaster89]

Based on the aforementioned, it's conceivable this specific location may have had a storm total snowfall somewhere in the 30 to 32" range, but still don't believe Nazareth got more than 3'.

[KamuSnow]

36 minutes ago, ncforecaster89 said:

Based on the aforementioned, it's conceivable this specific location may have had a storm total snowfall somewhere in the 30 to 32" range, but still don't believe Nazareth got more than 3'.

Much respect for your diligence! Also, pretty cool that if you had to be stuck on the road somewhere, at least you got a nice nor'easter out of the deal.

[ncforecaster89]

16 minutes ago, KamuSnow said:

Much respect for your diligence! Also, pretty cool that if you had to be stuck on the road somewhere, at least you got a nice nor'easter out of the deal.

Thank you so much for your very thoughtful comment!  I feel the exact same way about the unexpected misfortune with my truck.  One, it can/could always be worse and second, I was able to still document an historic storm before my truck's transmission had given out. 

[LVwxHistorian]

Mt. Pocono?????  Seem high??


...Monroe County...
 Mount Pocono                 36.9 in   0816 AM 02/03   Trained Spotter      
 Bossardsville                27.3 in   0453 PM 02/02   Public               
 Blakeslee                    27.0 in   0138 PM 02/03   Trained Spotter      
 2 NNW Pocono Mountains Munic 27.0 in   1200 PM 02/02   Trained Spotter      
 Pocono Pines                 27.0 in   0130 PM 02/02   Trained Spotter      
 Canadensis                   26.6 in   0700 AM 02/03   COOP                 
 Kunkletown                   26.0 in   1230 PM 02/02   Public               
 2 NNW Pen Argyl              26.0 in   0900 AM 02/02   Broadcast Media      
 Coolbaugh Twp                23.5 in   1000 PM 02/01   Trained Spotter      
 Effort                       22.5 in   0240 PM 02/02   Trained Spotter      
 Kresgeville                  22.0 in   0101 PM 02/02   Public          

[ncforecaster89]

1 hour ago, LVwxHistorian said:

Mt. Pocono?????  Seem high??


...Monroe County...
 Mount Pocono                 36.9 in   0816 AM 02/03   Trained Spotter      
 Bossardsville                27.3 in   0453 PM 02/02   Public               
 Blakeslee                    27.0 in   0138 PM 02/03   Trained Spotter      
 2 NNW Pocono Mountains Munic 27.0 in   1200 PM 02/02   Trained Spotter      
 Pocono Pines                 27.0 in   0130 PM 02/02   Trained Spotter      
 Canadensis                   26.6 in   0700 AM 02/03   COOP                 
 Kunkletown                   26.0 in   1230 PM 02/02   Public               
 2 NNW Pen Argyl              26.0 in   0900 AM 02/02   Broadcast Media      
 Coolbaugh Twp                23.5 in   1000 PM 02/01   Trained Spotter      
 Effort                       22.5 in   0240 PM 02/02   Trained Spotter      
 Kresgeville                  22.0 in   0101 PM 02/02   Public          

Absolutely, I definitely think that the "trained spotter" was way too high when he/she made that measurement!

Seriously, I don't see how there was a 10" difference between that ob and all the others in that specific county.  Also, don't believe the 36.1" report from Nazareth, either.    

On the other hand, I think the official measurement at ABE is missing a couple of inches in their 27.3" total.

[ncforecaster89]

Just measured the current snowpack again this evening.  Ironically, there is only a 1.5" reduction (1/2 of what we lost during the preceding day) despite highs above 40 and sunny skies this afternoon!  Sitting at an average of 21.7" in the vicinity of my hotel here at the Nazareth/Easton border.      

[Birds~69]

4 minutes ago, ncforecaster89 said:

Absolutely, I definitely think that the "trained spotter" was way too high when he/she made that measurement!

Seriously, I don't see how there was a 10" difference between that ob and all the others in that specific county.  Also, don't believe the 36.1" report from Nazareth, either.    

On the other hand, I think the official measurement at ABE is missing a couple of inches in their 27.3" total.

What exactly is a "trained spotter"? Is there a class? They probably think it's a dependable person using the correct method (snowboard) but for all we know it's a weenie...

[Birds~69]

2 minutes ago, ncforecaster89 said:

Just measured the current snowpack again this evening.  Ironically, there is only a 1.5" reduction (1/2 of what we lost during the preceding day) despite highs above 40 and sunny skies this afternoon!  Sitting at an average of 21.7" in the vicinity of my hotel here at the Nazareth/Easton border.      

Makes you wonder??

[The Iceman]

16 minutes ago, Birds~69 said:

What exactly is a "trained spotter"? Is there a class? They probably think it's a dependable person using the correct method (snowboard) but for all we know it's a weenie...

Exactly that, there's a class that you sit through and at the end you get a neat little card with your spotter ID and how to directions on  submitting reports. It's actually a fun class, nothing like earth shattering but I'd go again to update my spotter card since my address has changed lol

[Birds~69]

6 minutes ago, The Iceman said:

Exactly that, there's a class that you sit through and at the end you get a neat little card with your spotter ID and how to directions on  submitting reports. It's actually a fun class, nothing like earth shattering but I'd go again to update my spotter card since my address has changed lol

Learn something new every day. Where are these classes held? Cost? Duration of class(s)?

[MGorse]

43 minutes ago, ncforecaster89 said:

Absolutely, I definitely think that the "trained spotter" was way too high when he/she made that measurement!

Seriously, I don't see how there was a 10" difference between that ob and all the others in that specific county.  Also, don't believe the 36.1" report from Nazareth, either.    

On the other hand, I think the official measurement at ABE is missing a couple of inches in their 27.3" total.

We found out a trained spotter in Sussex County NJ cleared their snowboard to frequently which resulted in a higher amount, so we did not use that report. 
 

Our ABE snow observer is very thorough and we trust the measurements. The official airport measurements are taken every 6 hours and the board is cleared. 

[MGorse]

16 minutes ago, Birds~69 said:

Learn something new every day. Where are these classes held? Cost? Duration of class(s)?

My offices spotter page is linked below. There are currently no classes scheduled. Probably not until the Spring. The classes are free and are held virtually. 

https://www.weather.gov/phi/skywarn

 

[Birds~69]

1 minute ago, MGorse said:

My offices spotter page is linked below. There are currently no classes scheduled. Probably not until the Spring. The classes are free and are held virtually. 

https://www.weather.gov/phi/skywarn

 

Thanks for the info...I always wondered how this worked.

[WarrenCtyWx]

I'm puzzled by some of those measurements. There was a report of 31.3" by a trained spotter literally a mere 2 miles from my house. I don't think we ever had more than 20-22" on the ground at one time here. Even taking compaction into account, it seems like such a considerable difference.