What's your ideal snowstorm?

[Hoosier]

Here's a series of questions to gauge preferences.  Thought about just putting this in poll format, but doing it this way encourages more discussion.

Do you prefer.....

 

A snowstorm in winter or something out of season?  If it's the latter, early or late?

Wet snow, dry/fluffy snow, or something in between?

Light/calm winds, or windy conditions while it's snowing?  

Continuous snow, or do lulls not matter as long as amounts end up as expected?

12" in 12 hours, or 18" occurring over 36 hours?

Bitter temperatures, or just cold enough to stick well during the storm?

Storms on holidays/your birthday/some other meaningful day, or are dates irrelevant?

If living in a lake effect area, would you rather have a synoptic or lake effect storm of the same amount?

[Powerball]

GHD 2011 in Chicago, or NYE 2008 in Detroit's NW suburbs.

[WestMichigan]

Eastern Ohio/West Virginia April 4,1987 but earlier in the year and about 8-10° colder.  Crazy to see about 2 feet of snow in early April with temps near 38° the entire time.  Started and never stopped for at least 24 hours with little snow sticking until the sun went down then it accumulated quickly.  Never witnessed anything like that since then no matter the time of year.

[snowlover2]

December 22-23, 2004. Couldn't have been more perfect at least for my part of Ohio.

[Frog Town]

December 24-25, 2002. NW Ohio Christmas miracle.

Great Topic and question, Hoosier!

[bowtie`]

Someone else's backyard.

[cyclone77]

Interesting question, as I enjoy all types of them for what they are.  

If I had to choose one type I'd take a blizzard with high snowfall rates, with thunder of course lol.  My 3 favorite blizzards of this type here were Dec '87, Jan '95, and GHD '11.  Out of these if I were given a chance to relive one of them I'd take the Dec '87 one.  60+mph winds with the most thunder/lightning I've ever seen with a snowstorm easily.  The ferocity of a high-end event like that is really top notch for a weather weenie.  

[Mogget]

One that occurs early Monday or early Friday AM in whatever fashion is required so that the weekend is extended.

[IWXwx]

A snowstorm in winter or something out of season?  If it's the latter, early or late?

In winter

Wet snow, dry/fluffy snow, or something in between?

Something in between

Light/calm winds, or windy conditions while it's snowing?  

Calm winds

Continuous snow, or do lulls not matter as long as amounts end up as expected?

Either

12" in 12 hours, or 18" occurring over 36 hours?

18" over 36 Hrs.

Bitter temperatures, or just cold enough to stick well during the storm?

Cold, but not bitter

Storms on holidays/your birthday/some other meaningful day, or are dates irrelevant?

Irrelevant

If living in a lake effect area, would you rather have a synoptic or lake effect storm of the same amount?

n/a, although we usually get a couple Lake MI les events down this way most winters which are always fun even if they are only light amounts

 

[OHweather]

A snowstorm in winter or something out of season?  If it's the latter, early or late?

Out of season, preferably late. You know it's out of place and the last one, so I always find myself extra invested in the late ones.

Wet snow, dry/fluffy snow, or something in between?

Something like a 10-12:1 ratio, which is probably in the in-between

Light/calm winds, or windy conditions while it's snowing?  

Gentle dendrites falling in light winds is a site to behold, but for this exercise, windy please.

Continuous snow, or do lulls not matter as long as amounts end up as expected?

Continuous

12" in 12 hours, or 18" occurring over 36 hours?

12 in 12 

Bitter temperatures, or just cold enough to stick well during the storm?

Just cold enough, but at the end of the day it won't be mild either way so whatever gets the job done

Storms on holidays/your birthday/some other meaningful day, or are dates irrelevant?

It's a bonus if it snows during the holidays, but I won't enjoy a storm that's not around the holidays any less so we'll go with irrelevant

If living in a lake effect area, would you rather have a synoptic or lake effect storm of the same amount?

After living in Nor'easter country for a few winters, definitely synoptic of the same amount. Lake effect is great, it more than doubles our annual snowfall around here and is still quite prone to surprises, good and bad. There's a lot of excitement there. But lake effect is almost always higher ratio so compacts very quickly and typically, the highest amounts are quite localized. Between typically being a heavier snow and a whole region getting it, synoptic storms are just more impressive and enjoyable overall...not that I have anything against a surprise LES jackpot every once in a while. 

So, my perfect storm has to be January 31-February 2, 2021 in NW NJ. We got 30" of snow where I was, with some surrounding towns in the hills getting a few inches more. About 26 of that fell between late afternoon on the 31st and evening on the 1st with no lulls, and even after that a persistent light snow with no true breaks continued for another day and added a few inches. Winds were gusting 30-40 MPH for several hours, coinciding with the heaviest snow which was 2-3" per hour for several hours. Temperatures were in the 20s. Our average ratio for the storm was 12-13:1, so somewhat fluffy for the East Coast but still rather dense compared to a lot of snow events in the Great Lakes. Nothing else I've seen is extremely close to all of that added up...I've seen that total (over a much longer duration), those rates (but in localized, fairly short-lived LES bands), and snow in that amount of wind, but not all together and the storms in which I've seen totals that high had much higher ratios.

An honorable mention is April 23-25, 2005, when my location east of Cleveland saw 20" of snow in about 36 hours with no true breaks. Temperatures were 32-34 the whole storm with little wind. Trees were starting to leaf out and there was quite a bit of damage. That's likely my second favorite behind the NJ storm. 

[Hoosier]

On 9/23/2022 at 2:33 PM, Hoosier said:

Here's a series of questions to gauge preferences.  Thought about just putting this in poll format, but doing it this way encourages more discussion.

Do you prefer.....

 

A snowstorm in winter or something out of season?  If it's the latter, early or late?

In winter

Wet snow, dry/fluffy snow, or something in between?

Generally, I'd go with something in between but I do appreciate the scenic nature of wet snows and it's nice when that happens

Light/calm winds, or windy conditions while it's snowing?  

I like to have wind

Continuous snow, or do lulls not matter as long as amounts end up as expected?

Doesn't really matter

12" in 12 hours, or 18" occurring over 36 hours?

This is a tough one for me.  The bigger number is attractive, but that one is more of a grind to get to than the 12" in 12 hours.  Also, if it's snowing for 36 hours, you're probably not going to actually have 18" on the ground at the end.  So slight lean toward 12" in 12 hours.  If we're talking over 20" in 36 hours, then I'd go with that.

Bitter temperatures, or just cold enough to stick well during the storm?

Just cold enough to stick well

Storms on holidays/your birthday/some other meaningful day, or are dates irrelevant?

Pretty much irrelevant.  I do like most of December to be cold/snowy, which has been hard to come by lately.

If living in a lake effect area, would you rather have a synoptic or lake effect storm of the same amount?

As someone who is not in the snow belt but close enough to get a good event every once in a while, I'll go with synoptic.  Tends to not compact as quickly.  That being said, I've seen my best snowfall rates during LES.

 

[Baum]

1. Models show a Oklahoma hooker 4 days out. Complete model consensus for my back yard.

2. As the hooker organizes in the desert southwest an energized clipper rides down and lays a 4" blanket of powder down and storng winds from N-NE usher in arctic air.

3. In clippers wake on going snowshowers blow in from Lake Michingan. 

 4. 48 hours out all models consensus 12"-18" swath of 15:1 ratio snows with winds in excess of 35 mph sustained.

5. 24 hours out complete model consensus on a blizzard. Consensus so strong no board arguments as a my backyard as the lollipop is a lock.

6. Blizzard warnings issued. Snowshowers begin to increase off lake as storm intensifies over Texarkana. Kansas City already shut down due to 5 hours of 2" per hour rates and thunder and lightning.

7. Gametime. Radar lit. Winds howling. Businesses closing in preparation. Snow begins in earnest.

8. After 12 hours of non stop snow/wind/ thunder 19" has fallen citywide. Drifts 5-6' in areas.

9. Complete forecast verification. High spot downtown Chicago with 26" amounts due to lake enhancement. Mchenry County and Cedar Rapids IA are the lower end of the spectrum with 4" and 6" respectively. Mets can't explain the phenomenon. 

10. As the storm winds down, another organizes over Colorado.

[luckyweather]

Mchenry County and Cedar Rapids IA are the lower end of the spectrum with 4" and 6" respectively. Mets can't explain the phenomenon. 

Shakespearian even

[A-L-E-K]

30+ or bust

[pondo1000]

One that doesn’t changeover to any taint! Bar low here in central OH!

[madwx]

low cuts from Omaha to Duluth,  we get record high temps and a highly forced lined of storms.  QLCS tornadoes galore.  Fargo gets 30"

[frostfern]

On 9/23/2022 at 3:54 PM, Powerball said:

GHD 2011 in Chicago, or NYE 2008 in Detroit's NW suburbs.

GHD 2011 was awesome.  Other storms have had larger totals, but it's the only storm in my lifetime where the accumulation occurred in a short period ( well over a foot in a 12 hour period ) accompanied by true blizzard conditions.  Most storms the "blizzard force" wind only comes on the back end when the snow is winding down, or the snow accumulates over several periods stretching well over 24 hours.  With that storm everything happened at once, mostly in a 12 hour period.  It was a good storm, even with *only* 14-17 inch totals here as opposed to the 20" in Chicago.  Getting 20"+ lake effect fluff over 72hours just isn't the same as a genuine synoptic storm.  

[frostfern]

Here's a series of questions to gauge preferences.  Thought about just putting this in poll format, but doing it this way encourages more discussion.

Do you prefer.....

 

A snowstorm in winter or something out of season?  If it's the latter, early or late?

Best is with a good 6" base already present... so deep winter is best.  January or February.  I love a deep snowpack.  No pre-storm thaw or slushy/icy changeover.

Wet snow, dry/fluffy snow, or something in between?

It's all good.  Just no changing to rain or sleet.  Also, lake effect is often too fluffy and totals always feel artificially inflated to me.  

Light/calm winds, or windy conditions while it's snowing?  

It's all good.  Blizzard conditions are cool, but I'll take calm snow falling straight down too.

Continuous snow, or do lulls not matter as long as amounts end up as expected?

12" in 12 hours, or 18" occurring over 36 hours?

12" in 12 hours is more impressive.  18" in 36 hours isn't impressive when the net water content is only 0.7" because it's all lake effect.

Bitter temperatures, or just cold enough to stick well during the storm?

Bitter cold onset usually means a dry east wind and virga problems, and small crystal sizes even when the snow does reach the ground.  If there's an arctic airmass involved, it should wrap in from behind.  The front end should not be too cold or totals are impacted by the dryness.

Storms on holidays/your birthday/some other meaningful day, or are dates irrelevant?

Don't really care.

If living in a lake effect area, would you rather have a synoptic or lake effect storm of the same amount?

Synoptic all the way, though I do appreciated lake effect on the back end that adds to the totals. 

100% lake effect totals always feel artificially inflated to me, especially when they occur over many 12 hour measurement intervals.  It can easily snow 4" every 12 hours, but only be 0.12 water content for every 4" that falls.  When another 4" falls on top of that first 4" fluff, it contracts to 6", but another full 4" is recorded from the board.  Then the next 4" only adds another 2" to the depth, because even more settling occurs with all the air space to fill.  The end result is the official storm total snow measurement is way over the final depth on the ground. 

Lake effect snowfalls are the most beautiful in light wind conditions though.  The snow has a tendency to stick to trees, railings, roofs, etc... in a very uniform way, creating a classic pristine winter look.  The totals just feel inflated in comparison to synoptic big dog storms with actual water content.

[roardog]

What I hate is a snowfall that starts with a surface temp above freezing. It always feels like a good portion of the snow that falls gets wasted as it melts at first. Surface temps in the mid 20s seem like a good starting point. The flakes usually aren’t the consistency of dust and it all accumulates as soon as it starts to fall. 

[A-L-E-K]

17 hours ago, A-L-E-K said:

30+ or bust

i think a well placed fgen band x waa snow x deformation zone  x LES combo can get us there...precipitation events are only becoming more extreme 

[KokomoWX]

On 9/23/2022 at 3:33 PM, Hoosier said:

Here's a series of questions to gauge preferences.  Thought about just putting this in poll format, but doing it this way encourages more discussion.

Do you prefer.....

 

A snowstorm in winter or something out of season?  If it's the latter, early or late?  

In season

On 9/23/2022 at 3:33 PM, Hoosier said:

Wet snow, dry/fluffy snow, or something in between?

No preference. 

On 9/23/2022 at 3:33 PM, Hoosier said:

Light/calm winds, or windy conditions while it's snowing?  

Windy!

On 9/23/2022 at 3:33 PM, Hoosier said:

Continuous snow, or do lulls not matter as long as amounts end up as expected?

Continuous

On 9/23/2022 at 3:33 PM, Hoosier said:

12" in 12 hours, or 18" occurring over 36 hours?

18" of fluff over 36 hours or 12" of cement in 12 hours

On 9/23/2022 at 3:33 PM, Hoosier said:

Bitter temperatures, or just cold enough to stick well during the storm?

Bitter!

On 9/23/2022 at 3:33 PM, Hoosier said:

Storms on holidays/your birthday/some other meaningful day, or are dates irrelevant?

Meh, anytime is fine.

On 9/23/2022 at 3:33 PM, Hoosier said:

If living in a lake effect area, would you rather have a synoptic or lake effect storm of the same amount?

N/A

I want to keep the snow and build some snowpack.  Melting right after is awful. 

[Dabuckeyes]

I was fortunate enough to live in Baltimore, MD back in 2009-2010.  My favorite storm(s) was 24" of snow that fell Friday night through Saturday evening.  Temps were in the 20s with gusty winds.  We were still digging out on Sunday when we had a Winter Storm Watch posted for another storm coming on Tuesday.  That Tuesday storm surprisingly dropped another 20+" of snow.  I'd take that week again in a heartbeat!

[HillsdaleMIWeather]

I'd just like to get actual blizzard conditions or one of those rare lake effect systems that actually gets this far inland

[tuanis]

A snowstorm in winter or something out of season?  If it's the latter, early or late?
A mid-winter classic

Wet snow, dry/fluffy snow, or something in between?
Starts 10-12:1 to set a solid base, becomes increasingly dry/fluffy/drifty as the storm cranks

Light/calm winds, or windy conditions while it's snowing?  
Light winds during the WAA snows, nears blizzard conditions as the low wraps up over NW Indiana and the lake starts getting involved

Continuous snow, or do lulls not matter as long as amounts end up as expected?
Maybe a bit of a lull before the beefy defo pivots through, but I'll skip the drizzly dry slot with columns and needles amounting to nothing

12" in 12 hours, or 18" occurring over 36 hours?
12 in 12

Bitter temperatures, or just cold enough to stick well during the storm?
Again, borderline at the start, but pull in that nearby arctic airmass as the low tanks

Storms on holidays/your birthday/some other meaningful day, or are dates irrelevant?
I'll take what I can get, but it's been a minute since we've had a white holiday season

If living in a lake effect area, would you rather have a synoptic or lake effect storm of the same amount?
Slow-moving firehose off the lake to cap off a satisfying lake-enhanced synoptic big dog

[Hoosier]

On 9/27/2022 at 6:12 AM, A-L-E-K said:

i think a well placed fgen band x waa snow x deformation zone  x LES combo can get us there...precipitation events are only becoming more extreme 

Agree that a 30" storm is doable in Chicago.  We have seen it in other spots in the sub.  And yeah, would probably need all of those factors or at least no more than 1 of them missing.

[Malacka11]

A snowstorm in winter or something out of season?  If it's the latter, early or late?

Definitely in-season. Every time someone brings up sun angle it ruins half the fun.

Wet snow, dry/fluffy snow, or something in between?

Big, wet flakes to start out with and then a rapid change to the highest ratio possible.

Light/calm winds, or windy conditions while it's snowing?  

The more exciting the atmosphere the better. Immediate plus points if you can hear the wind howling.

Continuous snow, or do lulls not matter as long as amounts end up as expected?

No lulls. Like sun angle talk or poor ratios, lulls signify wasted potential (Even if these points aren't always detractors, it feels that way in my inner weenie heart). 

12" in 12 hours, or 18" occurring over 36 hours?

Don't want to contradict myself, but 18" over 36 hours is just more visually impactful even if the snow falls slower 

Bitter temperatures, or just cold enough to stick well during the storm?

Make it bitter cold towards the end. Paralyze the area. Make it feel special. 

Storms on holidays/your birthday/some other meaningful day, or are dates irrelevant?

Any time it gives me a day (or two or five) off of work is preferred. Mega bonus points for any snow between the week before Christmas through New Year's. Birthday (Feb 11th) isn't bad either and has a much higher chance of happening of late but I'd actually kill for a snowy holiday season.

[buckeye]

March 8,9 2008   TWO MONTHS EARLIER

In general I like snowstorms between the window of xmas and the end of January.    I also favor duration over intensity.   I recall an upper low that parked itself over the area back in the mid 90's that produced steady light snow over the entire weekend and we ended up with 9" by Sunday evening.   

I also like a well-forecasted snowstorm that locks in 4 days out, (a true rarity in CMH where we ride the razor's edge with every storm).

[Hoosier]

5 minutes ago, buckeye said:

March 8,9 2008   TWO MONTHS EARLIER

In general I like snowstorms between the window of xmas and the end of January.    I also favor duration over intensity.   I recall an upper low that parked itself over the area back in the mid 90's that produced steady light snow over the entire weekend and we ended up with 9" by Sunday evening.   

I also like a well-forecasted snowstorm that locks in 4 days out, (a true rarity in CMH where we ride the razor's edge with every storm).

You know winter is on the way when buckeye returns! 

[Jonger]

On 9/23/2022 at 3:54 PM, Powerball said:

GHD 2011 in Chicago, or NYE 2008 in Detroit's NW suburbs.

[buckeye]

On 9/28/2022 at 8:23 PM, Dabuckeyes said:

I was fortunate enough to live in Baltimore, MD back in 2009-2010.  My favorite storm(s) was 24" of snow that fell Friday night through Saturday evening.  Temps were in the 20s with gusty winds.  We were still digging out on Sunday when we had a Winter Storm Watch posted for another storm coming on Tuesday.  That Tuesday storm surprisingly dropped another 20+" of snow.  I'd take that week again in a heartbeat!

Another Westervillian!