Long Island/Suffolk County

[A-L-E-X]

So Long Island maxed out at just under a foot?

This looks like it was NE NJ's storm, if I'm reading it all correctly.

Well western Long Island did well Josh 18-24 inches with 60-70 mph winds LIRR is still completely shut down, airports shut down with most roads closed. JFK verified true blizzard conditions..... with sustained winds!

NE NJ got 24-30 inches and 2 feet of snow into Staten Island and Southern Brooklyn

[HurricaneJosh]

Well western Long Island did well Josh 18-24 inches with 60-70 mph winds LIRR is still completely shut down, airports shut down with most roads closed. JFK verified true blizzard conditions..... with sustained winds!

NE NJ got 24-30 inches and 2 feet of snow into Staten Island and Southern Brooklyn

Oh, wow-- W LI and NYC did great! Cool.

How do you think Huntington (my hometown) did?

[A-L-E-X]

Oh, wow-- W LI and NYC did great! Cool.

How do you think Huntington (my hometown) did?

There's a poster here from there and I think he said he had 15 inches of snow and 65 mph winds

You would have loved to chase this storm lol.... at the peak there was intense cloud to ground lightning right in the middle of NYC during a newscast and people were running around in a panic, as the wind gusted so high that cars, vans and street lamps were shaking.

[Sickman]

Oh, wow-- W LI and NYC did great! Cool.

How do you think Huntington (my hometown) did?

Not sure about the totals, but Huntington declared a snow emergency this morning.

[HurricaneJosh]

There's a poster here from there and I think he said he had 15 inches of snow and 65 mph winds

You would have loved to chase this storm lol.... at the peak there was intense cloud to ground lightning right in the middle of NYC during a newscast and people were running around in a panic, as the wind gusted so high that cars, vans and street lamps were shaking.

Nice. Sounds pretty hawt (for icep*ssy wx ).

[HurricaneJosh]

Not sure about the totals, but Huntington declared a snow emergency this morning.

Wow-- nice. Cool way to start the winter (for the N NJ/NYC/W LI people).

[Sickman]

Nice. Sounds pretty hawt (for icep*ssy wx).

Josh, check out the hot towers on the western eyewall!

[HurricaneJosh]

Josh, check out the hot towers on the western eyewall!

How dare you trivialize these sacred words?

[NorthShoreWx]

No heroics here, as it looks like Port Jeff will finish with 11.0".

Not here either. My best efforts measurement is 11.5". I wanted 12", but it wasn't meant to be. Now the question is, how did Upton scrape up almost 18"? I know its the NWS, but its hard to believe.

My totals from wiping the boards are just about identical with the average I come up with on the ground (an imprecise science today to be sure), so the wind really played havoc. I think we are going to see some reported totals that reflect someones idea of what they should have seen if they were wiping a board periodically...in other words made up. It one point I wipe and replaced a board and the wind proceeded to scour the snow away from it, so I moved it again. All of which is a way to say there is no guaranty of my accuracy, but I can imagine some wild totals from the general populace.

[A-L-E-X]

Not here either. My best efforts measurement is 11.5". I wanted 12", but it wasn't meant to be. Now the question is, how did Upton scrape up almost 18"? I know its the NWS, but its hard to believe.

My totals from wiping the boards are just about identical with the average I come up with on the ground (an imprecise science today to be sure), so the wind really played havoc. I think we are going to see some reported totals that reflect someones idea of what they should have seen if they were wiping a board periodically...in other words made up. It one point I wipe and replaced a board and the wind proceeded to scour the snow away from it, so I moved it again. All of which is a way to say there is no guaranty of my accuracy, but I can imagine some wild totals from the general populace.

lol, you know this Ed-- Upton ALWAYS has the highest snowfall totals on Long Island

[Snowshack]

Not here either. My best efforts measurement is 11.5". I wanted 12", but it wasn't meant to be. Now the question is, how did Upton scrape up almost 18"? I know its the NWS, but its hard to believe.

My totals from wiping the boards are just about identical with the average I come up with on the ground (an imprecise science today to be sure), so the wind really played havoc. I think we are going to see some reported totals that reflect someones idea of what they should have seen if they were wiping a board periodically...in other words made up. It one point I wipe and replaced a board and the wind proceeded to scour the snow away from it, so I moved it again. All of which is a way to say there is no guaranty of my accuracy, but I can imagine some wild totals from the general populace.

Im only about 4 miles north of Upton, if they report 18" then they dug a hole in the ground before it started snowing. Too much blowing around for an accurate reading but I think we finished around 10" here. Not painfully disappointed though. The sting of the Euro abandoning ship a few days ago and this looking like a miss really makes what we got feel great..

[patrick05]

my final measurement was 12.5" .. KISP reported 13.7" so it wasn't that far off... or maybe, we both measured it wrong... just very hard to measure really... very high drifts and inconsistent snow amounts, got several measurements of 16" down to about 8"... i usually measure on the deck but there wasn't any snow this time around, wind blew all of it...

[Jefflaw77]

Here in Dix Hills, we received about 12-13" - the snow was rather strange in nature- It was dry but there wasn't a huge fluff factor to it.. In fact it appeared as though there was definitely some sleet mixed in as there was a heavier glaze component to the snow on the top 5 or 6 inches..

As others have said- it was kind of disappointing- the snow total that is, as NYC/NJ scored a huge storm (20-30":.. I guess the RUC model was right.. I don't know though, before things started i just thought wow, this was Long Island's chance.. I am also suspect of Upton's total.. But what do i know..

Anyhow. 12-13" - and sick winds = great storm in my book... Waiting for the next one!

jeff

[Amped]

So Long Island maxed out at just under a foot?

This looks like it was NE NJ's storm, if I'm reading it all correctly.

Actually an East NJ, Hudson river storm. Boston got almost 20 also.

E LI actually did okay, it was it was Central and east CT as well as Central Mass that got screwd.

AKA: MT Tolland.

[lindywx]

Our snow here on L.I. with this storm has zero fluff factor. It reminded me of sand as I was shoveling it. Any denrites that fell were shredded by the wind before they reached the ground. Based on some video and snapshots I've seen, the Jersey Mega Band snow has some fluff factor to it. The L.I. snow was no more than 10-1 water equivalent while the Mega Band snow was probably in the 12 to 15-1 range. This accounts for a bit of the accumulation differential

[Jefflaw77]

Our snow here on L.I. with this storm has zero fluff factor. It reminded me of sand as I was shoveling it. Any denrites that fell were shredded by the wind before they reached the ground. Based on some video and snapshots I've seen, the Jersey Mega Band snow has some fluff factor to it. The L.I. snow was no more than 10-1 water equivalent while the Mega Band snow was probably in the 12 to 15-1 range. This accounts for a bit of the accumulation differential

Yes- that is exactly how it was!! SAND... perfect way to describe it... I don't get it.. So you're saying the snow when falling at some point had denrites but w/ the heavy wind they shredded and what resulted was "ugly, sandy snow?" Wasn't it windy in jersey too? how could our wind on LI do so much "damage" to the snowflake?

jeff

[NorthShoreWx]

...NASSAU COUNTY...

NORTH MASSAPEQUA 23.5 1200 PM 12/27 PUBLIC

LEVITTOWN 21.9 119 PM 12/27 PUBLIC

PLAINVIEW 20.5 1200 PM 12/27 TRAINED SPOTTER

OLD BETHPAGE 20.5 907 AM 12/27 TRAINED SPOTTER

WOODMERE 19.4 950 AM 12/27 PUBLIC

CARLE PLACE 18.2 1200 PM 12/27 TRAINED SPOTTER

FLORAL PARK 18.0 1000 AM 12/27 TRAINED SPOTTER

FARMINGDALE 18.0 1030 AM 12/27 PUBLIC

NEW HYDE PARK 16.8 200 PM 12/27 TRAINED SPOTTER

GARDEN CITY 16.7 930 AM 12/27 PUBLIC

BELLMORE 16.4 1200 PM 12/27 TRAINED SPOTTER

BALDWIN HARBOR 16.0 800 AM 12/27 TRAINED SPOTTER

VALLEY STREAM 16.0 1150 AM 12/27 TRAINED SPOTTER

LONG BEACH 16.0 245 AM 12/27 TRAINED SPOTTER

SEAFORD 15.5 800 AM 12/27 TRAINED SPOTTER

WEST HEMPSTEAD 12.5 800 AM 12/27 TRAINED SPOTTER

GLEN COVE 12.0 1200 PM 12/27 TRAINED SPOTTER

...SUFFOLK COUNTY...

UPTON 18.8 100 PM 12/27 NWS OFFICE

NORTH BABYLON 18.5 845 AM 12/27 PUBLIC

CENTEREACH 17.0 930 AM 12/27 TRAINED SPOTTER

PATCHOGUE 17.0 900 AM 12/27 PUBLIC

WEST ISLIP 16.0 1215 PM 12/27 TRAINED SPOTTER

EAST NORTHPORT 15.5 715 AM 12/27 TRAINED SPOTTER

SOUND BEACH 15.5 300 PM 12/27 NWS EMPLOYEE

NORTHPORT 15.2 138 PM 12/27 TRAINED SPOTTER

CENTERPORT 15.0 650 AM 12/27 COOP-OBSERVER

EAST SETAUKET 15.0 715 AM 12/27 PUBLIC

MOUNT SINAI 14.2 1255 PM 12/27 NWS EMPLOYEE

ISLIP AIRPORT 14.2 100 PM 12/27 FAA CONTRACT OBSERVER

SAYVILLE 14.0 1000 AM 12/27 PUBLIC

QUOGUE 14.0 1100 AM 12/27 PUBLIC

SHOREHAM 14.0 900 AM 12/27 TRAINED SPOTTER

HOLBROOK 12.5 900 AM 12/27 PUBLIC

BAITING HOLLOW 12.0 145 PM 12/27 PUBLIC

SMITHTOWN 11.5 1000 AM 12/27 TRAINED SPOTTER

PORT JEFFERSON 11.0 800 AM 12/27 PUBLIC

DIX HILLS 10.7 900 AM 12/27 TRAINED SPOTTER

ORIENT 10.0 1230 AM 12/27 PUBLIC

FLANDERS 10.0 620 AM 12/27 TRAINED SPOTTER

STONY BROOK 7.3 1000 AM 12/27 TRAINED SPOTTER

MATTITUCK 6.0 1100 AM 12/27 CO-OP OBSERVER

Rich Sickman estimated 15" in North Massapequa, or was it 16". He definitely didn't say anything about 23.5. There are wacky totals all over the place.

It is beyond me how Upton got to 19" with all the good juice well to the west. Upton is the best climo record on LI; they'd better not start clowning with it now.

[Snowshack]

Rich Sickman estimated 15" in North Massapequa, or was it 16". He definitely didn't say anything about 23.5. There are wacky totals all over the place.

It is beyond me how Upton got to 19" with all the good juice well to the west. Upton is the best climo record on LI; they'd better not start clowning with it now.

Mt Sinai at 14" and Sound Beach at 15" give some credibility to Uptons 18", but honestly all those numbers seem high to me living in the same area. Very tough to measure accurately at a residence with this one though. The plow piles around town do not look those of an 18" storm to me, but thats another subjective statement.

[NorthShoreWx]

lol, you know this Ed-- Upton ALWAYS has the highest snowfall totals on Long Island

That is a very worrisome statistic.

[ARyan]

Rich Sickman estimated 15" in North Massapequa, or was it 16". He definitely didn't say anything about 23.5. There are wacky totals all over the place.

It is beyond me how Upton got to 19" with all the good juice well to the west. Upton is the best climo record on LI; they'd better not start clowning with it now.

+1. LI's totals always seem inflated, especially this storm. There's a lot of snow out there but not almost 2' worth, IMO.

[NorthShoreWx]

+1. LI's totals always seem inflated, especially this storm. There's a lot of snow out there but not almost 2' worth, IMO.

That's not a problem that is unique to LI...and for this storm it was expected because of the wind.

Most of us understand that lots of totals are very questionable when viewing reports from the public and even some "trained spotters'. Upton is quasi official and any weenieism there would be a big problem. There has always been a presumption for me that when I see it (Upton statistics), it is accurate. I'm going to ask around more about that 18.8" total.

The 26.3" from last December at first seemed suspect to me, but there is plenty of evidence that it was legit. The same can be said for last night on the central Jersey Coast. The observations may not be dead-on accurate because of the difficulty measuring, but in general this was their Blizzard of 78 (for Monmouth, etc.) ...these things do happen.

However, Upton being at the top of the list every time (or second to the chowderhead from Orient) is concerning.

[ARyan]

That's not a problem that is unique to LI...and for this storm it was expected because of the wind.

Most of us understand that lots of totals are very questionable when viewing reports from the public and even some "trained spotters'. Upton is quasi official and any weenieism there would be a big problem. There has always been a presumption for me that when I see it (Upton statistics), it is accurate. I'm going to ask around more about that 18.8" total.

The 26.3" from last December at first seemed suspect to me, but there is plenty of evidence that it was legit. The same can be said for last night on the central Jersey Coast. The observations may not be dead-on accurate because of the difficulty measuring, but in general this was their Blizzard of 78 (for Monmouth, etc.) ...these things do happen.

However, Upton being at the top of the list every time (or second to the chowderhead from Orient) is concerning.

This was what I was hinting at. And I understand the wind was a problem, I had trouble myself, which was why was very conservative reporting to OKX. But the radar doesn't support totals above 20", most of LI was in subsidence behind the "megaband" for the most part. Also the wind caused the snow to fall as a light, powdery snowfall rather than the airy and fluffy stuff in Jersey. That will bring down the accumulations a lot. Doesn't mean we didn't get a lot of snow, just not extreme amounts.

I don't doubt the totals in Jersey. They without a doubt got hammered.

[NorthShoreWx]

This was what I was hinting at. And I understand the wind was a problem, I had trouble myself, which was why was very conservative reporting to OKX. But the radar doesn't support totals above 20", most of LI was in subsidence behind the "megaband" for the most part. Also the wind caused the snow to fall as a light, powdery snowfall rather than the airy and fluffy stuff in Jersey. That will bring down the accumulations a lot. Doesn't mean we didn't get a lot of snow, just not extreme amounts.

I don't doubt the totals in Jersey. They without a doubt got hammered.

Agreed.

Definitely crappy snowflakes here for the most part. Also ISP reported 14.2" with two hours of sleet observed during the storm. I think the sleet obs may be bogus ASOS stuff, but if they are not, no way did ISP get 14"

BTW, which town are you measuring snowfall in?

[ARyan]

Agreed.

Definitely crappy snowflakes here for the most part. Also ISP reported 14.2" with two hours of sleet observed during the storm. I think the sleet obs may be bogus ASOS stuff, but if they are not, no way did ISP get 14"

BTW, which town are you measuring snowfall in?

The sleet obs are probably legit, we got periods of sleet here. I was measuring in Rockville Centre.

[NorthShoreWx]

The sleet obs are probably legit, we got periods of sleet here. I was measuring in Rockville Centre.

RVC was a much better place to be for this storm than Upton (or Smithtown). I was out in much of the storm and there was no sleet here, but plenty of graupel, so it was close.

[jm1220]

The totals above 20 or 21" in Nassau are likely suspect given the drifting and blowing snow from trees/roofs. Given the radar, I doubt anyone in the county got over that amount, and I doubt anyone in Suffolk got over 16" given the radar appearance. We had a better storm overall than Suffolk did, but western NYC and NJ had much better banding set up over them for longer. The areas that seemed to get hit hardest based on radar seemed to actually be over SW Nassau. And I will definitely attest to the extreme snowfall rates and wind between 2:30 and 5:30am here. A spotter measured 16" here at 2:30am (and this spotter usually measures conservatively). Based on the snow after that, we might have made it to 20". It was very hard for me to measure accurately but that was my guess as well.

[NorthShoreWx]

The totals above 20 or 21" in Nassau are likely suspect given the drifting and blowing snow from trees/roofs. Given the radar, I doubt anyone in the county got over that amount, and I doubt anyone in Suffolk got over 16" given the radar appearance. We had a better storm overall than Suffolk did, but western NYC and NJ had much better banding set up over them for longer. The areas that seemed to get hit hardest based on radar seemed to actually be over SW Nassau. And I will definitely attest to the extreme snowfall rates and wind between 2:30 and 5:30am here. A spotter measured 16" here at 2:30am (and this spotter usually measures conservatively). Based on the snow after that, we might have made it to 20". It was very hard for me to measure accurately but that was my guess as well.

I noticed that the radar looked very healthy for southern Nassau west of the Wantagh. That was a curious little band that persisted there.

[NorthShoreWx]

Let's keep one thing in mind...those three straight 60"+ seasons in the early 2000's were not recorded by anyone affiliated with NWS OKX. The NWS has only been taking the measurements since my personal intervention / request starting with the 2008-09 winter. All previous years (and all those big years) were recorded by Brookhaven National Lab meteorologists, not the NWS OKX.

I wasn't taking "always" literally although perhaps Alex was despite the tongue-in-cheek nature of his post.

Part of the problem with publishing the PNS is that someone sees a high total nearby and concludes that validates his measurement in a drift and submits the total. Then a guy in the town on the other side does the same thing and so on. Its a form of mass hysteria. It bothers me because I do the LI snowfall maps and have a tough time analyzing / separating the legit high totals (e.g., due to banding) vs. the inflated totals.

[patrick05]

Agreed.

Definitely crappy snowflakes here for the most part. Also ISP reported 14.2" with two hours of sleet observed during the storm. I think the sleet obs may be bogus ASOS stuff, but if they are not, no way did ISP get 14"

BTW, which town are you measuring snowfall in?

what do you think about the 12.5" i got, is it too high?? (it was included in the PNS ).... i was actually surprised to see KISP reporting 14"; i was satisfied with their 13 inch report in the morning...

i didn't really notice any sleet here although it was very windy all throughout so couldn't really distinguish...

[tmagan]

News 12 LI's Bill Korbel just called the storm biblical in nature.