Pittsburgh/Western PA Winter 2024-2025 Thread

[TimB]

12 hours ago, Burghblizz said:

Eventful day with flooding, 50 MPH wind gusts, mini-paste bomb and now snow squalls.

NWS total will make a run at 3” (thought I saw 2.6” so far)

Will probably wind up over 5” since yesterday. Great winter scenes this weekend - just crappy the first batch got washed away. 

I find it hard to believe that the NWS recorded zero measurable snow between their 2.6” obs at 7pm and their daily climo report at midnight, considering there was about an hour with one mile visibility, but that’s what is being reported.

[Burghblizz]

12 minutes ago, TimB said:

I find it hard to believe that the NWS recorded zero measurable snow between their 2.6” obs at 7pm and their daily climo report at midnight, considering there was about an hour with one mile visibility, but that’s what is being reported.

Does seem to be some snow “missing”.

Even the current season to date total went from 24” to 26.6” as of this morning.

Some of the heavier stuff last night seemed to straddle the airport, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that is adjusted. Saw another report from Moon of 3.5”.

[TimB]

11 minutes ago, Burghblizz said:

Does seem to be some snow “missing”.

Even the current season to date total went from 24” to 26.6” as of this morning.

Some of the heavier stuff last night seemed to straddle the airport, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that is adjusted. Saw another report from Moon of 3.5”.

Plausible deniability. Since the temp/precip obs are taken at the airport and the snowfall measurement is done at the NWS office a few miles away, it’s possible that there was no measurable snow at the office between 7pm and midnight.

[SteelCity87]

I find it hard to believe that the NWS recorded zero measurable snow between their 2.6” obs at 7pm and their daily climo report at midnight, considering there was about an hour with one mile visibility, but that’s what is being reported.

There's no chance. I picked up at least 1" in that time in Crafton and a lot of that swath traveled through Moon as well.

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

[jwilson]

Models have intermittently teased a warm up, but with the 12Z suite, I'm not seeing anything extensive.

GFS is most aggressive at the very end of its run in early March, but that's only three days or so.  Seasonal trend has definitely been staggered and brief warmups followed by more seasonal cold.  I guess if that continues, we wait on spring and have snow chances on occasion.

[TheClimateChanger]

On 2/17/2025 at 8:12 AM, Burghblizz said:

Does seem to be some snow “missing”.

Even the current season to date total went from 24” to 26.6” as of this morning.

Some of the heavier stuff last night seemed to straddle the airport, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that is adjusted. Saw another report from Moon of 3.5”.

I think the 3.5" was the total from the NWS. They reported 2.6" on the 16th, and then 0.9" on the 17th, so that would line up with the 24-hour report of 3.5" as of 7 am yesterday.

[TheClimateChanger]

On 2/17/2025 at 7:57 AM, TimB said:

I find it hard to believe that the NWS recorded zero measurable snow between their 2.6” obs at 7pm and their daily climo report at midnight, considering there was about an hour with one mile visibility, but that’s what is being reported.

Was the report from 7 pm for sure? Technically, it is possible for it to snow but not result in any additional accumulation if the earlier report was an interim report. Snowfall guidelines say the accumulation is the maximum depth on the snow board in the 6-hour period. So, it could be possible that the depth was 2.6" on the snow board and additional snow fell over the six-hour period but the depth never exceeded 2.6" until the snow board was cleared due to compaction of the earlier fallen snow.

Also, as you noted, snowfall and snow depth are recorded at the NWS office, which is close to the airport but not on the airport grounds.

[TheClimateChanger]

Overall, you can't complain about how this worked out. Last week, it looked as though Chicago and Detroit were going to get lots of snow from this, and then the East Coast was going to get hammered by a blizzard later this week. In fact, Chicago saw little snowfall and Pittsburgh wound up with more snow than Detroit (although the first wave, of course, melted off here). And the East Coast is not getting a blizzard.

[Rd9108]

18 minutes ago, TheClimateChanger said:

Overall, you can't complain about how this worked out. Last week, it looked as though Chicago and Detroit were going to get lots of snow from this, and then the East Coast was going to get hammered by a blizzard later this week. In fact, Chicago saw little snowfall and Pittsburgh wound up with more snow than Detroit (although the first wave, of course, melted off here). And the East Coast is not getting a blizzard.

I agree but lets just play devils advocate. Some of the solutions with stronger phased lows threw snow back our way. We've seen how we can score in weird set ups and even if the east coast got 12-24 and we only got 3-6/4-8 I'd call that a win. Anyway I'm hoping for a repeat of this in march.

[Rd9108]

[Burghblizz]

On 2/17/2025 at 8:12 AM, Burghblizz said:

Does seem to be some snow “missing”.

Even the current season to date total went from 24” to 26.6” as of this morning.

Some of the heavier stuff last night seemed to straddle the airport, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that is adjusted. Saw another report from Moon of 3.5”.

Crisis averted! Total updated to 27.9”. So call it an extra 1.3” for that missing period, and 3.9”  total for that second Sunday batch. 

[RitualOfTheTrout]

17 hours ago, Rd9108 said:

What could go wrong? 

Rather see it than not. Would be a great end to winter if we can manage a warning criteria event in the next couple weeks.

[Rd9108]

This will verify 100%. We all know its true.

 

[jwilson]

Everyone can take a week off.  Going to be quiet for a little.

If another -EPO develops like the ensembles are showing, we're going to get more cold air in early March.  Question is if anything becomes of that, but I think that regime prefers the cold & dry formulation we've seen already this winter.

I'm still chasing a big storm.  Little nuisance snows at this time of the year aren't of interest.  They're fine in November and December when setting the holiday mood.

[Burghblizz]

Some briefly insane snow rates with these squalls cutting through southern Butler Co and Northern AGC.

Doesn’t last long - but cool to look at (or worth watching out for if driving)

[RitualOfTheTrout]

1 hour ago, Burghblizz said:

Some briefly insane snow rates with these squalls cutting through southern Butler Co and Northern AGC.

Doesn’t last long - but cool to look at (or worth watching out for if driving)

Had one blow through here, lasted almost 10 minutes. Snow was legit heavy. Looks like another round moving in now.

[RitualOfTheTrout]

1 hour ago, jwilson said:

Everyone can take a week off.  Going to be quiet for a little.

If another -EPO develops like the ensembles are showing, we're going to get more cold air in early March.  Question is if anything becomes of that, but I think that regime prefers the cold & dry formulation we've seen already this winter.

I'm still chasing a big storm.  Little nuisance snows at this time of the year aren't of interest.  They're fine in November and December when setting the holiday mood.

I enjoy the little snows, especially if it stays cold with snow on snow. That being said we are about at the end of realistically keeping snow on the ground so by early March Im much more interested in a bigger storm.

Jeff V had a stat today our largest daily snowfall is 2.6 inches (midnight - midnight) and that was last weekend.

[Rd9108]

41 minutes ago, RitualOfTheTrout said:

I enjoy the little snows, especially if it stays cold with snow on snow. That being said we are about at the end of realistically keeping snow on the ground so by early March Im much more interested in a bigger storm.

Jeff V had a stat today our largest daily snowfall is 2.6 inches (midnight - midnight) and that was last weekend.

And idt we've had anything bigger than 3 in a few years now. We'll since 2022 apparently

 

Inches Date Centi­metres

2.2 January 22, 2023 5.6

8.0 March 12, 2022 20.3

4.5 January 31, 2021 11.4

9.3 December 16, 2020 23.6

4.2 February 20, 2019 10.7

8.7 March 21, 2018 22.1

3.2 March 10, 2017 + 8.1

4.7 January 12, 2016 11.9

4.3 January 26, 2015 10.9

5.2 January 25, 2014 13.2

5.0 March 06, 2013 12.7

5.2 February 11, 2012 13.2

7.9 February 21, 2011 20.1

11.4 February 05, 2010 29.0

 

[jwilson]

3 hours ago, RitualOfTheTrout said:

I enjoy the little snows, especially if it stays cold with snow on snow. That being said we are about at the end of realistically keeping snow on the ground so by early March Im much more interested in a bigger storm.

Jeff V had a stat today our largest daily snowfall is 2.6 inches (midnight - midnight) and that was last weekend.

Haven't seen a double-digit synoptic event since 2016.  I'm guessing next year it continues if we have another La Nina, which makes 10 years and probably the longest I've gone in my life without such an event.

Growing up, I remember 1993, 1996, and 2003 most notably.  Since then was 2009-10 and 2016.  I'm starting to itch like an addict, lol.

[Rd9108]

20 minutes ago, jwilson said:

Haven't seen a double-digit synoptic event since 2016.  I'm guessing next year it continues if we have another La Nina, which makes 10 years and probably the longest I've gone in my life without such an event.

Growing up, I remember 1993, 1996, and 2003 most notably.  Since then was 2009-10 and 2016.  I'm starting to itch like an addict, lol.

What about 94 did that miss you?

[Burghblizz]

1 hour ago, jwilson said:

Haven't seen a double-digit synoptic event since 2016.  I'm guessing next year it continues if we have another La Nina, which makes 10 years and probably the longest I've gone in my life without such an event.

Growing up, I remember 1993, 1996, and 2003 most notably.  Since then was 2009-10 and 2016.  I'm starting to itch like an addict, lol.

Those calendar day totals  underestimate a bit. 2018 was over 11”.  Dec 2020 was as well. That airport total wasn’t too representative. Solid foot in many places. 

[RitualOfTheTrout]

8 hours ago, Burghblizz said:

Those calendar day totals  underestimate a bit. 2018 was over 11”.  Dec 2020 was as well. That airport total wasn’t too representative. Solid foot in many places. 

Yeah, I was going to say December 2020 was definitely double digits. I got stuck at work with an issue that day and drove home after 11pm so that one sticks out but must be skewed by the "single daily" total.

That makes it more like 4 years which I'd say is more inline with our statistical odds of that type of event. It doesn't do anything to satisfy the big storm itch though.

[north pgh]

I picked up 1 inch yesterday and another inch early this morning. 
I think NWS Pittsburgh has done a poor job with these overnight snow showers lately. My daughter had to drive to the airport at 5 this morning and I told her the roads should be fine. They said Snow was tapering off to flurries last night but things got going again this morning.  I know it’s not easy but it seems the inch or less forecast comes out after an inch falls in these little events. 

[Burghblizz]

6 minutes ago, north pgh said:

I picked up 1 inch yesterday and another inch early this morning. 
I think NWS Pittsburgh has done a poor job with these overnight snow showers lately. My daughter had to drive to the airport at 5 this morning and I told her the roads should be fine. They said Snow was tapering off to flurries last night but things got going again this morning.  I know it’s not easy but it seems the inch or less forecast comes out after an inch falls in these little events. 

I agree, and it’s not like other outlets have really been on them either. Several times this year I’ve been with people that were complaining about “not knowing it was going to snow”. From a weenie perspective, I can’t complain as to how they have delivered. 

[TimB]

A bit cherry picked, as we’ll have lows above freezing next week, but the only day in 2025 that PIT has had a low above freezing was 1/31. This will be the only calendar year on record that has had 53 out of 54 lows <= 32 from 1/1 through 2/23.

[Burghblizz]

1 hour ago, TimB said:

A bit cherry picked, as we’ll have lows above freezing next week, but the only day in 2025 that PIT has had a low above freezing was 1/31. This will be the only calendar year on record that has had 53 out of 54 lows <= 32 from 1/1 through 2/23.

Real interesting stat. Could be another reason why the average person is so “sick of winter and all this snow”, even as we still are itching for a bigger storm. 

[TimB]

1 hour ago, Burghblizz said:

Real interesting stat. Could be another reason why the average person is so “sick of winter and all this snow”, even as we still are itching for a bigger storm. 

It’s largely been a winter that has looked, felt, and behaved like winter. Not particularly cold, not particularly snowy, but consistently cold and snowy. A large number of days with snow in the air and a large number of days with snow on the ground.

[jwilson]

15 hours ago, Rd9108 said:

What about 94 did that miss you?

'94 I was in Philly, so I don't remember a storm of any significance then.

2020 was technically double-digits, as you all pointed out.  I forgot and double-checked my notes, and we hit 10.5" locally.  True that qualifies, it was kind of a freak thing and quite localized because of the CCB.

2018 I was in Morgantown and I didn't get anywhere near what Pittsburgh did for that event?  I don't even remember it at all.  Biggest storm I had that winter was 3" locally.

Let me add: those others storms I mentioned were all closer to two feet than simply double-digits, so I think my bar is probably a little higher than normal!

[Rd9108]

1 hour ago, jwilson said:

'94 I was in Philly, so I don't remember a storm of any significance then.

2020 was technically double-digits, as you all pointed out.  I forgot and double-checked my notes, and we hit 10.5" locally.  True that qualifies, it was kind of a freak thing and quite localized because of the CCB.

2018 I was in Morgantown and I didn't get anywhere near what Pittsburgh did for that event?  I don't even remember it at all.  Biggest storm I had that winter was 3" locally.

Let me add: those others storms I mentioned were all closer to two feet than simply double-digits, so I think my bar is probably a little higher than normal!

2018 was the infamous upper level low that just aimed a fire hose right at agh county and we may have gotten more than Philly even though it was a coastal low.