ok folks..where do we rate this blizzard all time?

[Chris L]

Reading all the replies, I just have 1 thing to say...

I feel sorry for those too young to remember the Blizzard of '96. Obviously I am in Florida so I didn't experience this storm. But from what I'm hearing, older people have '96 ahead of this storm. As good as this storm was, imagine a BETTER one? That's the Blizzard of '96.

I gotta say this: Just a extra 6 hours of this storm, would have put the enitre Metro in the 30 plus range..... so, if any storm would beat '96, it would be this one....

But, 1996 is the KING as for as duration, no argument there.

[Vandy]

Reading all the replies, I just have 1 thing to say...

I feel sorry for those too young to remember the Blizzard of '96. Obviously I am in Florida so I didn't experience this storm. But from what I'm hearing, older people have '96 ahead of this storm. As good as this storm was, imagine a BETTER one? That's the Blizzard of '96.

I missed the three big storms in Philly last year (killed me!), but I was just old enough to comprehend the significance of 1996. Most amazing storm of my my life. I'll never forget it. We got 30+ inches and we had two-four hours of sleet. Oh what could have been! Just a monster in Philadelphia.

I can credit that storm as being the one of the main reasons I have a meteorology degree now.

[Absolute Humidity]

Jan 7 1996 is still king, but not by much. The storm lasted for 30 plus hours with temps in the low to mid teens and affect a much larger area with 2 feet plus. That being said, this storm is defanately # 2. Never have I seen a storm with sustained blizzard conditions for so long, crazy deform banding, one after another all night long. Usually you get one big band setup over an area and snow itself out, this storm had many mega bands coming of the ocean from due east to west, just pounding and pounding with excellent winds in excess of 35 mph sustained and temps in the low twenties - true old scale blizzard conditions. I even missed my own street driving in my 4 X last night it was coming down so hard. The mall lots looked as if there was a power fail because it was real dark, but those huge flood lights were on, the heavy snow was actually drowning out their light. Accumulation wise, I still have no idea what really fell and I doubt anyone in this event can get a real reading with the drifting. 96 was fairly easy to measure. This storm, I can only estimate between the mean average of the high and low snow plateaus, not encluding the huge drifts or the bare spots. Generally my estimate was 27" but that could be a bit too high or to low. That being said, it's just one inch shy of 1996. Also, the huge guidance bust was quite remarkable, to have every global model back off on a storm at day medium range, then have the GFS bring it back and watch every model including the great euro fold to the GFS was quite the show. As far as modeling goes- GFS wins this one hands down as it was the first to have the storm in at day 8. GFS wins.

KU rating..... Has to be a 3 or 4. Probibly a low 4, I know. Many folks saying the areal coverage was not great, true but from southern Virgina to Maine coastal areas upto 75 mi or so inland saw at least 10" with half of NJ and NYC in to parts of new England saw 20" +. Over all some 35 million peeps saw 10" or more.

[Wxnyc]

This blizzard will go down as historic because of the terrible response and cleanup effort if nothing else. Look at the media the mayor is getting blamed and this is going to coat him. Headline like these wont help much-New York - EMS Head: I Havn't Seen a More Difficult Emergency Situation “since 9-11.”

[A-L-E-X]

One of the most interesting and exiting storms in my lifetime, because (as noted by CATSANDREW), of the intensity of it between about 6PM and 1AM. The high rates of snowfall combined with high wind speeds, sustained from 25 to 35mph with gusts reaching 50mph, resulting in an incredible visual feast of heavily falling snow with the extensive blowing of it, with visibilities occasionally approaching 0. What may distinquish this one from some of the other top ones (Dec. 1960, Feb. 1978, Jan. 1996 and Jan. 2005), was the continuous nature of these conditions without interruptions during the above time period - there were no lulls, that heavy snow band remained stationary over my area during this entire period. It was also appealing because there were no mixing issues. This was a pure and cold snowfall from beginning to end. During this period, I also noticed that whenever I either opened my door or stepped outside, the air was so permeated with blowing and falling snow that I couldn't help immediately inhaling it into my nose or mouth, and needed to turn my head away from the direction of the wind in order to be able to manuever.

It makes me wonder whether similar conditions were encountered during the Blizzard of 1888 in terms of intensity of the snowfall rates and the amount of blowing of the snow from the winds (though I realize that during the Blizzard of 1888, the temperatures were about 10 to 15 degrees colder with even higher wind speeds), and the blizzards that take place in the Northern Plains and the Canadian Maritimes.

I also had the sense that had last nights conditions persisted for another 6 to 12 hours, things would have really become dangerous here, and NYC would have become temporarily crippled.

On the other hand, I was disappointed that it didn't last at least 24 hours and cover a more extensive area like a number of other great northeasters did, i.e. Jan. 1996, or PD1. Nevertheless, this storm could potentially make my top 5, but I'll need some time to more fully digest it, before making a final conclusion.

One side note and reality check, you also have to pay a price for these great events because of the disruptions they cause to your personal life, i.e. my car is entombed on a side street in my area because it is still unpaved.

You have to include Feb 1983 which also gave hours upon hours of very heavy thundersnow and Feb 1961 and Feb 1969-- all of which dropped 2 feet of snow here. Feb 1969 is a good analog in terms of the city's response time!

From first flake to last flake it actually did last 24 hours here

[A-L-E-X]

I gotta say this: Just a extra 6 hours of this storm, would have put the enitre Metro in the 30 plus range..... so, if any storm would beat '96, it would be this one....

But, 1996 is the KING as for as duration, no argument there.

that megaband needed to be just 20 miles wider

[A-L-E-X]

in woodmere over the past 6 years #1...nothing even close.

over the past 35 years, taking snow, wind, overall conditions...this probably ranks 3rd behind 1978 and 1996.

The Euro was the champ here. It deviated for 2 or 3 runs but it had it lock,stock, barrel for like 8 runs in a row....GFS took over inside 72 hours.

but this might go down as my fav...as I found my Blackberry, in working condition, after being at the bottom of 22" of snow ALL NIGHT

Glad you found your BB!

Its great to see some consistency between the measurements, though, so it seems like we all probably got somewhere between 19-24 inches in SW Nassau-- just think-- had that band which reached into Staten Island and SW Brooklyn expanded just 20 miles east-- we would have gotten 25-30 inches

[dwang0725]

Definitely behind 1996 and even 2003, but better than Mar 2001

[Bluescat1]

The storms of the early 60's seemed like good wind driven snows with big drifts, that being said my legs were a lot shorter then.

Feb 78 was up there as well as Feb 83.

The big one for me was Jan 96 I had 30 inches in Trenton despite less at the airport.

This last storm had the most impact since Jan 96 around here in terms of people trying to dig out due to all of the drifting. Although we had around 14 inches the drifts added up to several feet in spots. I had around 7 cars stuck in front of my house yesterday and that hasn't happened in a long time.

[Jefflaw77]

i can't say enough how happy I am for all of you.. but this storm from Central Nassau East, just wasn't that amazing, snow wise.. Windwise, yes it was great - If you like a lot of wind-

The snow was never really super heavy in nature.. In fact the snow wasn't beautiful dentrites at all.. I assume the atmosphere above Central LI wasn't as conducive as it was further west, for "perfect snow"

Anyhow, this ranks probably as a top 10 snow for central LI.. I am really suspect of those totals east of western suffolk.. But what do i know.. I still can't blieve those pictures from NYC though, truly a crippling snowstorm..

jeff

[Dsnowx53]

Really?? When I measured last night around midnight, I measured 12"+ drifts but I figured the average was around 11" since I couldn't find a true and accurate spot to measure. I have no idea how much snow fell overnight but I have doubts that we reached 19".

Anyway this storm is on my top 10 simply due to the winds. Absolutely stunning. I don't really remember 1996 since I was too young, so PD II is my all time top storm.

It basically snowed at ~1"/hr for the entire overnight.

[SnowGoose69]

Better than 1996 because I was screwed, not as good as PDII but better than 12/09, the only reason it was better than that one is because I was in NYC this time, had I been on LI where I was last December this one would have lost...I got about 5-6 inches more here in NYC than LI and had thunder and lightning.....my families house in SE Nassau only got 16 from this one, we got 17.6 last December.

[Dsnowx53]

Better than 1996 because I was screwed, not as good as PDII but better than 12/09, the only reason it was better than that one is because I was in NYC this time, had I been on LI where I was last December this one would have lost...I got about 5-6 inches more here in NYC than LI and had thunder and lightning.....my families house in SE Nassau only got 16 from this one, we got 17.6 last December.

For once, it was the closer you were to NYC, the more snow you got for Long Island areas. Nassau (in general) beat Suffolk for once!

[SnowGoose69]

For once, it was the closer you were to NYC, the more snow you got for Long Island areas. Nassau (in general) beat Suffolk for once!

It made no sense either because the low took a track far enough east overall that the heavier bands should have been more over LI given how deep of a system it was.....I don't have the maps of the 700/850 lows but I'm thinking the system was a bit less vertically stacked in the late PM/evening than I thought it would be, resulting the 850/700 lows being more west towards the NJ coast.

[nycwinter]

_{i remember 1996 quite vividly..i remember watching the weather chanel and in 1 hour la guardia airport got 4 inches of snow}..i also recall it was the first time the mail was not delivered..i live in the upper east side..and going out the next day the snow was up to my knees...where i live we had more snow than in this past storm...but this storm was more intense..i basically looked out my window at 4;oo pm really to 4'00 am and the snow was falling hard all the time..and the wind was blowing it all over the place..and all the trouble from transportation to plowing streets this storm is number 1 for me !

[A-L-E-X]

Better than 1996 because I was screwed, not as good as PDII but better than 12/09, the only reason it was better than that one is because I was in NYC this time, had I been on LI where I was last December this one would have lost...I got about 5-6 inches more here in NYC than LI and had thunder and lightning.....my families house in SE Nassau only got 16 from this one, we got 17.6 last December.

You got screwed in 1996, SG? I thought everyone had 20+ inches in that one!

After some thought, Im ranking it #4 in terms of overall impact (and also accumulations):

1) January 1996

2) PD2 February 2003

3) February 1983

4) December 2010

[_AR_]

On a scale of one to ten how would I rate it for my area?

1

[NortheastPAWx]

On a scale of one to ten how would I rate it for my area?

1

Yep, the snow we got is about a dime a dozen, while 75 miles to our east they got a for the ages event.

That was the theme of last winter until 2/10. Historical snows nearby while we got dime a dozen snows.

[VicV]

top five for me...Now you know what the blizzard on Dec. 11-12th, 1960 was like...

I would agree and also add that the Feb 3,4 1961 storm was just as intense

[NJHurricane]

Yep, the snow we got is about a dime a dozen, while 75 miles to our east they got a for the ages event.

That was the theme of last winter until 2/10. Historical snows nearby while we got dime a dozen snows.

We'll let Kocin know not to rate this storm since it didn't bury Hazelton.

[earthlight]

Still getting a ton of reports via email through the blog but here is a preliminary storm total contour map. We will have a 300+image archive up shortly.

[eduggs]

In the mid-hudson valley of SENY I would rate this very close to but just above Xmas 2002. The wind and snow were similar, although that one began as rain/sleet. But I would also rate this behind last Feb's retrograde storm, which dumped more than 20" throughout this area, and over 30" in the higher terrain (much less just to the east). Storm damage up here was minor compared to last year's devastation.

Overall for the tri-state I'd put this just inside the top 10 since 1960. Excessive snowfall was too geographically confined to be truly great and the duration was only moderate.

[CAT5ANDREW]

What made this storm stand out was the continued 55-60MPH wind gust for much of yesterday with bright sunshine causing ground blizzards well after the storm ended.THAT in of itself was amazing.

[nzucker]

In the mid-hudson valley of SENY I would rate this very close to but just above Xmas 2002. The wind and snow were similar, although that one began as rain/sleet. But I would also rate this behind last Feb's retrograde storm, which dumped more than 20" throughout this area, and over 30" in the higher terrain (much less just to the east). Storm damage up here was minor compared to last year's devastation.

Overall for the tri-state I'd put this just inside the top 10 since 1960. Excessive snowfall was too geographically confined to be truly great and the duration was only moderate.

Strongly agree with everything you said...XMAS 2002 was an excellent storm at my house at 350' in Dobbs Ferry. We had about 11" that day, and it was the whitest Christmas of my entire life. My aunt and uncle were driving down from Albany to celebrate Christmas with us; it took them almost six hours to arrive instead of the usual two-hour trip on I-87. Very memorable day and one that wasn't expected to be snowy in Southern Westchester, as many forecasters thought the event would be mostly rain here. We were fortunate with the heavy banding stalling over us and inciting dynamic cooling of the column.

March 1960 was a top storm for Westchester; I believe 32" was reported in White Plains or Dobbs Ferry, can't remember which. Westchester has had many better storms since 1960 than the current event including: March 1960, December 1960, February 1961, February 1969, February 1978, February 1983, March 1993, January 1996, February 2003, February 2006, and February 2010 (2/25 Snowicane). This was definitely a Top 20 event when one factors in the excessive winds, but not nearly inside the top 10 for Southern Westchester. Still an exciting storm to track, however, with tons of suspense regarding whether it would go out to sea and where the mega-band would set up.

[Alpha5]

Still getting a ton of reports via email through the blog but here is a preliminary storm total contour map. We will have a 300+image archive up shortly.

SW CT is way off, although the NWS reported 17" for Greenwich, I as well as another poster here got nothing close to that. I had around 14-15 and I know other parts of the area such as Darien had similar amounts.

There has been a rouge reporter in the region that has been reporting very high totals...this started last year and has continued to this year. The guy must be measuring in drifts.

[nzucker]

SW CT is way off, although the NWS reported 17" for Greenwich, I as well as another poster here got nothing close to that. I had around 14-15 and I know other parts of the area such as Darien had similar amounts.

There has been a rouge reporter in the region that has been reporting very high totals...this started last year and has continued to this year. The guy must be measuring in drifts.

I honestly think a lot of the totals in Westchester are excessive, too. Hastings reported 18" and Yonkers reported 20", but I doubt they really had that much. It was hard to measure, but I came up with 13" total for Dobbs Ferry; places farther south certainly had a bit more but 18-20" seems a lot especially looking back at the subsidence zone in radar loops outside the mega-band. My measurements have been generally in agreement with the other totals in the area, but I felt this storm was overestimated in Westchester.

[toad strangler]

I have alot of friends and family in Monmouth and Ocean County NJ that I left behind 15 months ago. The general thoughts coming out of there is that this storm is the one to compare to Jan 96 but not quite equal. Feb 78 stands out the most for me because I was just 9 years old and it made such an impression. January 1996 was out of control on so many levels ......... but alas, I am a loser living in FL now and have missed four great storms since I left. Where are the days that four great storms happen in a 12 year period and not in 13 months?

[eduggs]

Here's a precip estimate from NWS Albany. It doesn't appear to match up so great with what I remember from the radar in our region (although it looks good for Putnam near my location)... maybe the estimate is based only on their radar.

http://www.erh.noaa....2ZDec272010.jpg

Note: this is only a 1 day estimate so it doesn't include several hours at the beginning of the event.

[green tube]

for those of us who ended up with 20 inches (or so)....... i'd say this storm was most like feb 1983.

duration and intensity and wind were very similar.

both are great storms... but 96 still soundly wins at my location.

[jm1220]

Still getting a ton of reports via email through the blog but here is a preliminary storm total contour map. We will have a 300+image archive up shortly.

I'd put the area of Nassau you have in 21-24 in 18-21. I'm still doubting the near 24" reports we have in the county. From most people I've heard from who have driven into Long Beach or seen it in comparison to other towns further east in Nassau, it's about unanimous that we have more than they do, and my/Alex/Dsnowx's estimates were all around 20".