Fozz

When was the last sustained -NAO in a winter month? March 2018?

Depends on other factors. If it's one HECS in an otherwise warm winter, while getting 4 moderate storms happens in a sustained cold period, then yeah I'd agree. But if each of those 6" storms melt in a day or two, I don't see that as any better than just getting one HECS.

Some guys around my age actually cried when it busted. Probably 11-13 years old at the time, so it's understandable. Also I was told that John Bolaris will never live down all his hyping of that March storm that never happened. I lived near Baltimore at the time and grew up there, and I do remember the December 2000 storm. I wasn't emotionally invested in it since I was not yet into winter weather, but that was actually another bust in the mid-Atlantic. I think the forecasts called for 8-12", something major, but the precip shield ended up being so compact that it completely bypassed the area. Philly ended up with 9" and was right near the edge, but Wilmington received only an inch or two. DC and Baltimore did not get a single flake. And then a few months later we all know what happened.

Thank goodness March 2001 happened just before I started paying attention to winter weather. I would've been heartbroken.

Ji is the kind of character you'll just have to get used to. Even winter 2009-10 wasn't cold enough nor long lasting enough to please him, even though Snowmageddon gave him almost 3' of snow. Most likely it's an act, but the most we can do is speculate.

I still miss that winter. It snowed almost every week from northern MD to Philly. Great winter for the whole northeast, and very cold too, unlike 2009-10.

Yep, he bought a place in Randolph, NH and it seems like he will be spending his winters up there.

The latest GFS shows an incredible amount of snow in western MD and Canaan Valley throughout the run. Wave after wave of heavy upslope.

NYC’s average is more like 28” so 90% would be around 25”. I think after last winter most reasonable NYC posters would be quite happy with that.

Damn I missed it.

I have some very fond memories of February 2013 when I came up north to chase that storm, years before I moved to the area. 27". Uxbridge, MA

The 500 mb composite seems to indicate a combination of some decent years (1965, 2009) and some years. Let's hope it's at least much better than last year. Well done and good luck Ray!

It will be hard for the mountains of VT and Maine to get a whole lot of skiers if those states keep their COVID travel restrictions in place. NH seems more lenient. Of course, we can only guess what the situation will look like in the winter.

I've been looking for that kind of map for ages, thanks for posting it. As you can see it shows an especially sharp gradient in Worcester county, and on a number of trips the snow cover increased fast once I made my way to NH.

You're saying this as if the -NAO were some limited resource that we have to conserve. I don't think it works that way.

Now that I'm up here, I've suddenly lost any desire that I once had to see a repeat of 2009-10

Marcus was too far north to get much on 1/30/2010. But the closer burbs of Baltimore did great. 4-7". And after that there was yet another moderate storm just a few days before the big one. A quick 3-6" of wet snow on Feb 3 or 4. Hardly anyone paid much attention to it considering what was to come, but it was another nice appetizer. And then the rest was history.

Yeah 35-37" was right around what my depth was after receiving 45" from the two storms. BWI had similar totals, and they too had that depth. I guess at some point the compression of the snowpack becomes too hard to avoid. Even that crazy Buffalo LES storm in Christmas 2001, which was known to have "7 feet of snow" (81.5" to be exact), never had anywhere near that depth, though to be fair LES is a bit "fake". Their max depth was 44", which wasn't much different from the jackpot areas of MD in Feb 2010.

The whole winter, and especially that 12 day period from Jan 30 to Feb 10 was really hard to believe throughout the region. The Philly burbs were a bit warmer than central/northern MD in the second storm IIRC, since you were closer to the surface low, so ratios may have not been as crazy. Still very impressive totals. Some people say that Snowmageddon was a once in a lifetime storm. I wouldn't agree about that one storm alone, since it was equalled by the super Nino blizzard of 2016. But that whole period of Feb 2010 with the two back to back HECS was truly one of a kind.

I was lucky enough to catch this footage at the height of the second February 2010 storm in MD. Still my all time favorite.

The first storm (Feb 5-6) had the typical mid-Atlantic wet snow, but second storm (Feb 9-10) actually gave us high ratio powder with temps in the lower 20s, especially once the low bombed the morning of the 10th. The whole Baltimore area was in the perfect spot for the deform band and far enough from the surface low for temps to really plummet (I recall NJ mixing lol). It was an incredible scene.

Some of the hills of Carroll County, MD (esp the good spots of Parr's ridge) had close to 50" of depth after the second February blizzard (Feb 9-10, 2010). We basically had two back to back HECS within just days of each other (Feb 5-6 and then Feb 9-10), and incredibly some of those lucky spots received over 2' from both storms each. Those areas are the ones that ended up with 100" for the season. I lived in the same county as Phin (Baltimore county), a bit WNW of him just north of the beltway, and ended up with around 85" for the season with 3' max depth on Feb 10. The totals from the big February storms were 25" and then 20". An incredible event.

I’m surprised they’ve reported more snow than even Pinkham Notch at 2000’, which has a 10 year average around 140-150”. Not sure which numbers to believe, or whether Randolph has some special upslope.

Wasn't that storm more of a bust for the mid-Atlantic? It was supposed to be a big one in DC/Baltimore, probably 8-12" or so, but then it bypassed us completely while NYC and Philly ended the millennium with a major storm. I'm guessing up this way it may have tracked too close and become a rainer. It was a very compact storm.

Honestly I am a bit jealous. Gotta work hard for the next 10 years I guess.