das

 Wow, the (elevated) Whitehurst Freeway in DC is hard packed ice. It looks wet from the IP/RA mix but is really packed ice. Car thermometer says 32°F

 First IP mixing in in Gaithersburg so it looks like the transition zone is halfway downcounty here in MoCo. 80/20 mix of SN/IP and the dendrite clusters are massive.  30°F on the car thermo. 

9 minutes ago, mappy said:

coming down now, instantly sticking to the deck and grass. no sleet, all snow. 

 Same in Clarksburg. Still all snow in Germantown as I drive south. I will report back where it changes to sleet mixed in when I see that happen.

And for everyone else, don’t forget to submit your mPING reports  as the storm transitions through its lifecycle. Those reports will make the numerical weather forecast that much better.

Just leaving for work in DC. Booooo. Don’t want to leave the SN here in Clarksburg. We just hit 1.0”. Roads caved at onset. I shoveled the walk and brushed the car off 5 minutes ago and this is what they look like now.  29.7°F/30°F, btw. 

With the end of the month, last 3 month totals of 10+” are in the books  

Sept was 13.16” to go with 10.96” in August and 11.55” in July.

Up to 64.57” on the year here in Clarksburg. 

After the 0.44” since midnight here in Clarksburg, I am at 9.99” of rainfall for the month of September. I am one light shower away from the third straight month of 10+” of rainfall. I also just pushed over 60” on the year and am now at 60.41”. 

Adding now that I’ve hit 10” while typing this. Let’s hope the wetness carries thru the winter. 

With the 2.14" yesterday, were up to 6.41", 1/3rd of the way through the month.  We're well on our way to our third straight 10+" rainfall month in a row here in Clarksburg.

13 minutes ago, ravensrule said:

I heard he needed to take a break from here, but not sure of the reason.

ok, thanks.  I hope he is/remains well.  His contributions to the community were excellent.

23 hours ago, Sparky said:

Mitchnick closed his account sometime back in January.

Why?

People b**ch about lack of snow in the DC area, but geographically this is one of the few places in the US outside of the oragraphically enhanced mountain regions that has the potential of dumping 20"+ inches every 6-7 years. Nowhere in the midwest will you see a 32" storm like what happened in Feb 2010 at IAD

I may have told this story back in the EasternUSWX days but just in case I didn't, here goes.  I was hosting the Winnipeg Police Service for a 3 day conference over the holiday weekend here in the DC area right before PDII.  They thought it was funny how excited the locals were as the storm approached and how the town seemed to be preparing for a disaster.  Once the snow started to fall, they could not believe what they were seeing.  They will have a long duration snow like PDII was every once in a while but never with the intensity they saw here.  The conference degraded into a discussion on the synoptic setups that create major east coast storms and why places like Winnipeg never receive that much snow.  Their largest single snowfall is 18".  I have to admit that I was impressed with the general meteorological knowledge that the vast majority of the officers had.  I wonder if their education system puts a greater emphasis on their weather education modules in school than here in the States. 

The CoP called me on 11 Feb 2010 incredulous that we had just had our third storm of the year that exceeded their greatest snowfall.  He was a big snow weenie.

U of Washington has a well respected program. I know their grad program was always listed as one of the top 5 (along with PSU, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Colorado) when I was in school 10 years ago. GT also has a program...I know a guy who got his grad degree from there. Not sure how good their undergrad program is...probably middle of the road though.

Concur. The College of the Environment at Univ of Washington is excellent as is specifically the Department of Atmospheric Sciences. They have undergrad (BS in Atmospheric Sciences) and graduate programs. They also understand the matrixed nature of the modern atmospheric scientist and offer minors in climatology and meteorology as well as a dual major of a BS in Applied & Computer Math Science. They are heavy on research with long-standing colloborative programs with NOAA, JPL and JISAO. I am not an alum but worked with the Department for years. Very good.

Here are some pictures that my brother took a week after the tornado. They are mostly from 24th and Iowa where my aunt lived with a few from Hampshire Terrace apartments. Thankfully my aunt had a basement and she survived unscathed. Its was surreal to see this kind of destruction firsthand and definitely shows how powerful mother nature can be.

http://brittoglesby....34543&k=vPdfRrG

Excellent photo set, thanks for posting. There's a lot to be gleaned from them about the microdynamics of a strong tornado in a densely populated area.

I don't have much to add other than repeating how good this thread is, and thank you for the information.

Coming from a software engineering background, I am curious what programming language most models are developed in? Also, what kind of computers are they using to process all of the algorithms?

The computing systems are really a system of systems with Supercomputers doing a lot of the heavy lifting and mainframes and client/server stuff taking a significant amount of local load. Here's a high-level diagram of the overall architecture, with some stuff redacted out:

Here's a slide deck that details most of the infrastructure and its tie in to numerical weather prediction modelling. There are some interesting computing systems links on slide 68.

https://skydrive.liv...B544483E3%21258

The local office stuff is typical of a remote or regional office. Local, high-res models with smaller domains are run at these sites so that 1) the main computing systems are not impeded and 2) it offers the local offices more flexibility in ad-hoc runs for significant or hyper-local forecasting needs. Here's a pic of our local office:

http://www.erh.noaa....r/computers.htm

Here's a draft roadmap for the NextGen exascale computing systems that will likely power all sorts of government-facing numerical and graphical predictive analysis systems, including those in NOAA, going forward. I only have the draft on this workstation. Ping me via PM if you want the latest and I'll dig it up when I can.

https://skydrive.liv...B544483E3%21257

Here's my easern tread leading up to the storm. I doubt we'll ever see another stretch comparable to Jan 31 thru Feb 11

http://www.easternus...ounts-verified/

Absolutely excellent read and a great memory. Did you do the same thing over there for 09-10 Feb?

It was indeed a great storm. 20.5" in Clarksburg, right during the height of the holiday season and cold enough throughout the column that it was going to be all snow, all the time. It was great fun to see the storm modeled so well and I was giddy as more and more hitsoric storm analogs popped up as the event drew near. The two things that stick out the most for me were 1) being able to drive an AWD SUV through 20" of powder since it was so light and fluffy (technical term) and 2) taking a look at the ULL back in the midwest as the coastal bas bombing out off the VA capes and thinking, "that's going to make the pivot righ over me and give another inch or two on the wraparound 12 hours from now!!!" Here's a pic from the house on the morning of the 20th. It's safe to say construction on the remodel was at a halt...