CapturedNature

December 1992 doesn't count?

15 years? It was longer than that. Growing up in the 70s and 80s there was a market change after 1992 so that's almost 30 years. We had winters like this year after year for decades before that save for a few great years/storms. People here sound like spoiled brats throwing temper tantrums because they don't like the weather. My worst winter was 2002 when my largest "storm" left 3" of snow. It still remains my mildest winter as well. The funny thing was that in late April we had a heat wave but a few weeks later in May it snowed. That remained my latest snow for years and that was my lousiest winter. So special things can happen even in the crappiest of winter.

More like 3 hours and 43 minutes of paint drying and looping it...

This isn't Europe. It's America. We live differently & there's nothing wrong with that. That's why they come here to see America, not a mirror copy of them. Pickups are handy utilitarian vehicles with lots of room to haul things to and from stores for yard work, home projects, trash, helping neighbors, etc. With crew cabs you also get a vehicle that has more room than a phone booth on wheels and a better view of the road. There are not the best for urban areas but as someone mentioned, they are good for home owners and there aren't too many single family homes in cities.

For me, I don't watch or listen to anyone specifically for a forecast because I make my own forecasts but I will watch different newscasts to see how a system is playing out in the media. One nice thing these days is being able to watch news on-demand from different markets online and through channels on smart devices like Roku's. In the general public, I think there is a large segment that relies on TV, radio & online print sources for their weather, particularly in the morning.

Almost an inch here in less than 4 hours. I'd call that heavy rain.

Average temp peak for me is the 22nd & 23rd. I don't have normals for daily snowfall, just monthly but if I take the monthly numbers and divide them out on a daily basis it looks like the half way mark for me is 1/28. Nice to know I'm not even half way...

+4.8° here & 7th warmest January since 1985.

Oh sure. I don't disagree. I just think that there are shallow, sheltered places that are probably fine though after this week but better safe than sorry!

Yeah, I think that you have to know where you are going. Some of the stories of people going out on rivers or on larger bodies of water without knowing for sure are just sad...no need for those accidents.

To be fair, many of those are from before this past week. Also, one was someone on a river and another was someone walking through a swamp. You need really cold conditions for a long while to freeze a swamp and even then I've felt soft ground.

Must be larger lakes? I saw people out ice fishing back in December and this week has been colder with temps in the single numbers almost every night. I haven't been by those places since then but I would have thought that the ice would be OK after this week.

I agree. I just remember professors talking about persistence when I was in school and saying that unless you reason it was best to go with persistence. Granted that was back in the 80s but I would think it still would have some value. I would never say that you should call for the same events over and over because you're right, it's going to change at some point but worth taking into consideration unless there is other evidence IMHO.

At one point they were in December. I know I saw people ice fishing at one point last month. I haven't been by too many places lately since it's been colder but I would think people are out there now again.

Yes, but until there is clear evidence/signs, why ignore persistence? It's not the better way to forecast but it's also hard to ignore persistence sometimes. Having said that, next weeks system does appear to have some differences so we'll have to see how things pan out.

lol...there you go. The Pope has spoken!

That's not Pope Benedict.

Yeah, I remember hearing stories like that. Not around here, but certainly in eastern areas. If that happened today I'm sure it would be covered very differently.

It's impossible to speak of the whole of something when we don't know the whole story. Shouldn't posts that claim that they know the whole story be in the panic thread so we can keep this one focused on actually pattern analysis?

That's awesome. Even for me it was a real chapter turner for me too. Before that we would have occasional events but winters were nothing like they were after that (save for a couple). Heck, the cold of December 1989 was a big event! You can just feel my brother and I's excitement in the video in chasing down reports of the snow in Worcester and waves in Hull. I had never seen so much snow fall at once and so close to my house! After that I could compare storms to that one like some of you do for the Blizzard of 78 which wasn't that big for me.

Back in the 90s or early 2000s I was down in south Florida in early January and a cold front had come through. Temps were in the 50s or 60s but I still wore my shorts. I remember seeing guys with heavy jackets, hats and gloves. Then there was me in shorts & a t-shirt. I was going to go for a swim at the beach (the water temp was still in the 70s) but honestly, with the wind blowing as stiff as it was and Dp's in the 30s it actually too chilly so I bailed on that plan. Just walking around and looking at how people were dressed was enough for me.

This would be amazing to see around here. I can't imagine the media frenzy a storm like this would generate here.

I thought that the GFS moved to better hardware as part of an upgrade a couple of years ago? https://www.noaa.gov/media-release/noaa-kicks-off-2018-with-massive-supercomputer-upgrade If only they could improve the physics too...

4° here.

I don't think anyone had it worse than I did. I was living in Somers at the time and where I was I had about 3" of snow but within a mile or two from my house there (by JMH) there was well over a foot.