LibertyBell

Going back through history of the 1800s and even the 1700s (some records go that far back, particularly in Philadelphia and New York, though unofficial), is there anything like the February 1899 snowstorm in the record books either before or since, Don?

Same old story from the 80s repeating itself; two tracks, one to the south of us, the other to the northeast of us.

Monday seems to be borderline but the more it gets pushed back (originally it was supposed to be Friday and then Saturday), the less likely it becomes.

be interesting to see if they go below zero

I love these things! I had a no brand version of one of these back when I was in high school, sitting in the ground in my back yard, but unfortunately someone stole it (or the garbage man threw it out thinking it was trash....) Where can I buy one of these things, on Amazon? I never mount them I just sit them on a box or something on the ground. The digital weather stations I've had since then never gave me the same joy (although I love digital thermometers, they are much more accurate than the old analog ones.)

There was a 2.8 measurement just to the east of the park, that seems to be more in line with what actually fell. As far as ranges are concerned, 1.6 averages to 2, so if someone were to ask me how much snow fell, I would have said 2-4 inches for the city and coast and 4-8 inches inland. Those ranges cover pretty much everyone.

February 1899 came from a completely different era though, right, Don? I don't think that kind of widespread extreme snowfall event is possible anymore, as we don't get those kinds of extreme ridges and troughs anymore and such a deep layer of extreme cold air on the east coast. What was going on that winter- an el nino? That storm almost behaved like a really cold triple phaser. Cape May's record of 34 inches from that storm is still the state record. I put that storm right up there with March 1888, December 1947, March 1960, February 1983, March 1993, January 1996, PD2, January 2016, etc., as some of the greatest storms that have ever struck the east coast.

There's always a nice competition between KMJX, KFOK and KMVY to see which Pine Barrens get the coldest temp, I think KFOK wins most of the time, but sometimes one of the other two is colder and they can each be colder than even our coldest inland locations, like Monticello or Mt Pocono.

Yet another comparison to December 1989, when Charleston, SC had a historic snowstorm that dumped 8 inches of snow there. December 1989 was much colder of course....

Don did the pattern produce in Philly? I ask because it seems like there was a donut hole from NYC to Philly because we were sandwiched between two tracks-- neither of which benefit us-- and this is something that seems to happen quite often with a fast Pacific flow.

Don't you have a Jersey Devil creature living in the Pine Barrens? It would be interesting to go on a monster hunt one of these days ;-)

Yes it looks gorgeous outside and it will for the entire week. As long as it doesn't rain I'm happy.

Crazy to see 1995-96 on this list lol. 2010-11 doesn't make this list? PS can you extend this back to the 70s and 80s and see if we can find any winters similar to this one, Chris?

Nothing seems to have really changed from the past few winters so I tend to agree.

1982-83 or 2015-16 are both far preferable to this.

the fast Pacific jet is more to blame than luck. It would be luck if this hadn't happened before, but it has.

if we go by the last time it happened, it's going to be a couple of decades, with a few good years interspersed in between.

we're in a downward cycle for coastal snowstorms anyway. Several such cold and dry Januarys happened during the 80s, we're back to that pattern again.

Any idea if there is a cyclical pattern to benchmark KU storms Chris? I ask because we saw very few of them during the 70s, 80s and early 90s period too. I can count the number on two hands, actually. January 1978, February 1978, February 1979, January 1982, April 1982, February 1983, January 1987. Most of these were clustered around the late 70s and early 80s, outside of that period there was only the January 1987 benchmark KU. And then we saw a huge uptick beginning in the mid 90s and that period lasted through 2018, like you said. What could be behind this cyclic pattern of benchmark KUs? The AMO? *note the 70s-80s period also had notable historic Deep South snowstorms, as we've seen again beginning with the early 2020s.

It can be warm in February and still snow (see February 2018), I think we'll see at least one storm as good as this one, that is, at least one storm that gives us 2-4 inches of snow.

*around* could be like 50 miles north of us lol

Let's see if NYC can even get to 10" lol

This week being the coldest week of winter is probably correct.

and 3.5-3.8 were commonplace in southern Queens so JFK might have had a bit of an undermeasurement.

la ninas after el ninos are nearly always good, but multiple year la ninas usually give us diminishing returns, plus there is a lag affect with solar max, the next 2 years will likely have below normal snowfall.