LibertyBell

Yup, it's Venus, tomorrow night it will be Saturn. https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/visible-planets-tonight-mars-jupiter-venus-saturn-mercury/ The waxing crescent moon will lie between brilliant Venus and Saturn about 2 hours after sunset on January 3. The moon moves closer to Saturn on January 4. Observers in parts of Africa, Europe and Greenland will see the moon occult – or pass in front of Saturn – at 17 UTC on January 4. The bright – and often called the loneliest star – Fomalhaut is nearby. Look for earthshine – that’s light reflected from Earth – on the unlit portion of the moon. They’ll set mid-to-late evening. Chart via EarthSky.

Our TV networks and even TWC certainly love to talk about it. One almost gets the feeling they're jealous because of the attention social media gets.

By the way a pretty celestial show in the SW sky right now..... the crescent moon with a very bright planet just to its right.... I think that's Venus?

What I found absolutely amazing was that some of that December snow was still around for the January blizzard. We had a white Christmas and white New Years that year, I wonder how often that's happened?

Antarctica is a desert. All that snow you see accumulated over thousands of years and never melted (especially near the South Pole.)

Didn't we have one around the same time period in 95-96 Chris? I remember an extended cold stretch that began with an MECS in December and ended with an HECS in January. Seems like December-early January cold snaps are fairly common in La Ninas but snowstorms come down to NAO blocking.

Freedom of speech has and needs guard rails. Plenty of stupid social media posters get banned for it, I know because I'm one of the ones reporting them and getting them banned.

Yes, unfortunately most casual observers pay too much attention to the OP. Wasn't the Euro more accurate when it was only run out to 7 days? Can running a model longer than 7 days also influence its accuracy in less than 7 days?

Do you think this is at least a little bit of balancing the scales since DC hasn't consistently beaten NYC in snowfall since the late 80s and maybe the last few years is a sign that might be happening again Chris?

and 2010-11 wow I had snow up to my windows that winter!

It was 2002-03 through 2015-16 we had the big HECS.

We remember 2/6/10 here, nothing could ever be as extreme as that was! a Trace in Central Park, 1.5" at JFK and here.... 6" in southern Staten Island and 2 feet in Toms River!

whatever it is, it can't be any worse than 2/6/2010 lol

Toms River is central NJ and considered the southern limit of our subforum (and the southern limit of our local TV stations.)

If you were on the south shore in the late 80s then you remember this kind of pattern lol. We would have cold dry Januarys with storms hitting DC and Baltimore and then in February they would hug or cut and areas to our north would get hit.

But if DC gets more snowfall than NYC, that means we are actually reverting back to the late 80s snowfall pattern, Chris.

I think if people researched the late 80s, they would know that wasn't a matter of luck either, and the causes are the same now as they were then.

In case you haven't noticed, America isn't doing so well *sparky* This isn't the time to be bragging about this country.

Have you seen the state of this country? LOL Is America really for anyone anymore?

I like the general broadbrushing and probability forecasts the NWS does, it's much easier to forecast general temperatures as opposed to specific storms. In addition to that, I wonder if posting past analogs would also help. If anyone posted late 80s analogs, I think people would immediately know what we were dealing it-- at least those of us who lived through that time period. Such a situation where DC gets more snow than NYC isn't as uncommon as some think. It was much more common in the past, but it can still happen.

No one said that Long Island would be under 30 feet of ocean, but what we are definitely seeing is sunny day flooding, something that did not happen before. And it's not just Long Island it's happening on-- it's why military bases near the water are being moved 10+ miles inland. Norfolk and Charleston are prime examples of where this is happening.

Definitely limit OP to 7 days at most and past that ensembles + likely analogs. Trust me if someone said, hey, this is a late 80s pattern, all enthusiasm would have been curbed, especially for those who lived through that. I never bought into anything because I lived through 1989-90.

But Chris, it's not really information. Specific details are so inaccurate as to be absolutely worthless that far out. It's better to just show above or below normal temperatures and ban the posting of specific storms unless you're going to post analogs to the past (for which the late 80s are are a really good analog to now.) People will always get excited-- we all do. But the reality is, nothing can be known beyond 7 days except for general temperatures. It's why the NWS posts probability forecasts. We might not like them, but that's that can really be known that far out.

let's call out the irresponsible people who thought it was a good idea to extend models past 7 days, was this for more clicks?

we can regulate it, the government should ban all models past 7 days