LibertyBell

a final warming event? it resulted in our latest below freezing temperature (31) this morning since about 2014 when we had some accumulating snow on 4/16/2024.

I'm not going to make too much of this but we had a suspect adjustment made just this past season and I checked with one of the CT Mets who makes seasonal snowfall maps for New England and for our area too and he found it weird too and had no explanation for it. The jist of it is this, there was an event where JFK measured 2.6 inches and NYC measured only 1.2 inches (this was one of those storms where the zookeeper made his final measurement hours before the storm ended.) No way could this be right we all had 2-4 inches in this storm. Wouldn't want to make a big deal about this but a bunch of people wrote to the NWS about the discrepancy between JFK and NYC and one of our forum members who took a walk in Central Park said it was definitely more than 1.2 inches there and probably between 2.5-3 inches (matching some of the other local reports.) Anyway, what did NWS do? They didn't adjust the 1.2 amount at NYC upwards to match the local reports, what they actually did was adjust the JFK downward from 2.6 to 1.0. LOL I actually didn't expect them to adjust the Central Park number upward, but to actually adjust the JFK downward from 2.6 to 1.0 was REALLY WEIRD.

The zookeeper at Central Park is another story, you know they haven't properly measured a snowfall when the amounts are reported as 1.0, 6.0, 10.0, etc. In one winter they had like 5 snowfall reports that ended with a .0 at the end. Sometimes they don't even measure all the way to the end of the storm. I remember one event pretty clearly (the 10.0 event) where they made the last measurement at 7 PM and it kept snowing until well after midnight and the 7 PM measurement was taken as the final total. Can't be bothered to wake up in the middle of the night to make a final measurement I guess. There's also the thing about adjusting snowfall totals days or weeks after an event but that's another story altogether lol.

Chris do you have LE numbers for New Haven, CT, your current location, where that 44" amount was reported?

This morning was likely our last freezing or below low for the season, 31.5 F at my location. 31F at NYC and 32F at JFK

I wish we could get LE numbers for these high amounts lol

a snow bow or a moon bow are pretty rare! Do you have to be near the lake to see them?

Thanks, Don, I posted my survey of nearby weather stations above, they were mostly between 30.5 and 32.4, the ones that were higher were right near the ocean (32.9 and 33.6 Atlantic Beach and Long Beach.) Mine was 31.5 so right in the middle of the range.

JFK's low should have been at or below freezing. I did a quick survey of weather stations around the area and the range was mostly 30.5 to 32.4 The higher ones were right on the ocean (32.9 to 33.6) Atlantic Beach and Long Beach. Mine was 31.5 so solidly below freezing. https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KNYWOODM4?cm_ven=localwx_pwsdash 31.8 https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KNYVALLE2 32.2 https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KNYELMON7 31.6 https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KNYNEWYO2117 31.8 https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KNYNEWYO1715 31.8 https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KNYNEWYO2050 32.2 https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KNYNEWYO1053 32.0 https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KNYJACKS2 32.2 https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KNYNEWYO1958 31.8 https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KNYVALLE1 31.5 https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KNYWOODM8 30.5 https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KNYATLAN9 32.9 https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KNYLONGB22 32.4 https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KNYOCEAN18 30.8 https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KNYROCKV18 30.6 https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KNYVALLE55 31.5 https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KNYLYNBR43 31.4 https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KNYVALLE15 33.6 https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KNYMALVE17 31.5 https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KNYROCKV9 31.7

It became one of our best home opener memories they still replay that game sometimes and of course it was a harbinger for a GREAT 1996 season!! Hey today's the anniversary of that game and that snowstorm!!

Yeah I don't know which way to go with those measurements, some may be too low, others may be too high. I could see it going either way. Also, over 440 people died in that storm in NYC alone so they likely weren't thinking too much about making proper measurements.

I definitely question some of these measurements for the March 1888 superblizzard. 21 inches in Central Park 26 inches in southern Brooklyn 35 inches in northern Queens 38 inches on the north shore of Long Island 44 inches on the south shore of CT

I wonder how the LE totals from the two storms would compare? Maybe 3" LE from the 1997 event but less than that from the 2018 event?

Maybe you'll get some snow with this next storm, Rob. I saw there were some lake effect streamers into the Poconos and the lower Hudson valley late last night too.

I hope we got to 32 in between hours.

Going back to the April Fools Day storm, did you measure it both ways back then too, Ray? Was there a difference? I think that was an even bigger storm for you than March 2018 was wasn't it?

Next week dry all week and sunny :-) Monday and Tuesday in the low 70s After that a little cooler but no one will care because it will be sunny. Temperatures don't really matter now, it's all about sunshine.

so if it was cold enough this would be the peak time for snowstorms.

Lowest temperature I was able to find in our area was 26 at Toms River. Even KFOK was at 31, no radiational cooling at all. Maybe well NW of us it's in the teens? Good news, looks like both Monday and Tuesday next week will be warm and sunny and in the lower 70s.

I agree with you, I only know a few people who clear a snowboard every 6 hours. Maybe the NWS just wanted everyone to use the same method so they told everyone to just measure the snow at the end of the storm (or just after it changes over in a mixed event) because they knew most wouldn't bother to measure every 6 hours and clear a board?

it's going to snow in the Poconos from this?

why doesn't this ever happen in the winter anymore and all snow ? and also, what happened to that strong pac jet ?

We could standardize it by simply using a sliding scale snowfall to liquid ratio depending on temperatures. It won't always be accurate but it will be consistent.

why can't we just adjust these storms with a sliding scale snow to liquid ratio based on temperatures during the storm? Chris, offhand do you have a list of the top 5 liquid equivalent all snow events? January 2016 must be number one, it was 3 inches LE at JFK.

January 1996 was also vastly underestimated, especially at NYC.