LibertyBell

JB-esque level misleading. But we must also call out the other extreme too. There is zero reason to believe that this will be like last winter. The west to east cause-effect reasoning of the Pacific being behind everything that happens in our weather drives me nuts. So if weather goes west to east can we say that the Indian Ocean is really what determines our weather since the Indian Ocean is west of the Pacific and therefore it must be the reason behind what happens in the Pacific? And if you want to go further down the rabbit hole, you can say that the whole west-east (and north-south) analogy is a holdover from the days when people thought the earth was flat. If you go straight east you'll end up back where you started from (and likewise if you go straight west, due north, or due south.) In reality everything is connected and there is no such thing as cause and effect because of this interconnectedness. There is NO cause and effect precisely because EVERYTHING is cause and EVERYTHING is effect. Ultimately it draws into question this whole simplification of cause and effect which is the greatest fallacy in all of science. It is the main reason why I love quantum mechanics so much and have ever since a little kid (well 7th grade anyway), it makes no bones about it and doesn't simplify anything and boldly proclaims there is no such thing as cause and effect. And you can't dare refute it because every single experiment that has ever been performed has confirmed it, even over relativity and Einstein's objections.

I remember it well. I wonder if anyone has the JFK total from that storm, as it seemed to be a local jackpot. A front stalled just offshore and a low formed near the Hamptons and just stalled there creating a narrow band of snow from Newark to Long Island. If it wasn't for the temps being in the mid 30s most of the day it would have stuck sooner, but it just kept snowing and it started sticking at night. A 30 hour snowstorm! I would love to see the hourly obs and a map of that storm!

do you still think we're going get that bake off of a summer in 2021 Don?

Is this all of them? It's missing an 8.6 snowstorm that occurred in December in either 1985 or 1986 (I dont remember which.) Do you know where I can find a list of all NYC snowstorms 4 inches (or 6 inches) and greater?

omg this is it! It was called a very rare "neutercane"- I remember a TV Met on WPIX talking about it (saying it happens about once every 30 years) and completely unpredictable. Haven't seen one since! What was supposed to be a frontal passage and just a few showers stalled just offshore and turned into a cyclone that caused a 30 hr period of snow from Newark to the Hamptons, we had 8 inches near JFK- that is my favorite snowstorm memories from that lackluster period. It didn't snow at all in Philly or Boston, it was a tristate special! Can someone post the weather maps for this "neutercane"? Feb. 26, 1991 - A surprise snowstorm dumped 8.9" of wet snow, the biggest accumulation in eight years (since 17.6" buried the City on Feb. 11-12, 1983 ). Because the temperature was just above freezing for much of the day the snow didn't accumulate much on the streets or sidewalks. This was the winter's third snowfall of five inches or more.

late Feb storm? what year? is that the 4-8 30 hr storm that came out of nowhere didn't stick during the day but stuck at night?

that was a horrific series of winters..... 88-89, 89-90, 90-91, 91-92.

Funny thing is it's shifted earlier....back in college I found an old weather book that had data from the 1800s, and it looks like February used to be our coldest month. Both January and February averaged in the 20s, but February was like 2 degrees colder than January on average (27 vs 29).

all snow (like your name! lol)....our last blizzard was in Jan 2018 I believe and Jan 2016 before that. We need that blocking, even if the NAO is rising when the storm hits, there's much more often than not a big NAO block prior to the event.

if I remember right, we had the EPO strongly in our favor for many of those winters earlier in the decade (el nino, la nina and neutral winters.)

Damn I was hoping to set that 60-60-60 record for Thanksgiving-Xmas-New Years. There is zero chance this is going to be snow so it would be better if it was at least warm. If this is ice in the Poconos I'm going to be blaming you lol.

Only 16 inches at JFK half that of my favorite in Jan 2016 that dumped 31 inches here.

lol Montauk 2 inches

I have an old weather book that mentions a couple of winters in the 1800s where both NYC and PHL had 100" of seasonal snow and people used to set up shops across the frozen Hudson River.

all of these big snowstorms happened on Boxing Day? I was aware of the historic Dec 1947 event but not the others.

hey does this also give seasonal snowfall totals? I'm looking for some of those years in the 1800s when NYC was near 100" of seasonal snowfall. 1867 may have been it.....holy f*ck that was a snowy year 1867, Jan 16-17 12 inches 1867, Jan 20 6 inches 1867, Feb 20-21 23 inches 1867, Mar 16-17 13 inches 1867 Dec 11-12 12 inches 1868 Mar 20-21 12 inches That was a pretty snow period right there

I'm not superstitious about numbers and I have a strong feeling that what happened in 2020 is something that is just going to become more common. We're never going back to the way things were before. The media should be hammering that point and not falling for this weird "2020" mystique.

thank goodness for that, the last thing many of us want is an icing event (or even snow) when we're traveling

I was looking up NYC historical snowfall climatology and I found this ridiculous page lol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_New_York_City#:~:text=Snowfall is now a rare,is exposed to the Atlantic. The city can be prone to extremes. Snowfall is now a rare occurrence in the city, on average occurring on only 12 days per year, and it is infrequently heavy. I can get behind the "infrequently heavy part" but not the "is now a rare occurrence in the city" part. That statement may be true 20 years from now but not yet.

I also dont like the terms "average" and "significant" oh and then there's "impactful" this is more an issue I have media than anything else though.

Wait what, we had 11 inches of snow in December 2015? You must be remembering that December wrong lol.

He vastly oversimplified and you know as well as I do how "one size doesn't fit all". Weather doesn't just go "west to east"- it also goes south to north (coastals) and north to south (arctic highs) and southwest to northeast (colorado lows) and northwest to southeast (clippers). The reason why weather is inherently unpredictable is because it's so complex and doesn't follow a simple set of rules like that. The inherent uncertainly about weather is the reason why making absolute statements is just plain dumb.

lol looking at this list, the most recent entries were all blockbuster winters, (everything from 48-49 and later)....the earliest two not so much. A majority of them seemed to happen in February and in the middle of winter you dont need a perfect pattern to get a 6" storm....in 07-08 we got 6-8 in an SSW event that changed to drizzle at the end.

it's happening in the upper midwest too, they've had spring type flooding in Minesota.

Wasnt that winter very similar to 2001-02 in that we had very little snow here in both, but the south got dumped on? I remember 2002 had a big snowstorm in the Carolinas and I think something similar happened in 1973?