Scarlet Pimpernel

I actually rank this above 2/6/2010.... for years I wasn't sure which storm I liked more, but now that I think about it, I choose December 2009, even though my area got more in the February storm.

 

The anticipation before the storm was so much more thrilling, mainly because it was the first HECS in almost 7 years, while 2/6/2010 was the first HECS in 7 weeks and felt a lot like deja vu.

 

The other reason is the shock and rarity of it happening in mid-December. Like I said in another thread, I didn't think a storm of this magnitude was possible in December. It was just unbelievable.

I generally feel the same.  I've tossed that around, which one was "better" or would rank ahead, either the Dec. 18-19 storm or Feb. 5-6.  Probably really doesn't matter in the end, all the storms that year were remarkable and they were all great!  In my particular location, the amount of snow was similar for each...20.0" from the December storm and 23.5" from February.  Heck, both also occurred on a Friday night through Saturday, too.  The February event was obviously bigger overall for the area when you look at the actual snow amounts that a lot of people got.  But I kind of lean toward the December storm for a few reasons:  it was still early in the season and that put an exclamation point on the start of that amazing winter, it was the first really major event here in many years (as you stated), and it was quite cold throughout the event.  Cold powder from start to finish.  I remember the excitement as it started to snow in the late evening (want to say around 9 or 10 PM that Friday), and it stuck immediately.  Woke up to around 9" on the ground and got another 11" through the day and into the evening Saturday.  After that winter in some of the ensuing discussions, I almost felt like the two big events in February sort of overshadowed the December storm.  A lot of the talk was on whether the Feb. 5-6 event was bigger or the blizzard a few days later, almost as if the December one was a distant memory.

LWX's forecast from Friday evening, 18 December 2009 for the DC area (I saved a lot from that winter):

Expires:200912190915;;980494

FPUS51 KLWX 190145

ZFPLWX

ZONE FORECAST PRODUCT

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC

845 PM EST FRI DEC 18 2009

DCZ001-VAZ054-190915-

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA-ARLINGTON/FALLS CHURCH/ALEXANDRIA-

INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...WASHINGTON...ALEXANDRIA...FALLS CHURCH

845 PM EST FRI DEC 18 2009

...WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO 6 AM EST

SUNDAY...

.OVERNIGHT...SNOW. SNOW MAY BE HEAVY AT TIMES. SNOW ACCUMULATION OF

4 TO 8 INCHES. LOWS IN THE UPPER 20S. NORTHEAST WINDS 10 TO 15 MPH.

CHANCE OF SNOW NEAR 100 PERCENT.

.SATURDAY...SNOW. SNOW MAY BE HEAVY AT TIMES. ADDITIONAL SNOW

ACCUMULATION OF 8 TO 12 INCHES. HIGHS AROUND 30. NORTH WINDS 15 TO

20 MPH. CHANCE OF SNOW NEAR 100 PERCENT.

.SATURDAY NIGHT...SNOW...MAINLY IN THE EVENING. SNOW MAY BE HEAVY AT

TIMES IN THE EVENING. ADDITIONAL SNOW ACCUMULATION OF 2 TO 4 INCHES.

TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATION AROUND 20 INCHES. LOWS IN THE UPPER 20S.

NORTHWEST WINDS AROUND 15 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 25 MPH. CHANCE OF

SNOW NEAR 100 PERCENT.

.SUNDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SNOW IN THE MORNING...THEN

PARTLY SUNNY IN THE AFTERNOON. HIGHS IN THE MID 30S. NORTHWEST WINDS

AROUND 15 MPH. CHANCE OF SNOW 50 PERCENT.

Tying anything to global warming is tough to steer from because it doesn't involve a lot of research and it guarantees comments.

 

I need to look at the frequency of 79+, 78+ type lows.. close but not 80+.  80+ is kind of arbitrary other than the fact that we all focus on the starts of 10s naturally.

 

AT DC at least the lows have been impacted considerably more than the highs though I suppose it's arguable that we are seeing more frequency of the higher level highs if not the highest temps.  My in depth knowledge of other stations is limited--there are some interesting comparisons between DC and Balt when the Balt station was downtown though.

Good points.  Though of course one cannot link singular events to a climatological phenomenon (stating the obvious here, I know!), it is hard to ignore global warming.

As for this July, last I checked DCA was ~3 degrees above normal for the month, through yesterday (Jul. 22).  And much of that from my quick look and calculation was due to the overnight lows, not so much the daily highs, as you stated.  I think the lows are ~4 degrees above so far (vs. ~+1 or so for the highs) compared to the July mean for the entire month.  Not the best to compare to the overall July climo since we've got just over a week left this month, but you get the idea.  Interesting.  It was quite oppressive the past week or so, that's for sure, even if it wasn't excessively hot in terms of absolute temperatures.  I'm sure the amount of precipitation we've received since June played a role there.  If the latest forecasts for the next week are correct, I'd expect that DCA departure to decrease somewhat, maybe to ~+2 degrees or even less(?).  After the past 3 Julys...or, heck, the past 3 summers!...this year has seemed relatively moderate.  Though, yes, that's somewhat subjective.

Here's my easern tread leading up to the storm. I doubt we'll ever see another stretch comparable to Jan 31 thru Feb 11

http://www.easternus...ounts-verified/

Hi Wes...yes, I remember your posts back then, it was quite an exciting time! Has it really been 2 whole years now??

I think you're right, in our lifetime we'll probably never see something comparable to that 12 day period from end of January into mid-February. It was truly remarkable. I say this as someone who experienced some of the worst winters (or best, depending on your point of view!) in northeast Ohio. Looking back, I don't think I can recall such a time period there with that kind of snow, with the possible exception of a big lake effect event.

Of course, I'm sure we'll see another "big event" at some point, just not so much in such a concentrated amount of time.

I'm glad I've got a lot of photos and notes from 2009-10. It's just too bad that this year, I haven't had much opportunity to give the new camera I got for Christmas a good workout on snow photography (and it's supposed to be better in low-light night shots, something I couldn't get very well with the old one a couple of years ago)!

As promised, a few photos...

From the late afternoon/evening of Feb. 5:

Near the start of the event, snow lining the trees

Later in the evening, snow practically pouring out of the sky

And, during the day of Feb. 6:

Woke up to see this nice image

During one of the heavy bands as it went through

Ha, good story! I wish I saved the pictures I took on my phone of the Wegmans in Fairfax a few days before the storm. The bread aisles were completely cleared out.

Toilet paper and milk, FTW!!

I'd like to see what kind of a spike in sales all the local supermarkets had during the week of those two storms!

Wish I was on this board last year when all this went down, so I can't wait to see some of these maps you guys put up. What a great week of weather with this storm and the next one the following mid-week. I have a couple pics a video from the mid-week storm from my 9th floor apt and the snow blowing heavy and vertical which I'll post when that thread gets started. I went out 11 straight nights to the bars during these storms from being off from work/teleworking and everynight the bars were packed and everyone was in such a good mood.

The whole 12-day period from 30 January through 10 February was incredible in terms of winter weather, and something I've never experienced before. And this is coming from someone who grew up in northeast OH, where lots of snow and cold winters are common.

I've got many of the LWX forecasts and forecast discussions throughout the event, HPC snowfall probability charts, NAM and GFS forecasts at 500, 700, 850, and surface from Friday, 5 February (12Z cycle), and final snowfall reports after the storm...all saved. And, of course a ton of photos! I'll look through them and see if I can post a couple later on sometime. The only unfortunate thing (photograpy-wise!) is that a lot of the snow fell at night, and my camera isn't the greatest for nighttime photography, so most of the pictures are from just before sunset and from the following day. But I did get a few late in the evening, at least.

The whole storm was amazing, as was the anticipation and getting ready for it. It was well forecast well in advance, with high certainty about what was going to happen. I remember leaving work early, just as the first light snow started to fall...headed out to Blockbuster (Lackluster!) video to pick up a couple of movies for the weekend, grabbed a small personal Pizza Hut pizza for lunch, and got some fire wood in case the power went out (fortunately it didn't!). Oh, and also picked up a 6-pack of BECK'S beer, on purpose, in honor of the impending storm (thinking of the mythical "BECS" type snowstorm!).

Snow initially fell lightly for a couple or so hours but didn't really accumulate at the start. But it did start in earnest and began accumulating around 3PM on Friday the 5th. We had some snow left over from the Groundhog's Day event a couple of days prior (which got lost in the shuffle before the big event). I ended up with 23.5" where I'm at in Silver Spring, MD. Took many Jebwalks through the evening and the following day. Heard some thunder-snow during the evening/night, definitely saw flashes of lightning in the sky. And, heard many transformers blowing too. When I got up the next morning, it was a spectacular scene...and we still had a decent amount of the storm left to go!

The only thing that was a little odd was that early Saturday (6th), Sterling seemed to back off some on the snow amounts I recall, and mentioned as much in their forecast discussion at the time...only to up them again by mid-morning. That, and somehow, despite the entire area getting a general 20-30", DCA came in with "only" 17.8, and I remember some discussion about that report on the Eastern WX board. I seem to recall seeing at least a couple of reports within the District itself that were well over 20". Regardless, a great storm all-around!

I think this sums it up nicely.

HA...perfect!

During the "pouring snow", I just would go outside every half hour or so and let snow pummel my face!!!

Pretty much! Same here. I loved going outside in the late evening on Friday as it began to snow and accumulate. Next day, I was out taking pictures as often as possible, and taking measurements. I'm sure the neighbors were wondering who the fool was walking around with a yardstick (all in the name of science, ya know!).

Perhaps one of the coolest things about that storm is it was the first truly major event since Feb. 2003...a long time coming, and it was very exciting to finally break that drought. Even for this area, 7 years between "big storms" is kind of a long time. And by major, I'm talking widespread double-digit amounts (10-12") or more in the metro area (even as measured at DCA!). We certainly had some good moderate or better events in the intervening time, but also just missed on some or ended up with a lot less than originally thought (Feb. 2007 comes to mind, lots of sleet/ice when it looked for so long like we'd get hammered...and Feb. 2006, we got 8-10" or something like that, but that storm ended up hitting areas to the north like Philly and NYC a lot harder...and in Jan-Feb 2005 we had some chances that ended up being a lot less, though it was cold I recall).

Ahhh, good memories of that, as I dig up my photos! I remember leaving work early Friday, getting the last minute shopping done (only chance I had to do it) with checkout lines backed up down the aisles. Seeing the first of the snow begin around 9:30PM. 9" on the ground by mid-morning on the 19th, total of 20". Here's some pictures:

Pretty much looked like this for much of the day on Dec. 19.

Icicles the following day after the storm.