LVwxHistorian

I'm having a vivid memory of a storm that fizzled out big time after a forecast of (I think) 6 to 10 inches during my first year of high school in the Lehigh Valley. I still remember angrily looking out at the rain/snow from my first period Math class. Maybe March 1991, anyone remember this??

yes there were 60 mph winds a few days before in the LV and even a small tornado briefly touched down in Allentown on April 3rd!!

nws.noaa.gov

The high/low at Allentown was 31/16 on the 7th. Single digits in the Poconos, 8 at Tobyhanna. You're right about baseball, David Ludlum mentions it in his book Weather Factor.

Didn't realize the heavy snow extended so far inland

Lehigh Valley got nearly a foot (11.4") with 4 foot drifts and winds gusting to 47 mph. Another 2" fell 2 days later with a subfreezing day on the 7th!! Share memories if you got em

The 2 storms are very distinct in my mind because I was a teenager, but as a child I can see how they could be conflated. And Harrisburg had a March storm record 20.4" in 1993 On another note: why so few replies??

This is one of my favorite storms -- we've had bigger in the Lehigh Valley but this one wasn't just about one location. With easily the highest NESIS rating of any storm on record, everyone from the deep south to Maine cashed in on this one. Let's reminisce!!! Regional Snowfall Index (RSI) | Snow and Ice | National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) (noaa.gov) Table 2: Ranks 66 high-impact snowstorms that affected the Northeast urban corridor. RANK START END NESIS CATEGORY DESCRIPTION MAP 1 1993-03-12 1993-03-14 13.20 5 Extreme view 2 1996-01-06 1996-01-08 11.78 5 Extreme view 3 1960-03-02 1960-03-05 8.77 4 Crippling view 4 2016-01-22 2016-01-24 7.66 4 Crippling view 5 2003-02-15 2003-02-18 7.50 4 Crippling view 6 1961-02-02 1961-02-05 7.06 4 Crippling view 7 1964-01-11 1964-01-14 6.91 4 Crippling view 8 2005-01-21 2005-01-24 6.80 4 Crippling view 9 1978-01-19 1978-01-21 6.53 4 Crippling view 10 1969-12-25 1969-12-28 6.29 4 Crippling view 11 1983-02-10 1983-02-12 6.25 4 Crippling view 12 1958-02-14 1958-02-17 6.25 4 Crippling view 13 1966-01-29 1966-01-31 5.93 3 Major view 14 1978-02-05 1978-02-07 5.78 3 Major view 15 2007-02-12 2007-02-15 5.63 3 Major view

Well I stand corrected regarding the state climatologist but that doesn't mean that the values have been investigated by them, just regurgitated! As for April 1894, you are correct about 18" at Harrisburg and there were even heavier totals, 25 to 26", from Lebanon to Hamburg. But its hard to ignore the sub 10" amounts at kennett square and west chester. And Phoenixville only had 12" I'm going to look at newspapers from then and see what they say [15200493 - Monthly Weather Review] PRECIPITATION.pdf

you mean this Home (tornadoproject.com)

His totals are just too consistently higher than nearby stations: feb 12-14, 1899: 53" -- kennett square: 32" and west chester: 21.5". Or Jan 25, 1905 storm he measured 29" and Kennett Square had 18", and west chester 14.5". And April 10-12, 1894: he measured 29.2" -- Kennett square had 8.8" and west chester 7.8"!!!! Come on, something is very fishy!! it has nothing to do with feelings. I know you want to believe it because you live there, which are your feelings, but the data just doesn't back it up at all. And the state climatologist has never recognized the data. IPS - Record of Climatological Observations - Select Station | IPS | National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) (noaa.gov)

It's still too high, NCDC said they will review it in the summer

Sorry, but I absolutely don't believe Coatesville and also their totals for Jan 1905, 29", and April 1894, 29.2". They are completely at odds with every nearby station. And the precip. ratios are exactly 10:1 which is very suspicious. Probably measuring drifts. I'm contacting NCDC

You're too serious, measuring it to the hundredth of an inch!!!!

Have you looked into the accuracy of Feb 1899? Since the next highest in the county was 46" at Kennett Square.