TimB

That squall looked like it possibly nailed the airport and missed the NWS office. Typical.

1 minute ago, TheClimateChanger said:

A little stat padding spring snow that will melt in between each snowy interval.

What do we need, 0.9” to get past 1973-74 to avoid the modern era record?

SNOW SQUALL WARNING
NWS PITTSBURGH PA
1102 AM EDT SUN MAR 10 2024

PAC003-125-129-101530-
/O.CON.KPBZ.SQ.W.0008.000000T0000Z-240310T1530Z/
1102 AM EDT SUN MAR 10 2024
Allegheny County-Washington County-Westmoreland County-

...A SNOW SQUALL WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1130 AM EDT FOR
NORTHERN WASHINGTON...CENTRAL ALLEGHENY AND WEST CENTRAL WESTMORELAND
COUNTIES...

At 1102 AM EDT, a dangerous snow squall was located along a line
extending from near Avella to near Delmont, moving east at 35 mph.

HAZARD...Intense bursts of heavy snow. Gusty winds leading to
blowing snow and rapidly falling visibility. Wind gusts up
to 35 mph.

SOURCE...Radar and webcams.

IMPACT...Travel will become difficult and potentially dangerous
within minutes.

Oh boy, bands of heavy snow everywhere but the north hills. Checking in on @KPITSnow.

NWS has put 1-2” into the grids for Allegheny County tomorrow.

17 hours ago, TimB said:

We’re on track for the 3/1 to 3/7 period to be our warmest first week of March ever.

Today’s mean will likely come in around 54 or 55, tomorrow’s around 50 or 51 so this shouldn’t move much.

God damnit, we’re going to get screwed out of our warmest first week of March ever because of these damn low clouds keeping us from getting into the upper 50s.

We’re on track for the 3/1 to 3/7 period to be our warmest first week of March ever.

Today’s mean will likely come in around 54 or 55, tomorrow’s around 50 or 51 so this shouldn’t move much.

5 hours ago, TheClimateChanger said:

First recorded tornado in Monroe County since June 22, 1990. Appears to be only the third recorded since 1950, and the strongest on record. Prior was an F-1 in 1969. I suspect some of this is due to the remoteness of the area (only like 10,000 people), but still quite rare.

https://www.weather.gov/pbz/svrclimo

And in February no less.

DuBois!

Yes, @greenskeeper, I’m aware you don’t have a brain.

22 minutes ago, bdgwx said:

My hometown St. Louis obliterated the previous record by 7F yesterday.

Sent from my Pixel 5a using Tapatalk
 

Daily record. It broke the monthly record by just a degree. The places further north broke monthly records by 5-10 degrees, and in some cases daily records by 12-13 degrees.

On 2/27/2024 at 1:31 PM, TheClimateChanger said:

All-time monthly and seasonal record highs being set all over the place in the Midwest yesterday and today - in some cases, by several degrees (and on multiple consecutive days). What a way to cap off what will surely be the warmest winter on record nationally!

Some first order climate sites with long periods of record got almost 10 degrees warmer than any other February day ever. Rockford IL got to 78 after a previous record of 70 and Wausau WI got to 68 after a previous record of 59. Breaking monthly records by almost 10 degrees should be alarming to anyone with a brain.

Look at how it keeps back building. Comical. Never happens with snow.

7 minutes ago, Burghblizz said:

A 50” February wasn’t *that* long ago. Also, what followed was 5 or 6 above average snowfall Februarys in a row - getting well into mid 2010s. At that point one could have said they are becoming snowier than January.

Two bad years doesn’t mean winter has changed. 2022 was the snowiest March since ‘93.

And like I have said - this isn’t disputing the overall impact of climate change. But local sensible weather (esp pertaining to snow) needs a lot more data to conclude anything anytime soon. At this point - it’s just two bad winters. 

February especially tho. We now have 2017, 2018, 2023 and 2024. It’s more likely in recent years that we have notable heat than snow.

February is becoming a fringe winter month.

That said, this particular pattern is unprecedented, just not here. There are areas of the upper Midwest that have never hit 60 in February that could go into the mid to upper 60s tomorrow with enough sun and slow frontal timing.

January isn’t nearly as bad on that particular stat. As many 60 degree days in the 1990s as in the past 10 years.

7 minutes ago, KPITSnow said:

Thus might be just me misremembering but I seem to remember 60 degree days in January and February being a lot less common growing up 

60 degree days in Feb, 1982-present. Draw your own conclusions, but it looks pretty clear to me.

I’ll do it quantitatively too:

The average high on March 1st is 43, so I’ll define any day with a high of 43 or above as “spring-like”. With 10 days left of winter, we’ve had 46 spring-like days, and the forecast would suggest 9 of the remaining 10 will be spring-like, bringing us to 55. Only 3 winters have had 55 or more spring-like days, and none of us here experienced any of them: 1889-90, 1879-80, and 1931-32. So none of them were even an apples to apples comparison as they were observed in weird sites.

An early spring would be much more palatable if we actually had winter. All of December, all but one week of January, and all but one evening in February have basically been spring.

Also we’re losing March as a wildcard or a borderline winter month. Assuming this March fails us, that’s 4 out of the last 5 that have had little to no snowfall.

2020: 1.0”

2021: 0.1”

2023: 3.1”

2024: not holding out much hope

Just sucks, and just as a reminder, the all time snow futility record at PIT (16.6” in 1973-74) is still on the table as we’re at 15.3”.

9 minutes ago, Itstrainingtime said:

The 1970s into the 1980s featured what seemed like a lot of Carolina snowstorms. I remember being upset so many times looking at a bank of cirrus while Richmond on south was getting plastered. Fortunately, we did have a couple of big hits. More memorable however, was the cold. We had some really intense cold snaps back then. Hell, the Chesapeake froze over to the point that vehicles were out on the bay. That thought seems like a pipe dream today. 

I'm sure that @mitchnick has better memories/experiences of the bay freezing than I do. 

Edit: Here is an article I found from the winter of 1977:  https://www.secretsoftheeasternshore.com/eastern-shore-deep-freeze/

January 1977 is ridiculous. It’s 6 degrees colder at Pittsburgh than any other month on record. Not 6 degrees below normal, 6 degrees below the 2nd coldest month on record.

2 hours ago, Itstrainingtime said:

MA forum talking about the President's Day Blizzard of 1979, which happened to also be on 2/19 like today. You are probably one of the few on here with me who might remember that storm...do you have any notes or memories? I was 14, and went to bed on Sunday night with snow falling lightly and about 1" OTG. Forecast was for 2-4". I woke up around 5am and there was a bush outside my bedroom that was about 18" tall...it was buried. Ended up with about 20" on a forecast literally that night of 2-4". 

I’m pretty jealous of anyone who got to live through those late 70s winters. All 3 of them. Likely never be a stretch like that again. 13-14 and 14-15 I guess came close, and the 3 solid winters out of 4 in the 90s.

4” imby.