snowman21

Ground starting to get that first light white coating to it. Goes from flurries to a pretty steady snow quickly which is what we've seen south of here.

First flakes in Greenwich

Snow just starting here in Greenwich

Look at those obs at TTN and PHL +SN 1/4 SM 30 degrees.

Dew depressions are in the 20-25 range, so plenty of room, but if we're already into the 30s not a good sign. The warmth of Long Island Sound will not be denied.

Gonna need some good wet bulbing on the shoreline... already into the 30s.

Waste of an air mass. Too bad we couldn't clear out last night.

It's already up.

Seattle gets less rain than northeastern cities.

Flurries here in Greenwich. First flakes of the season for us.

I'd say it's at peak. If you're driving up 95 probably 70 or 80% of the trees have color now at least that's what I noticed this weekend from New Haven northward.

There have been 8 in Connecticut, so I believe it.

Dump the wife if it means more snow. Easy choice there.

Not much info in that tornado statement. The ones from OKX give you the exact location often down to the street and time where the tornado began and ended, path length/width, and estimated intensity.

BOX is located on Commerce Way in Norton. The cell looks like it's going between them and Rt 123 and crossing 495. Maybe 1/2 or 3/4 mile from the NWS office.

Hope the new NWS Boston office in Norton is OK. That cell looks like it is heading straight for it.

Standard in the U.S. is 200A service, even to most small apartments. Consider the cloud height indicator by itself can use more than 5A when the heater and blower are active. Most of the instruments have heaters that run nearly continuously in cold weather, so power consumption can add up fast. Plus there are various components and peripherals (computers and communication devices) inside the equipment cabinet which is about the size of a server rack. The whole system is pretty power hungry, more so than a major household appliance, when everything is maxed out.

Would be tough to have a useful battery backup for something that sucks down 20 amps. You really need a generator like cell towers have. Of course that doesn't preclude the airport from simply turning off the weather station along with everything else when they do an emergency evacuation.

They do have something I believe, but not something that will keep it running for a significant amount of time. The systems have fairly substantial power requirements as they have to power the instruments in the field plus a big cabinet full of processing equipment. Keep in mind the systems, at least ASOS which is deployed at the largest 1000 or so airports, were designed in the late '80s so that's the technology we're working with though parts, mainly the sensors, have been upgraded over time at select sites.

No there really is no redundancy. The weather stations run on AC power. Once that goes, so goes the station in most cases. Many cell towers have generators to keep them going for up to a day while weather stations do not. Power probably went out nearly simultaneously across a large swath of the area taking with it the weather stations.

How dare you. Take that garbage back to loserville. There is no such thing as too much snow (or cold).

Damn you beat me to it. I'm guessing there were no Davises back then.

Does the NWS even want coop observers anymore? I figured with the density of home stations plus things like CoCoRaHS you wouldn't need it. I applied to be one when I was a pre-teen and was turned down.

CT starting out the day with lows +10-15 in the upper 50s and 60s and humid. Brrrrrrr!

Welcome to Connecticut. The parking lot between New York and Boston