djr5001

Since this apparently happens every year...

Top 10 snowfall totals for April for Harrisburg on record:

In looking at Pittsburgh's data - currently at 4.0" with 5.7" currently 10th most on record - not sure how many years are in between current 10th and 2018's 4.0" so far.  Does anyone have other location's top 10s such as State College/Lancaster/etc.?

edit: Here is Pittsburgh's rankings for April

Pittsburgh is reporting light rain/light snow and at 40F.  That station over the next few hours will be a good indicator of how temperatures will be likely to respond to falling precip as this system moves east overnight.  It is not so much a question of how long does it take for something to start reaching the surface but how quick do temps drop to near freezing.

Visibility is dropping in northern Ohio where the snow is starting - already below 2 mi with light snow being reported from Mansfield and southwest to Dayton.  Down to 46F here - expecting a dip and then brief rise as clouds move in before dropping to low to mid 30s with the onset of snow.  MDT reported a high of 58F today too lol.

1 hour ago, CarlislePaWx said:

After only 1 week away from the forum I checked back in last night to discover the upcoming snow opportunities.  Some of the quoted stats for this winter for MDT are truly amazing.  Like, I never would have thought that the highest temp for the whole month of March in MDT was just 54!  That's about as incredible as one May back in the 90's when the temperature never touched 80 degrees the entire month.  I think a bunch of us cracked 80 on the second day of the mini Feb heatwave.  I hit 81.5.  And then, to have the mean for the month of March colder than February, again quite a feat of mother nature.  I think it's one of the many aspects of weather watching that keeps so many of us excited.  There just always seems to be a record of some kind to be broken, whether it be to our liking or not.

Regarding a post possibly by you, Maytown, about April 6, 1982, I want to add a little bit more from my memories.  That storm took place on a Tuesday.  I was only one month away from graduating from Rutgers and then heading off to Optometry school in August.  Even though I knew nothing about indexes, or blocking or the like, there almost had to be some kind of negative NAO present at the time.  An incredibly cold air mass for early April was plunging down from Canada.  Thicknesses were forecast to be around 510, and the center was going to pass near the mid atlantic and northeast.  Once again, timing was everything with that storm.  While I don't know the type of storm, my guess is maybe Miller B?  I can't remember the precise timing regarding when the storm was taking place...if it was late Monday to late Tuesday, or it started sometime Tuesday and continued into Tuesday night before ending.  Again, I was in north Jersey, but it sounds like those out here got in on the storm as well.  2 Stats I do remember...the storm delivered 9.5" of snowfall by late Tuesday evening, and the temperatures dropped into the mid-teens Tuesday night and failed to crack freezing with full sunshine during the daytime on Wednesday.  Central Park broke 2 record lows at midnight (April 6/7) Tuesday night/Wednesday morning when the temperature dropped to 21 degrees.  It was, and has been for the past 36 years the biggest single April snowstorm that I have witnessed.

The question I have for djr or others if you know, is what is MDT's snowiest April on record stat?  How about the top 5 list??  If we get the goods both tonight and again next weekend, do we have a shot at the all-time April snowfall record at MDT???

Current record for MDT is the 18” event from back in the late 1800s.  Hard to get much info on that event but there are historical references of a big nor’easter type storm hitting the area with DC missing out on the big totals (so 100+ years later nothing has changed lol).

Ill have to look at April snow rankings but can’t imagine they are much different from the 2+” events that I had found.  It’s really tough to get snow around here in April but not impossible.  Crazy part about tonight is thinking it’s going to snow with how nice it is right now.  Need heavy rates to get surface temps down and that is exactly what the models have had for days.  

1 hour ago, sauss06 said:

I can remember a few times over the years we had snow in April, but i can't remember specifics. Other then maybe a squall. 

based on Harrisburg's "record" here are all days with reports of 2" or more of snowfall in April:

April 7, 2003 - 2.0"

April 9, 1996 - 4.0"

April 9, 1985 - 2.6"

April 6, 1982 - 6.3"

April 9, 1982 - 3.5"

April 12, 1959 - 3.1"

April 27/28, 1928 - 1.5"/0.9"

April 1, 1924 - 8.0"

April 14/15, 1923 - 2.0"/.3"

April 8, 1916 - 6.0"

April 5/6, 1898 - 2.2"/.1"

April 10/11, 1894 - 5.0"/13.0"

So 12 2" or more events in 129 years on record (x 30 days per April) = 0.31% chance for 2" or more to accumulate in an event on any day in April in Harrisburg!

43 minutes ago, sauss06 said:

i have found when we gradually go into spring, my Lilacs do better. When we have that brief warm up they started to wake up. don't mess with my lilacs  

I agree, it seems like mother nature turned her fans on and never turned them off. I have more clean up of branches and especially freaking pine cones then i can ever remember. 

Glad you didn't lose more.  

Some years I think we get a warm up too quickly that just scorches some of the spring vegetation.  I was just looking at the February/March Harrisburg data and it is crazy to see that the current high for the month of March at MDT is 54 degrees which is 25 degrees lower than February's 79!!  In fact, MDT has been below normal on average since March 5th.  Average temperature so far for March is 37.1 when February was 38.7.  That is quite impressive with the fact that March is the month with the greatest rise in "normal" temperature values from the start to the end that even with higher sun angle/longer days/etc. there are still ways to be colder than February. 

1 hour ago, sauss06 said:

My only fear of snow this late, is what it does to the plants and shrubs. I would think right now we should have a pretty spectacular spring as wet as everything is. 

DJR- how are you making out up there on the ridge with this wind, do you have a bunch of limbs and branches to clean up? It seems much windier then normal

I have only lost two trees and surprisingly not many branches but these last few months have had the most trees go down around me that I have seen since moving here.  Had a willow tree go down the end of October and had a tree fall in January at the top of my property but that one was with winds coming straight down the ridge and my neighbor up behind me has almost all of the trees cleared for some reason on his property.  It has seemed much windier than normal recently and most of these wind events have not been from severe thunderstorms but deep low pressure systems passing nearby.