Burghblizz

12 hours ago, Blizzard of 93 said:

Here is a list of the seasonal snowfall totals for this season to date.

i know that many think that this season really favored the Mid Atlantic for some reason.

I really disagree with this notion.

Someone please find a significant seasonal snowfall total to our south that shows much more snow than Harrisburg or Williamsport…

The facts are that MD/DC did better than us for 2 events. The Gulf coastal South cashed in on the historic event that hit New Orleans & Pensacola. Then, the storm a couple of weeks ago hit Richmond, Norfolk & the Outer Banks.

My point is that the bullseye has shifted around this Winter & no one specific area truly cashed in with large totals.

I think you have to look at departure from normal. Then you see a pretty striking difference when looking at (say) Norfolk versus HIA/IPT. There are several other MD and VA locations where you can do a similar exercise. When one is +10 and the other is -10/15 it kind of validates that the thought that south has been luckier. 

17 minutes ago, TimB said:

Really that lake streamer the weekend before Christmas that dropped 1” at the airport and 4-6” in the north hills would have put us pretty damn close to normal. Some of us might be already pushing 40” in our backyards.

Agree - and that’s in addition to the storm misses south. So most people have the perception of this being a fairly snowy winter. Heard a lot of grunts and groans last night when people saw it snowing. 
 

Who knows - maybe we pull a March miracle with a bigger one. 

1 hour ago, TimB said:

Along those lines, we are now at 1091 days and counting with 3.3” of snow or less, and obviously very likely to add at least 250 more days to that streak. Previous record was 1015, from 2/20/1972 to 11/30/1974. That is the only other time we’ve gone two consecutive winters (let alone three) without recording 3.4” or more on a single day. 

Calendar day records are silly for snow. Snow “after midnight” still counts. 

The airport has also just missed some pretty robust localized events in that timeframe. Not saying the last 3 years have been good, but that’s a bit deceiving.

i didn’t look at official YTD, but we have to be ~33-34”. Really just needed 50 miles on one of those couple M/D like specials to have been real close to normal this year.  

Saw 4” in East Liverpool and 3” in Wexford.

i got probably 1.5” in the grass, but the back deck looks to have more like 2”. That heavier bad went just south

NWS - 2.8”. Stat padder for sure. Don’t think much of has accumulated on roadways. 

Wouldn’t be shocked to see up to 2” in the grass here. Normally don’t love snow at night, but good timing for a little last gasp of snow perhaps. 

Had a brief period of heavy snow this morning - maybe a fluffy half inch in the grass and on the deck. 
 

But that is melting off quickly now once it stopped. Welcome to March. 

Had some briefly heavy snow but no lighting or thunder that I saw 

On 2/24/2025 at 4:40 PM, TheClimateChanger said:

They didn't seem to inflate the snowfall totals as much as we do these days. When 20" fell, the depth increased by 20 inches.

Let’s say we get squalls on a March day.
Snows an inch overnight…sun comes out and melts it…squalls hits we get an inch…sun melts it…another squall hits after dark for an inch.

Did it only snow an inch?

I don’t think clearing every 6 hours inflates it - it just better accounts for what actually fell. 

On 2/25/2025 at 7:34 AM, RitualOfTheTrout said:

Yeah, it seems like lately our region is divided on bigger storms. That Jan 94 storm track was perfect. Really an unusual distribution of snow. 

If someone is in the Mon Valley towards the M/D line, they probably average 10-12” lower than the airport. Always get the WTOD first on moderate storms, miss out on some LES, etc.

But that general area has seen 15” + at least 6 times in the last 32 years.  Official climo makes that more like a once every 10-15 year event.

Big difference was they did much better in ‘96 and especially ‘16. 

Just interesting since a lot of times they lose on the dividing line, but don’t seem to miss truly big ones. 

4 hours ago, TheClimateChanger said:

Definitely the good old days of yore. Here is what MGW observed from when they still had snow observations.

Impressive to see ~20” in MGW, then basically popping another -15” 2 weeks later.

That second storm was right before it was brutally cold. I think we got 6-8” out of that one. I remember that one actually being an overachiever as it didn’t look good. Was a bigger hit south and in central PA. 

6 hours ago, jwilson said:

Really hard to find info on that January 3, 1994, storm.  I found a couple small clips on YouTube, including one from the Weather Channel that says Waynesburg measured 33" of snow - which seems insane - yet the storm isn't rated on the NESIS scale at all.

All I can think is the storm must have been quite localized, or Pittsburgh doesn't rate on NESIS.  It's strange.  I guess it was quite a minimal impact on all the main coastal cities so it dodges a rating and much historical acclaim.

I would love to see the orientation of that heavy snow axis because places were supposedly registering 4-6" an hour rates according to those clips.  I did hit 4"/hour rates during the 2020 storm, but it only lasted about 20 minutes.

We do - but I think NESIS is population based. I think the impacts were I81 west, so none of the I95 cities got much. Ohio Valley got smoked too. 

10 hours ago, jwilson said:

'94 I was in Philly, so I don't remember a storm of any significance then.

2020 was technically double-digits, as you all pointed out.  I forgot and double-checked my notes, and we hit 10.5" locally.  True that qualifies, it was kind of a freak thing and quite localized because of the CCB.

2018 I was in Morgantown and I didn't get anywhere near what Pittsburgh did for that event?  I don't even remember it at all.  Biggest storm I had that winter was 3" locally.

Let me add: those others storms I mentioned were all closer to two feet than simply double-digits, so I think my bar is probably a little higher than normal!

Jan 94 is worth researching, even just old YouTube videos. Epic storm. 20-30” in SW Pa with 3-4” per hour rates at its peak. Somewhat lost to history because it was 10 months after March 93, and the official total was mysteriously low (14”) compared to other reports. 

March 2018 was a nice long duration storm that kept adding on. Not super impactful though since it was March and was over probably 24 hours .

1 hour ago, TimB said:

A bit cherry picked, as we’ll have lows above freezing next week, but the only day in 2025 that PIT has had a low above freezing was 1/31. This will be the only calendar year on record that has had 53 out of 54 lows <= 32 from 1/1 through 2/23.

Real interesting stat. Could be another reason why the average person is so “sick of winter and all this snow”, even as we still are itching for a bigger storm. 

6 minutes ago, north pgh said:

I picked up 1 inch yesterday and another inch early this morning. 
I think NWS Pittsburgh has done a poor job with these overnight snow showers lately. My daughter had to drive to the airport at 5 this morning and I told her the roads should be fine. They said Snow was tapering off to flurries last night but things got going again this morning.  I know it’s not easy but it seems the inch or less forecast comes out after an inch falls in these little events. 

I agree, and it’s not like other outlets have really been on them either. Several times this year I’ve been with people that were complaining about “not knowing it was going to snow”. From a weenie perspective, I can’t complain as to how they have delivered. 

1 hour ago, jwilson said:

Haven't seen a double-digit synoptic event since 2016.  I'm guessing next year it continues if we have another La Nina, which makes 10 years and probably the longest I've gone in my life without such an event.

Growing up, I remember 1993, 1996, and 2003 most notably.  Since then was 2009-10 and 2016.  I'm starting to itch like an addict, lol.

Those calendar day totals  underestimate a bit. 2018 was over 11”.  Dec 2020 was as well. That airport total wasn’t too representative. Solid foot in many places. 

Some briefly insane snow rates with these squalls cutting through southern Butler Co and Northern AGC.

Doesn’t last long - but cool to look at (or worth watching out for if driving)

18 minutes ago, canderson said:

Dallas is closer to Chicago than El Paso. 

lol - no it’s not

(I understand the idea of these, but this one isn’t that)

On 2/17/2025 at 8:12 AM, Burghblizz said:

Does seem to be some snow “missing”.

Even the current season to date total went from 24” to 26.6” as of this morning.

Some of the heavier stuff last night seemed to straddle the airport, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that is adjusted. Saw another report from Moon of 3.5”.

Crisis averted! Total updated to 27.9”. So call it an extra 1.3” for that missing period, and 3.9”  total for that second Sunday batch. 

12 minutes ago, TimB said:

I find it hard to believe that the NWS recorded zero measurable snow between their 2.6” obs at 7pm and their daily climo report at midnight, considering there was about an hour with one mile visibility, but that’s what is being reported.

Does seem to be some snow “missing”.

Even the current season to date total went from 24” to 26.6” as of this morning.

Some of the heavier stuff last night seemed to straddle the airport, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that is adjusted. Saw another report from Moon of 3.5”.

Eventful day with flooding, 50 MPH wind gusts, mini-paste bomb and now snow squalls.

NWS total will make a run at 3” (thought I saw 2.6” so far)

Will probably wind up over 5” since yesterday. Great winter scenes this weekend - just crappy the first batch got washed away. 

16 minutes ago, RitualOfTheTrout said:

Looks to be filling in nicely. Id say another inch is doable based on that.

Real nicely. It was just thin bands after the initial slug, then that shield really expanded

Real quick inch on the ground already. Not exactly sure of the flip here because I wasn’t near a window, but likely within the last 45 minutes. 

Thumping here. Wind driven wet snow. 

For midweek - NAM looks like it wants more of a longer duration, steady, WAA type snow. Maybe a more modest…but more realistic “good” solution.