Tatamy

There has been a lot of talk about the hype regarding this storm. One of the things that I like to track is when it actually dawns on the populace down in S Florida that this threat is for real. I measure that by looking at the traffic apps showing highway speed conditions. In other storms I have seen those interstates backed up for hundreds of miles as people flee the storm. So far I have not seen any sign of the expected mass exodus on the highways down there. My thinking is that the West Palm Beach area is at the greatest risk of a direct hit early next week. If you or your friends or family are even considering leaving the area ahead of the storm I would not wait too much longer. My two cents anyways.

I would go with 2/78 and 1/16. 2/78 was especially dramatic with high winds and low near zero visibility’s for hours on end along with 30” of snow. 1/16 also brought 30” of snow with very high rates. As dramatic as Boxing Day was its most significant impacts were felt in eastern NJ and places to the north and east of there in the region. We only had a couple of inches from that one here.

I live in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania. We had a snowstorm on 11/15. Similar to this situation the models were showing heavy amounts for my area. The FV3 consistently showed 10”+ for me for 2 - 3 days prior. The Mets blew them off. The model outputs were contaminated by sleet they said. We were forecasted to get 1-3” by the NWS office. On the 15th as the storm was getting underway at 12pm and I was out on my back deck photographing the arrival of a wall of snow we were upgraded to a WSW. By 6pm we were at 8 1/2” of snow before we changed over to sleet. We picked up another 1 1/2” by the next morning to bring the storm total up to 10”. The bottom line is those who are blowing off these model outputs do so at their own risk. The FV3 proved to be correct. Many many people spent the night out on the highway because they could not get home.

Looked at the traffic map this evening and there is a lot of heavy traffic going south down through VA on I-95 and I-81. I am guessing that this is in part related to the eclipse. Hotels all over SC are booked in anticipation of this event.