coastalplainsnowman

Years ago on a predecessor weather forum I put up a poll geared toward my fellow Long Islanders, asking which would they rather prefer: Option 1: Be in the jackpot of a Mid Atlantic / New England storm where LI gets 10" (the max amount for the given storm) and Boston gets 5. Option 2: Get 15" of snow in a Mid Atlantic / New England storm, but Boston gets 2 feet. Credit to their honesty, most chose option 1.

Yup. At least from 1979-1993 there wasn't the temptation to stay glued to the situation 24x7 (other than TWC, which even as a kid you knew that once you watched for 20 minutes straight there would be nothing new to hear for a few hours, so might as well go play outside.) As a kid/teen if I had the 24x7 access we have now I might not have graduated elementary, junior high, or high school on time, or held down a job during the winter months lol. Imagine working in a shopping mall and heading down to the TV department in the department store to catch the weatherman at 7:45PM sharp to see if there were any updates. In hindsight, I think that might have been a problem. 1970-1999 Long Island had about six (six!) total storms of a foot or more. The 2000-2016 was the reward for those of us who suffered before that.

Great question! I wonder the same all the time. If that was today, would it be the situation we often see now where the snowfall maps and forecasts on TV don't reflect the latest models, and everyone on boards like this knows it is game over before everyone else? Likewise, I do remember the morning of the Blizzard of '83 the grownups in the morning including my schoolteacher saying 2-5" and we almost had that by dismissal..

I remember Joe Cioffi (who I admire and enjoyed very much during his time on News 12) betting the anchors in December 1989 that we would see over 20" of snow in the remainder of that winter, which as we know, much to the surprise of all of us who followed it, never materialized. In hindsight, that is a testament to how lousy the winters of the 80s were snow-wise. a) that a bet of 20" of additional snow in the winter was noteworthy and b) that we didn't reach it. . I recall that after that brutal December 1989 that winter essentially ended at that point. In fact I think it essentially ended for years until we started to get some teases in 1993 before the March 1993 superstorm, which preceded the Blizzard of 96, which proceeded our largely awesome 18 year run that followed.

The problem is that once we get into March I think all but the biggest snow fans are ready to move on. The earlier in the season the snow, the better. Our Dec 17th one this season for example - I'll trade 5 straight seasons of a 6" spring snowstorm for one of those (even if it was barely 6" for me) The March / April (I guess now we have to say May too?) snow is a mess and melting as soon as the sun peaks out at the end.

I'm real late to the party here, but I remember tracking this storm, begging the r/s line to stay away, and taking screenshots of the radar from the accuweather site. I took about 20 of these. Here's how dang close it got to me in SE Nassau:

Be careful putting stuff like this in writing until 2020 is in the rearview window please..

I found the above info here, just kind of stumbled across it https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/planets/great-conjunction. There may be more info there.. The whole topic is making me want to pickup astronomy/telescope hobby..

Personally, I'm looking forward to the 'great conjunction', when Jupiter will pass directly in front of Saturn. That will occur next on February 16, 7541 (seriously.) I'm hoping that if I diet and exercise I can be around to see it happen. By the way, if you're busy that day or if it is cloudy (does Accuweather's long range go out this far?), it happens again later that year on June 17th, 7541.

I see that this @#$% storm hitting on Christmas eve is going to bring with it temps in the #@$#% upper 50s/low 60s. What a surprise. This will be only the 10th straight year that the NYC area will hit least the upper 50s in the week before Christmas. Heck, in most of this timeframe the high for the week was in the 60s, even 70s in at least one of the years.

From what I've been reading here, that was the magic number needed to get to the 30" average for 1991-2020, correct? If someone told me in Dec 2000, we'll have the 30 year average up to 30" by 2020, I wouldn't have taken that bet.

Heaviest snow for me was mid morning of the Dec. 30, 2000 storm. I remember taking pics with an actual non-digital camera. I couldn't see beyond the house next door. Nothing has come close since.

I'm from LI and yet it just occurred to me - 'Miller' place? I wonder if being named after snowstorm types angers or pleases the snow gods.

Yup, was just thinking about ne.weather today. That's about 20 years ago now. Wow.

Sheesh, I went to bed cautiously optimistic about a nice classic 21st century LI snow - close to but on the safe size of the "rainger zone" (just coined that phrase now) only to see that things have de-escalated quickly for these parts. For the bulk of the 21st century LI managed to thread the needle and time and time again pull out these awesome snowstorms - nothing short of a freaking delightful phenomenon which never got old for those of us who grew up in the snow-starved 80s. Last few years though, the 80s seem to be rearing their ugly head with these 'rain for the coast' deals.

That was awesome. Till then I had heard about 50 forecasts of 'the rain may turn back to snow' since birth, of which exactly zero had materialized as anything measurable, until that nice storm delivered. Even with all the snowy years since then, nothing has ever matched it in that regard. Pretty sure it's the only time before or since that I've seen a storm start as substantial rain and end as accumulating snow. I'm sure the history is different north and west of NYC tho.

Hey what’s with Islip getting some sort of special treatment for Monday’s snow?

Yeah, Bradford Pears have been the tree of choice in Nassau, especially on utility strips the last 20 or so years. I got one about 15 years ago, and every year I am annoyed by the fact that it holds about 25% of its leaves til about the third week of december. I'm looking at it right now. I should've planted an oak. Side note - suburban long island has such a different look now compared to 40 years ago. As all the old oaks, even big maples and sycamores fall / get cut down they are almost never replaced like for like. Everything looks increasingly like strip mall landscape with the same small trees like bradford pears, chokecherry, etc. I hate to think of what things will look like in another 30 years.

We noticed the same around here. Interestingly though, in many cases it looked like the wind was enough to take out certain trees one way or the other. For example, just nearby my house there were three similar old trees in a row, all down. Two were snapped 3 feet from the ground with clear insect damage. The third didn't (which I could tell after it was cut up into pieces), but that one just uprooted instead, lifting up 25 feet of sidewalk. I've been thinking about this a lot - the suburbs are gradually becoming devoid of any tall trees. A lot of suburbs are nearing 75 years old. So many oaks and big old maples have been either voluntarily cut down or taken down in storms, and are very rarely replaced. Formerly 'woodsy' suburbs - some in fact with 'woods' in the name of the prettier sections of them - are on their way to looking like brand new treeless developments in the plains somewhere.

Did a quick search on 'leaves' here and it looks like there's been some discussion on this, but any idea why so many trees look like they are experiencing an early autumn? I heard/read it could be from saltwater whipped up during Isaias, but how far inland would experience that effect? I see this at least as far north as the Ronkonkoma branch of the LIRR in western Suffolk (near KFRG.) I did notice that it's the leaves primarily on the south side of the trees that are browned, so maybe that is in fact what's going on. I can't say that I noticed it prior to the storm.

General discussion question - in the other thread (which I don't consider myself qualified to post in) says isaias is forecast to go over land *and* maintain/increase in strength as it heads toward NYC metro? In years of watching these things I don't think I've ever seen that happen - even more rare than 'wraparound-change-back-to-snow' of any significance. Are folks buying that this will both a) run that far inland and b) increase in strength and wind speed? Thanks.

Good thing this snow fell at night. With this August 4th sun angle it never would have stuck anywhere.

Hoping this spring doesn't shape up to be like 2003 around here. If memory serves, it was the last week of June before the damp / cold bite was out of the air for good.

Not sure if any of you follow 'LOCKITIN' on Twitter which posts extreme model runs, just for fun. The one on the left in this one from April 5th wasn't too far off..

Interesting that the 'Blizzard of 88' was followed by the least-snowiest-through-Feb-21st winter on record, and that stood apparently for 30 years, remaining in the top 3 in that category for over 100 years.