87storms

compared to last year i feel like this summer has been very tame. definitely worse out west it seems. i could be wrong, but i don't think we've hit 100 yet and not too many upper 90s days.

woof

The lack of snow on the trees etc is actually a good point. Feb 10 definitely looked snowier above the ground (trees, power lines, etc) because it was a wetter snow. That could make me rethink the discussion a little bit. Guess that's the price you pay for powder.

one interesting thing is that all the big storms have all had their own style. it goes to show there is more than 1 way for us to get a big snow, which is a good thing. it'll be interesting to see how the next big one plays out.

Nah I was kinda fringed and I think that was made more epic because it was snowing on top of snowmageddon. Looking at them individually I gotta put that one below 00.

I'd probably have to go with 16 now. I never stopped snowing Saturday. Stayed close enough to the deform band here that it was probably a little more than snow tv. The front end thump overnight Friday and the Saturday afternoon wraparound deform bands put it at or very near the top of its class here. 96 and 16 are the cream of the crop for snowstorms here at least N&W of the cities and pretty close to that for the cities themselves. Feb 03 was also special but a notch below in entertainment value. Feb 10 was bigtime but didn't have the temps to start out that 16 did. 16 96 03 10 09 93 00 That's probably the order for me. Too young for 83.

The broadness of that upper low and the fact that it went under us seems like it allowed us to tap into the gulf and Atlantic and stay on the cold side throughout which is not easy to do here. This was a hecs thru and thru. Looking at the energy as it entered the west coast it didn't look all the special but it had all the right ingredients feeding it I guess.

Lol. 2016 comeback victory

Very 96-like 500mb look. Seems the big ones are epic at the upper levels

i'm thinking jan 2017. i really like the way the fall pattern is shaping up.

snow from start to finish, none of that snow to mix/rain crap we had a number of times the last couple of years. 2009/10 is a legend.

https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/current/mcview.phtml?prod=usrad&java=script&mode=archive&frames=60&interval=60&year=2009&month=12&day=18&hour=0&minute=0

was on my way to atlanta a couple winters ago and was lucky to find a gas station open in central nc between raleigh and durham because an ice storm they had. pretty much everything was shut down. i take ice storms more seriously now.

and i think that's what puts 96 and 03 over 10 for me because even with the period of sleet mixed in, when it was snowing it was a cold/powdery snow. jan 00 was like 96 in that regard.

snoverkill was better around the baltimore area. we had that squall come through dc and mont. county, but at my location i was right on the back edge and so it was primarily light to moderate after that albeit for most of the day. still a fun event, but feb 5/6 was the big show and i think out of the big three (96, 03, 10), that 96 was the mother ship simply because of just how widespread it was. that was a storm i'm not sure i'll see again. feb 10 seems like a storm we could repeat before we see 96 and 03 because of just how cold those airmasses were. just my penny.

just because a pattern allows for multiple storms in a short period of time doesn't mean they should be considered as one. they definitely should be separate, even feb 2010, which for what it's worth i don't think we will see again in this lifetime. 09/10 winter was like our snow version of what south carolina is experiencing right now. feb 10, 2010 was fun, but i really don't know how that can be in the same league as feb 5/6, 2010. the blizzard conditions were primarily due to the existing snowpack from snowmageddon.

I don't remember watches either. I think because it wasn't even expected to stick much. i could see the flakes falling at night. The flakes were epic. It was Jan 2011 on PEDs.

Around the DC area it went from a 1-3" or 2-4" snow to about a foot or more and if I recall correctly we had the whole week off of school due to power lines down from the weight of the snow. It was definitely not expected to be such a big event at least here.

i said feb 87.

jan 2000 is probably in the hall of fame, but i can't put it in the top 5 winter storms here. i guess i could see why it might be a "favorite" for some, but we've had bigger and better events. i was too young for 83, but from what i heard the rates were legendary. feb 87 had pretty absurd rates too (heavy, wet snow) and was a surprise event on the scale of jan 2000.

at the end of the day, it's hard to compare 96, 03, and 10. they were the big dogs of the last 30 years. from what i hear, 83 was up there too. having to choose the order is tough, but based off of where i was at the time i would go 96, 03, and 10 in a close finish.

yea the wind wasn't it for me, though i do remember more drifting at the end. it's the temps that won me over. it was just colder and pure powder. i also feel like it looked more epic afterwards than 2/10 did (just counting the first one). 96 and 03 made cars disappear.

it's not a slam dunk, but i would probably take that storm again over 2/10 due to the temps, wind, and how large of an area it snowed. the combination of both feb storms would probably give the edge to 2010 though.

now that one i would agree with.

i said "some", which means i don't think 96 was better for everyone, but that i think the poll results could unfairly lean towards some of the more recent storms.