87storms

Epic sick textbook snow pattern should be in place by 1 Jan... oops I mean 10 Jan... uh make that 15 Jan... never mind, try 18 Jan... sorry, I got it this time, 22 Jan. That's the window I am sure of it!

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

A pivot to die for.

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.

 

Part 2 was basically a BWI to Philly bull's eye. Each one of those four storms moved the bull's eye a little further north and east I think- for instance, 1/30 was RIC's biggest storm but they got very little in Feb. Philly got almost nothing from 1/30 bit got hit hard in both snowmageddons, etc.

 

IMBY at the time (Glen Burnie) I remember it started off slow on the 9th, then it stopped that night, then the next day the winds picked up and it snowed like crazy. That afternoon was amazing- I almost voted part 2 over part 1 just for that. Every time I watch those videos I can't believe that actually happened.

 

None of the 2010 storms were very cold, except 1/30. If you prefer brutal cold with your HECS there's better choices lol

 

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.

I didn't think so either, but SNE's superwinter last year made me think it might be able to happen again.

 

 

From what I remember, the Feb 10 blizzard was a colder storm with stronger winds. The snowpack from the first storm certainly helped, but even without it the second storm brought a widespread 10-20"+.

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 recall when the watches for Feb. '87 were issued. The first I heard of an impending storm was late Sunday afternoon. We were playing basketball (outside, so that should tell you a major snowstorm commencing in less than 6 hours was a bit surprising) when someone mentioned it. The rates that night were intense.

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.

There was still a winter storm watch Sunday AM< upgraded to a warning for 4-8 where I was in Northen Delaware with the afternoon package.

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.

Jan 87 was not on par surprise with Jan 2000. We knew there'd be a nor' easter on Jan 22. We had Winter Storm Watches issued on Jan 21st in the morning package. They upgraded the areas NW of the big cites on the evening of the 21st and the 95 track was 1-2 inches, before changing to rain, but the Watch was up still. I was in Wilmington, Delaware and we were upgraded to a warning about 8pm Wednesday evening (Forecast at that time came from Sterling, not PHL) for 4 inches, then sleet and rain and then before the snow started Thursday am, 6-8 inches, possibly mixed with sleet. 

 

Night and day to me surprise wise.. 

 

Wes Junker tells a good story how the NGM had the colder profiles and was higher res...

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.

What's interesting about wind, though, is that the two storms were very comparable throughout the DC area--- 2/5/10 was actually windier at DCA during the height of the snow than 1/96.

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.

Some, maybe. But, I and some others who have experienced both storms and posted in the thread already don't think '96 is a slam-dunk winner over 2/10. It depends, as always, on location and your priorities in a storm. 

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.

And I bet they think Michael Jordan was better than Wilt Chamberlain.

now that one i would agree with.

Just because one storm was better for you doesn't mean it was better for everyone.

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.

Feb 17 2015

wheelhouse

i have a feeling some of the people voting for 2/10 weren't here for 96. 

Tale of the Tape, Blizzard 1996 vs 2/5/10, 

 

Location 

 

1996 - Silver Spring at DC Line - 300', 

2010 - Mt. Pleasant DC (4 miles due south of 1996 location) - 200'

 

Totals

 

1996 - 21"

2010 - 22"

 

Temperature at onset/min temp during storm

 

1996 - 20/15

2010 - 34/24

 

Duration

 

1996 - 36 hours

2010 - 30 hours

 

Max Sustained/Gust

 

1996 - 29/37

2010 - 25/35

 

Sleet?

 

1996 - Yes

2010 - No

 

Minimum Viz

 

1996 - 0.1 mi

2010 - 0.1 mi

 

For me, I give 1996 a slight edge.  Much colder storm.  Stuck to Beltway immediately (I was on it at 11pm).  Drier snow.  More Drifting. And in terms of intangibles, the 3-4" I got the next day made digging out futile.  

yea i was driving around 11pm as well when the 96 blizzard first started.  it was steady and sticking everywhere in silver spring.

Oops. Wrong ice storm. The poll had the sleet fest of February not the January one I was remebering.

94 was silly cold.  i remember the 4-6" of pure sleet.  for about 2 minutes it changed to heavy snow toward the beginning in the street lights and then i turned away, came back minutes later and it was back to sleet and pretty much stayed that way.  biggest sleet storm i'd seen though i was in ny in '07 and remember a pretty good one there, but it wasn't like the one in '94.

the freezing rain event that season was crazy.  i remember there was definitely about an inch of ice.  one of the few true ice storms i can recall here.

I can't choose between 1/96 and 2/5-6/10. I experienced both in the same house in Potomac, MD. 

1/96: more road accumulation-- there was no way to drive out of the neighborhood until the plows came, whereas in 2/10, we were able to use the tire tracks from early in the storm to form a driving trail two days after the storm before the plows came; colder; higher drifts 

2/10: more snow (26.5" vs. 24"); higher overall impact because we lost power for 30 hours (and unlike after Isabel, we couldn't drive to some place with power during the outage); higher snowfall rates 

 

The winds were equal in both (gusts to around 40 mph during the fiercest part). 

good point regarding road accumulation.  i felt like with 96 and 03 it was a legit snowed in situation.  instant accumulation on all surfaces during both storms.  i gotta give the edge to those over 10 even with the sleet because of just how cold those first two were.  doesn't diminish feb '10, which was still a great storm here.  

Or maybe getting 2-3 HECS that year means we wait twice as long as usual for the next one 

the next 3 years after that were comical.

Terrible storm if you dont like 24+ hours of continuous snowfall with 20"+ totals.

sure its a lousy winter

By april I will have had 2.5 inches of snow on the winter, worst ever since I was born

Still have feb. We can score this month. Not saying we will but it's too early to throw in the towel. Maybe we are corrales in round 10. Down but not out.

This winter sucks, which is no doubt the reason why this thread was started.

Lol we need more storms to track though I guess there's something to be said about how this area gets few HECS but they do happen from time to time.

Of all the storms feb 87 May have been my favorite or up there as a sleeper top 5 pick. Those rates in that short period of time were ridiculous. I was too young to remember the others before it but I do vaguely remember seeing a ton of snow on our patio at the end of 83.