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December 5th Snow Streak in Baltimore

JustinBerk

By JustinBerk,
in Mid Atlantic

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JustinBerk

JustinBerk

Posted
Posted

Since 2002 with a record storm of 7.4", almost every year has had the first storm or at least flakes for Baltimore on December 5th. That is except for leap years (2004 and 2008) ironically. Catch up on the snow history here.

In this weather forum, I want to ask fellow weather geeks- snow lovers and haters- if the reports of snow showers and flurries on Sunday should justify keeping the streak alive even if BWI did not report it? For the record, there was a data feed problem with NWS over the weekend.

See the reports of snow I received in this blog post on ABC2new.com and share your thoughts.

Thanks

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wxmeddler

wxmeddler

Posted
Posted

According to the Daily Climate Report for which is the offical record keeping. KBWI did NOT get snow yesterday..'

000
CDUS41 KLWX 060519
CLIBWI


CLIMATE REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC
1218 AM EST MON DEC 6 2010


...................................

...THE BALTIMORE MD CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR DECEMBER 5 2010...

CLIMATE NORMAL PERIOD 1971 TO 2000
CLIMATE RECORD PERIOD 1870 TO 2010


WEATHER ITEM   OBSERVED TIME   RECORD YEAR NORMAL DEPARTURE LAST
               VALUE   (LST)  VALUE       VALUE  FROM      YEAR
                                                 NORMAL
..................................................................
TEMPERATURE (F)
YESTERDAY
 MAXIMUM         39   1259 PM  75    2001  49    -10       44
 MINIMUM         30   1159 PM  16    1966  30      0       33
                                     1926
                                     1886
 AVERAGE         35                        39     -4       39

PRECIPITATION (IN)
 YESTERDAY        0.00          2.22 1945   0.10  -0.10     0.85
 MONTH TO DATE    0.80                      0.50   0.30     1.97
 SINCE DEC 1      0.80                      0.50   0.30     1.97
 SINCE JAN 1     42.31                     39.09   3.22    49.48

SNOWFALL (IN)
 YESTERDAY        0.0           7.4  2002   T      0.0
 MONTH TO DATE    0.0                       T      0.0
 SINCE JUL 1      0.0                       0.6   -0.6
 SNOW DEPTH       0

DEGREE DAYS
HEATING
 YESTERDAY       30                        25      5       26
 MONTH TO DATE  138                       122     16      104
 SINCE DEC 1    138                       122     16      104
 SINCE JUL 1    917                      1031   -114      892

COOLING
 YESTERDAY        0                         0      0        0
 MONTH TO DATE    0                         0      0        0
 SINCE DEC 1      0                         0      0        0
 SINCE JAN 1   1742                      1147    595     1100
..................................................................


WIND (MPH)
 HIGHEST WIND SPEED    30   HIGHEST WIND DIRECTION    NW (310)
 HIGHEST GUST SPEED    38   HIGHEST GUST DIRECTION    NW (320)
 AVERAGE WIND SPEED    15.6


SKY COVER
 POSSIBLE SUNSHINE  MM
 AVERAGE SKY COVER 0.8


WEATHER CONDITIONS
THE FOLLOWING WEATHER WAS RECORDED YESTERDAY.
 NO SIGNIFICANT WEATHER WAS OBSERVED.


RELATIVE HUMIDITY (PERCENT)
HIGHEST    56          1200 AM
LOWEST     44          1000 AM
AVERAGE    50

..........................................................


THE BALTIMORE MD CLIMATE NORMALS FOR TODAY
                        NORMAL    RECORD    YEAR
MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE (F)   49        77      1998
MINIMUM TEMPERATURE (F)   29        13      2002


SUNRISE AND SUNSET
DECEMBER  6 2010......SUNRISE   712 AM EST   SUNSET   444 PM EST
DECEMBER  7 2010......SUNRISE   713 AM EST   SUNSET   444 PM EST


-  INDICATES NEGATIVE NUMBERS.
R  INDICATES RECORD WAS SET OR TIED.
MM INDICATES DATA IS MISSING.
T  INDICATES TRACE AMOUNT.
&&

However, I personally can attest that it did snow in northern Baltinore County yesterday, at least in and near the Parkton area.

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JustinBerk

JustinBerk

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Ahhh...but snow showers- the first flakes of the season- did fall throughout the area. That was included in this Dec 5th streak on one occasion. Besides, BWI is an ASOS site that can miss flurries. In these parts- if it falls from the sky it should be noted. I've working in Syracuse and Binghamton so I know the difference, but I have to consider my market. Don't even get me started with how NWS fudged the blizzard measurements last year. After 10 years, they started to question the snow measurement practice after the first Feb blizzard. FAA and NWS have different criteria, but rather than take the NOAA measurement 2 miles away, they lowered the snowfall. Then they went back and lowered previous storms without a public statement issued to declare or explain it.

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nw baltimore wx

nw baltimore wx

Posted
Posted

Ahhh...but snow showers- the first flakes of the season- did fall throughout the area. That was included in this Dec 5th streak on one occasion. Besides, BWI is an ASOS site that can miss flurries. In these parts- if it falls from the sky it should be noted. I've working in Syracuse and Binghamton so I know the difference, but I have to consider my market. Don't even get me started with how NWS fudged the blizzard measurements last year. After 10 years, they started to question the snow measurement practice after the first Feb blizzard. FAA and NWS have different criteria, but rather than take the NOAA measurement 2 miles away, they lowered the snowfall. Then they went back and lowered previous storms without a public statement issued to declare or explain it.

There was a lot of discussion and even some dissension last winter about this topic. Unfortunately, I think that those comments are floating somewhere in internet purgatory. But, on topic, there's no reason why you can't say that, "Here at the station...", although I think the real "streak" should only include measurable snow fall.

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wxmeddler

wxmeddler

Posted
Posted

Ahhh...but snow showers- the first flakes of the season- did fall throughout the area. That was included in this Dec 5th streak on one occasion. Besides, BWI is an ASOS site that can miss flurries. In these parts- if it falls from the sky it should be noted. I've working in Syracuse and Binghamton so I know the difference, but I have to consider my market. Don't even get me started with how NWS fudged the blizzard measurements last year. After 10 years, they started to question the snow measurement practice after the first Feb blizzard. FAA and NWS have different criteria, but rather than take the NOAA measurement 2 miles away, they lowered the snowfall. Then they went back and lowered previous storms without a public statement issued to declare or explain it.

Yes, this is true. ASOS is not a perfect tool for snow or mixed p-type. Though I think that there is a compromise here. The NWS-COOP sites throughout the area should have picked up some trace of snow, and its actual observers.

EDIT: Nope, nothing noted in the COOP in the 9:30 AM report yesterday. Today's report summary may have something though if it fell during the day.

http://www.nws.noaa....05+14%3A11%3A30

The next option I can think of is the CoCoRaHS sites. NCEP has been known to take in CoCoRaHS data if it can be verified. This map is ~7AM Dec 5 to ~7 AM Dec 6th. Some scattered reports, probably no accumulation just people who saw a flurry go by.

Balt Co. CoCoRaHS Snow reports

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JustinBerk

JustinBerk

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Did you see the pic from my blog post on ABC2... There was a coating and icy roads in northern Baltimore County and southern York County PA. I never expected accumulation. This is more for the viewers- especially kids and snow lovers that can hang their hat on the date for flakes. Thanks for the info and search. I do plan on digging deeper into the snow measuring dissension for a special investigation over the winter.

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Ellinwood

Ellinwood

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Posted

Ahhh...but snow showers- the first flakes of the season- did fall throughout the area. That was included in this Dec 5th streak on one occasion. Besides, BWI is an ASOS site that can miss flurries. In these parts- if it falls from the sky it should be noted. I've working in Syracuse and Binghamton so I know the difference, but I have to consider my market. Don't even get me started with how NWS fudged the blizzard measurements last year. After 10 years, they started to question the snow measurement practice after the first Feb blizzard. FAA and NWS have different criteria, but rather than take the NOAA measurement 2 miles away, they lowered the snowfall. Then they went back and lowered previous storms without a public statement issued to declare or explain it.

It's too bad we weren't able to use SYR's measurements from yesterday... 6.8" :D My old school only had a one-hour delay today :(

You get +1 for working Upstate NY. Winter forecasting is fun.

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Ian

Ian

Posted
Posted

hey justin, kevin ambrose and i did a similar piece for CWG last week:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2010/12/the_december_5_coincidence.html

no snow here for sure this dec 5. im guessing we're due for a long streak of none on the 5th to make up for the amount we've seen lately.

i saw someone on twitter report that nashville has seen snow on dec 5 like 4 of the last 6 yrs too.

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Herb@MAWS

Herb@MAWS

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I live about 20 mins NW of BWI and it did flurry in Columbia yesterday, but I can't say that it even totalled a trace. Unfortunately, BWI is the official recording station for the region and I believe their total precip on 12/5 was 0.00".

Conversely and to paraphrase George Carlin, "But who lives at the airport?"

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JustinBerk

JustinBerk

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hey justin, kevin ambrose and i did a similar piece for CWG last week:

http://voices.washin...oincidence.html

no snow here for sure this dec 5. im guessing we're due for a long streak of none on the 5th to make up for the amount we've seen lately.

i saw someone on twitter report that nashville has seen snow on dec 5 like 4 of the last 6 yrs too.

Cool. Too bad TN beat us in snow! If you did not read my Dec 5th article- which may be the 4th time I wrote one like this... last year was the earliest snow on record for Houston and New Orleans on Dec 4th. Not I can just copy and rehash the old story on this date. A few others like this throughout the year but definitely not as much fun

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JustinBerk

JustinBerk

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I live about 20 mins NW of BWI and it did flurry in Columbia yesterday, but I can't say that it even totalled a trace. Unfortunately, BWI is the official recording station for the region and I believe their total precip on 12/5 was 0.00".

Conversely and to paraphrase George Carlin, "But who lives at the airport?"

Herb- The Hippy Dippy Weatherman was right! Ironically our station plays the 2 degree guarantee for BWI forecasting yet we have over 200 'neighborhood' stations with weatherbug. Meanwhile it looks like some streamers are making it in today (see radar posted here). In 2008- the recorded snow was just after midnight on the 6th

shd_None_anim.gif

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