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Jan 22-24 blizzard obs, tracking, nowcasting #2


Ian

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Going with 24.0 where I am for pretty much a final tally. Very difficult to get a truly accurate measure but think this is reasonable given some other nearby reports in here. I probably had some degree of compaction and stuff drifting/blowing about into and out of various measuring spots. Plus, not going to count what left over bit may have fallen since 7PM. Probably all averages out in the end.

So, this tops Snowmageddon for me by a little bit. But will say as a whole this storm was better (but not by too much)...more wind and drifting, and colder temperatures. Duration was longer too. Worthy of the new crown.

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Living right next to BWI, being able to see the airport if I walk 5 minutes up my street, we never truly got dryslotted, we had small flakes but it kept going all day. I've been taking 6 hour measurements on a board, and although I wasn't confident enough to post them, BWI's totals have been fairly consistent if about a half inch to an inch higher than mine, but they have a slightly higher elevation. Maybe they had some snow blow onto their measurements but its hard for me to say they are wrong. There was a steady slow accumulation even during the lull. 

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Not only that.  They're reporting 3.8 inches since 7 AM.  Sure we got semi-dry-slotted for a few hours in there, but it never stopped snowing.  Not for a second.  And yet, through 13 hours of snow, including multiple heavy bands that lasted for hours, they picked up under 4 inches.  The DCA defenders in this thread who have buddies who work there or whatever can say what they like, but that's a bogus measurement that is not supported by a single observation point anywhere in the region.  And this same thing happened the last major storm, and the one before that, and the one before that, and the one before that.

 

Maybe there was an error, and maybe they'll correct it.  I hope they do.  But if they stick with this current number, that's a disservice to our region.

It is bizarre as I ended up with a little over 5 from the final banding and DCA had better echoes than I did. 

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That's a pretty damning read.

 

And I'd bet that they followed the protocol overnight and abandoned it this morning.  Their 14" total at 7am was reasonable and within an inch of what a lot of people in the immediate area were reporting.  And then it went completely off the rails.  I joked earlier about the Day Shift screwing up the Night Shift's good work, but maybe that's really what happened.

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Not only that. They're reporting 3.8 inches since 7 AM. Sure we got semi-dry-slotted for a few hours in there, but it never stopped snowing. Not for a second. And yet, through 13 hours of snow, including multiple heavy bands that lasted for hours, they picked up under 4 inches. The DCA defenders in this thread who have buddies who work there or whatever can say what they like, but that's a bogus measurement that is not supported by a single observation point anywhere in the region. And this same thing happened the last major storm, and the one before that, and the one before that, and the one before that.

Maybe there was an error, and maybe they'll correct it. I hope they do. But if they stick with this current number, that's a disservice to our region.

gotta hit the GW numbers somehow. TW
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Last band is quietly snowing itself out overhead. Last 3 inches have been pure Colorado powder. 30 straight hours of snow with no breaks. Cold to start and cold to finish. Definitely my favorite storm and a benchmark.

I have a lot of work to do tomorrow and I'm already sore. Lol

ETA: All 3 airports and almost all MA peeps beat annual climo today!

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And I'd bet that they followed the protocol overnight and abandoned it this morning.  Their 14" total at 7am was reasonable and within an inch of what a lot of people in the immediate area were reporting.  And then it went completely off the rails.  I joked earlier about the Day Shift screwing up the Night Shift's good work, but maybe that's really what happened.

How long have they not been using a snowboard? lol #Busted

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DCA's 1z ob has a comment :"SOME DATA ABOVE MAY BE INACCURATE!!!!"

 

:facepalm:

Wouldn't a scientific approach to knowing the DCA snow total be the following?

 

Determine a statistical mean of ratios (per six hour intervals) for several locations near DCA and use those ratios

to estimate the total snowfall based upon six hour liquid measurements taken at DCA.  Exclude

six hour intervals when snow was absent or mixed at DCA.

 

Long story short, for each six hours that DCA had accumulating snow, use the mean of ratios and the DCA liquid measurements for each six hour interval that had snow accumulation and add up those calcs.

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And I'd bet that they followed the protocol overnight and abandoned it this morning. Their 14" total at 7am was reasonable and within an inch of what a lot of people in the immediate area were reporting. And then it went completely off the rails. I joked earlier about the Day Shift screwing up the Night Shift's good work, but maybe that's really what happened.[/quote

It's truly horrifying. Let them make the zoo have an official weather station for DC and outsource their measurements to people who care about science.

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Last band is quietly snowing itself out overhead. Last 3 inches have been pure Colorado powder. 30 straight hours of snow with no breaks. Cold to start and cold to finish. Definitely my favorite storm and a benchmark.

I have a lot of work to do tomorrow and I'm already sore. Lol

ETA: All 3 airports and almost all MA peeps beat annual climo today!

 

What was your total?

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I'm on a farm with wide open spaces so the drifting is ridiculous. I would say based on several measurements I found a low of 27" and a high of 34" lol. I think 28-30" is about right. How did you do?

At 715 I came up with 26.5. Its probably 27 that fell since its been mod since but its difficult.

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Two things here:  1)  The heavy snow obs are based on precipitation falling and visibility, 2) the automated gauges are prone to undercatch, especially during windy conditions.

True but snow is supposed to be measured on snow board every 6 hours with the snow board cleaned after each 6 hour measurement.   I have to admit I don't follow the guidlines so I proably under measure but I'm not an official measurement.  It's discouraging that DCA often seems to get it wrong and this time, maybe more than most 

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