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March 13-14 Storm Observations


The Iceman

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13 minutes ago, The Iceman said:

I don't think the general public really cares if qpf was far off or not. they only care if the snow amount was close to what was forecasted. I highly doubt there would have been mass closings if 3-6 was forecasted, which is what verified from Philly and surrounding burbs on east. i have seen many posts already on social media from non Weather hobbyists about how bad the weather people screwed this up and that such and such should not have closed. roads have been very good all morning even in the heavy sleet since they were all treated. with heavy traffic most of them would have just been wet. fact is the busted snow forecast cost a lot of people in the area a lot of money for a storm that wasn't really all that disruptive.

Many roads here in Central bucks are still snow covered.  Schools everywhere would have been canceled for this event regardless, save for SNJ

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6 minutes ago, hazwoper said:

Many roads here in Central bucks are still snow covered.  Schools everywhere would have been canceled for this event regardless, save for SNJ

can't say the same for lower bucks. highly doubt Pennsbury neshaminy or Bristol Township close without the hype. would have been a 2 hour delay. i went to ewing just to get coffee and take a ride early this morning and it was about equal to Fridays event road wise and no one got off for that. also zero chance philly schools would have closed if this storm wasn't hyped and was properly forecasted.

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I suppose it's a matter of your exact location.  Where I am, the combo of snow and sleet added up to about 8 inches.  Roads are horrible, and the people who didn't go to work - or decided to close schools in my area - were smart to do so.

Trust me - the storm in 2001 was a much bigger bust due to almost nothing at all happening in our region.  This was a lot more like the sleet storms in 2007 - although the threat for sleet/zr was highlighted better for Philly and it's suburbs leading up to those storms.  Still, there were some models prior to those storms showing the suburbs getting a foot or more of snow - instead of 4 to 5 inches of sleet.

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2 minutes ago, JCT777 said:

I suppose it's a matter of your exact location.  Where I am, the combo of snow and sleet added up to about 8 inches.  Roads are horrible, and the people who didn't go to work - or decided to close schools in my area - were smart to do so.

Trust me - the storm in 2001 was a much bigger bust due to almost nothing at all happening in our region.  This was a lot more like the sleet storms in 2007 - although the threat for sleet/zr was highlighted better for Philly and it's suburbs leading up to those storms.  Still, there were some models prior to those storms showing the suburbs getting a foot or more of snow - instead of 4 to 5 inches of sleet.

 

I agree 2001 does not equal 2017

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1 minute ago, zenmsav6810 said:

I agree 2001 does not equal 2017

Yes, 2001 is in a league of it's own. We got the storm this time, just the rain/snow/mix line didn't behave as expected.

I expected to go to IP at some point but still anticipated much of the storm to be mainly snow imby. And I didn't expect to sleet to get as far north and west as it did. You learn something new with each storm.

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18 minutes ago, The Iceman said:

also zero chance philly schools would have closed if this storm wasn't hyped and was properly forecasted.

In this case I would disagree being a product of the public schools here.  IMHO, it was the right call to close because of the sheer amount of sleet that built up.  Most public school students either walk or ride SEPTA to school.  Not that many have a yellow bus to pick them up at their front door (I certainly never had one the entire 12 years, and 4 schools that I went to - I either walked, rode a SEPTA bus or - at least back then - got on a Penn Central train (now regional rail) both up to Chestnut Hill or downtown to Suburban Station depending on the school).  The regional rails were on a Sat. schedule today and the buses were limited to (according to SEPTA) the "primary routes" - meaning those that run on major streets that connect up to the El or subway.  With the wind, it makes it worse and kids trying to walk on un-shoveled walks or around plowed mounds at the corners would have been a mess.  And further south in the city it was a more significant ice storm due to the longer duration of rain.

I got done partially un-encasing my car from the hard styrofoam-like layer of cement that was on it.  About to go back out to do the roof (this is a SUV).  It's scary when you walk on this stuff and you don't sink down except in unexpected random spots. :axe:

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38 minutes ago, The Iceman said:

can't say the same for lower bucks. highly doubt Pennsbury neshaminy or Bristol Township close without the hype. would have been a 2 hour delay. i went to ewing just to get coffee and take a ride early this morning and it was about equal to Fridays event road wise and no one got off for that. also zero chance philly schools would have closed if this storm wasn't hyped and was properly forecasted.

well, the roads were terrible here and I can confirm there is no way we would have had school in Council Rock

There is no way even Pennsbury would have only had a delay with sleet falling until noon.  sorry, but you're wrong

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I think this storm was just like 2001 for some locations, jersey shore for example with their Blizzard warnings and their 8-14 inch prognosis only to end up an inch is very much 2001 ish.

Its snowing right now but the March Sun angle is killing it, takes me back to March 2001, it snow'd that day, but didn't accumulate. Meanwhile we watch as New England gets destroyed, getting the snow that was suppose to be ours, yet another March 2001 flashback.

I also remember the unnecessary hype of March 2001, which was similar to this one, people seemed to be in a "this is a big one" panic without any type of rational really.

Feb 14, 2007 was a different ballgame, I remember not much being predicted and we ended up with a freezing rain storm with tons of trees down, a complete mess. So that worked out where we ended up with more, not less.

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This storm was definitely a major bust, but nowhere near 01.  The best snow of this storm is RIGHT NOW for Horsham PA.  I had 7.5" total of mix, 4.5" then cleared, and another 3".  That was at 10am.  I'm guessing another inch fell between 10am and before this last batch came, which looks to be adding another inch or two.  That's probably close to 10" total of accumulating snow/sleet before this is over.  There has been a ton of compaction with the sleet, speaking of, what are the requirements of measuring sleet when it is this substantial? 

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So while we were out uncasing vehicles I said to my husband, the life threatening part of this storm will be from the folks and truckers NOT CLEANING OFF their roofs and chunks of ice will be flying off and I pray no one gets seriously injured or killed.   Be careful out there folks.  Heat your cars up a bit, it's easier that way!

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That last round of surprise snow added about 1/4" to my total bringing me up to 4" compacted snow/sleet.  Currently 32F and now getting some dripping.  Still windy and blowing the powder off the top of the concrete slop layer.  There was a brief period where there was some blue sky showing but am getting rounds of stratus rolling in.

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1 hour ago, Mdecoy said:

I think this storm was just like 2001 for some locations, jersey shore for example with their Blizzard warnings and their 8-14 inch prognosis only to end up an inch is very much 2001 ish.

Its snowing right now but the March Sun angle is killing it, takes me back to March 2001, it snow'd that day, but didn't accumulate. Meanwhile we watch as New England gets destroyed, getting the snow that was suppose to be ours, yet another March 2001 flashback.

I also remember the unnecessary hype of March 2001, which was similar to this one, people seemed to be in a "this is a big one" panic without any type of rational really.

Feb 14, 2007 was a different ballgame, I remember not much being predicted and we ended up with a freezing rain storm with tons of trees down, a complete mess. So that worked out where we ended up with more, not less.

NJ expat here - grew up near the north end of Mt. Holly CWA.

This event shouldn't be matched with 2001 (as others have noted), but is more like January 2015, when a 12-16" forecast (Gloucester Cty, where we were visiting family) produced all snow, but only 1.5" which was gone 4 hr after accum ended.  Unlike 3/01 and 1/15 when the strengthening came too far north, this area got the whole storm but with the wrong p-type. 

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1 hour ago, zenmsav6810 said:

What a waste of a blizzard warning. I think mt holly jumped the gun on that aspect. Winter storm warning probably would have been adequate. Of course this could have broke the other way.

 

dude...

this forecast was impossible.  The only ez call was the forecast up here, where it was ez going to be all snow.  ( even I was shocked during that 30 minute period of sleet...when it was 20 degrees)  

last night I still think they did the right thing by keeping the blizzard warnings up.  Think about it, it was a last minute jog west at 0z...they wouldn't cancel everything because of 1 model run.  plus, with the airmass crashing just above the surface....i'm sure the thought process was that it would be a quick mixing issue...and switch back.  

but then another warmer trend...and another..  

tough call indeed.   last minute warming trends are bad, but prob not as bad as a fish storm. 

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18 minutes ago, Sophisticated Skeptic said:

 

dude...

this forecast was impossible.  The only ez call was the forecast up here, where it was ez going to be all snow.  ( even I was shocked during that 30 minute period of sleet...when it was 20 degrees)  

last night I still think they did the right thing by keeping the blizzard warnings up.  Think about it, it was a last minute jog west at 0z...they wouldn't cancel everything because of 1 model run.  plus, with the airmass crashing just above the surface....i'm sure the thought process was that it would be a quick mixing issue...and switch back.  

but then another warmer trend...and another..  

tough call indeed.   last minute warming trends are bad, but prob not as bad as a fish storm. 

 

Im not really basing this judgement off the snow so much as the lack of wind

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