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PD3.5 Lite Obs and Nowcasting


Bob Chill

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About 2 1/4" here, but most surfaces have 0.25" - 0.5" less because accumulations started later.  There was a lot of compaction.  In the last 2-3 hours of the storm, cleared areas gained about an inch, but areas with existing snow cover only gained about 1/2".  I suspect if I'd been clearing and measuring repeatedly, the total would probably be closer to 3".

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18 minutes ago, Coach McGuirk said:

They are always warmer than the general area.  They probably measure close to the tarmac next to jets taking off. 

They didn't measure when the snow stopped(they are not required to do so although it's recommended). They measured hours after so melting and compaction lowered the total. Unfortunately the .2 is not the snowfall, it's what was left at the 7pm measurement. Other locations are much better at following NWS snowfall measurement recommendations. We should have people who care about science measure at the zoo as an additional official reporting location for DC. 

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2 minutes ago, Negnao said:

They didn't measure when the snow stopped(they are not required to do so although it's recommended). They measured hours after so melting and compaction lowered the total. Unfortunately the .2 is not the snowfall, it's what was left at the 7pm measurement. Other locations are much better at following NWS snowfall measurement recommendations. We should have people who care about science measure at the zoo as an additional official reporting location for DC. 

Pretty sure they care more about the planes than the snow. 

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1 hour ago, das said:

Wow!  All the best returns stayed south?

Edited to add:  Looks like it.  Clarksburg may have been the sweet spot on this one:

 

The Upper MoCo band lived today. Almost cracked 3", but I flipped to sleet for a time and ruined the chance. Still got about 2.6" as the total. I'll take that with this event. Snow caked on the trees bringing beauty to the night. 

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53 minutes ago, Warm Nose said:

DCA will never be representative again until they move the obs location. It's basically irrelevant at this point.

DCA needs to stay to stay where it is and keep the name for aviation purposes.  We need to make another station at the National Mall kind of like central park in NYC.

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The Upper MoCo band lived today. Almost cracked 3", but I flipped to sleet for a time and ruined the chance. Still got about 2.6" as the total. I'll take that with this event. Snow caked on the trees bringing beauty to the night. 

My holly trees are literally resting their branches on my car

 

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2 hours ago, das said:

3.1” for the total here in Clarksburg.  All snow.  Nice little quick-hitter between 70F days. 

I'm ready for spring.  Hope we don't get any more snow or cold this ''winter'' unless we are gonna get a March '93 redux.  I'd like to torch and get a string of like 3 days in the low 80s in March.

2 hours ago, high risk said:

    yeah, it's been my experience that the snow depth maps can run low, but in these tough call events, they tend to be way better than the 10:1 maps.    In this case, the depth maps were underdone in central MD, but they sure told me that the 10:1 map idea of 6" in southern Howard and 3-5" for all of DC Metro and southern MD wouldn't be the way to go either.

    Even the Ferrier map was underdone, telling me that the NAM had the sleet line advancing north too quickly.     That seems plausible, as the initial thump stayed snowy longer and got cranking early, allowing a larger part of the area to start tallying up snow.

In events like this I used snow depth and Kuchera when forecasting my low and high range respectively.  It's almost spot on every time.

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4 minutes ago, Eskimo Joe said:

I'm ready for spring.  Hope we don't get any more snow or cold this ''winter'' unless we are gonna get a March '93 redux.  I'd like to torch and get a string of like 3 days in the low 80s in March.

In events like this I used snow depth and Kuchera when forecasting my low and high range respectively.  It's almost spot on every time.

I was pleasantly surprised to out perform the euro's Kuchera plots. Only becuase temps ended a few degrees colder and it made all the difference.

A good rule of thumb with 10:1 maps is to only consider them when it's below freezing well before onset and stays below for the entire event. Clean storms like that are more rare than ones like today.

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Well I took a little trip to Jefferson County tonight.

Yesterday I went to the casino and stayed all night, finally winning 240 dollars. However, I was very tired today and I managed to SLEEP RIGHT THROUGH ALL OF THE SNOW AND SLEET lmao. It turned out to be an afternoon delight and was over by 6pm lol.

We got a half inch of sleet and snow in Dale City, on car tops and on grass. Streets and sidewalks were just wet.

Well, I got on the Prince William Parkway then on Liberia then on Rt 28. Once I got past Dulles, I noticed slightly more snow on the fields I was passing. When I hit Rt 7, there was no doubt about it, there was more snow on the ground there by GWU and the Indoor Skydiving building. There also started to be snow on the roadsides as well. Once I went over the Skyway and got on the western part of Rt 7, you could see lots snow on trees. It was mostly wet snow here and likely very little sleet. Then I topped the hill and hit Rt 9. WOW what a winter wonderland! Wet snow had gotten onto everything! All i could say was wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow! It was hard to believe all the snow ON SIDE ROADS! I topped that ridge where the state border is and they must have had three inches of fresh wet snow on the ground there! Just WOW! Then I descended into Charles Town, and it looked like probably an inch or so of snow on the ground. There was snow on trees there too. Western Virginia and West Virginia get some excellent weather compared to us in Dale City, lol. I love this place!

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1 hour ago, Jebman said:

<snip>

I decided to take your advice and drive to the favored areas. Didn't feel like going all the way to Jefferson Co. so going to Leesburg seemed like a decent compromise. I needed to do some shopping so I decided to go to the Leesburg outlet mall. It started in the form of small hail & ice pellets and eventually turned into snow. I was out and around there for a few hours and as time went on, the flakes got bigger and the rates got faster. At around 4:30, grass and trees were covered in white and the roads were starting to be whitened as well. The drive back on R7 was amazing. I passed by the Indoor Skydiving like you did. Visibility was pretty low and the background was covered in white. A glorious site to behold. I got back home at around 6 when it started to change to rain. Measured about 1.2" at my place and was surprised I got that much. I fell asleep after lol

I could have taken more pictures if my phone didn't run out of battery on the drive back.

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bonus video:

 

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