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November 2018 Discussions & Observations Thread


Rtd208
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3 minutes ago, JerseyWx said:

Well it says the snow has to melt when it hits the ground, not that it actually has to "wet" the ground.  I could be wrong too, just how I'm seeing it.

You’re right I was wrong, it just needs to melt on the ground. So that means even a few flurries are a trace as long as they do reach the ground.

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2 hours ago, Toekneeweather said:

They have to wet the ground don’t you see it on the text that national weather service states. Today we had a trace of frozen stuff but longbeachsurf was talking about a few snow flurries that is not a trace. Flakes flying around and never really wetting the ground is not a trace. Maybe I’m wrong but I can picture a trace basically some white rain and boom it’s a trace

Bingo!  White rain is a trace of snow.  Record a T.  Why is this so hard for some people?

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4 hours ago, Toekneeweather said:

No it isn’t you can’t record a trace of snow if there are twenty flurries that don’t even hit the ground. You actually need more like a snow shower, we already went through this

 

from national weather service 

Snow often melts as it lands. If snow continually melts as it lands, and the accumulation never reaches 0.1 inches on your measuring surface, snowfall should be recorded as a trace (T) and record in your remarks that the "snow melted as it landed

What I said is basically what's stated there lol.  Of course the snow flakes hit the ground, they just melt as they hit.  What you're talking about is virga and that only happens higher up in the atmosphere.

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2 hours ago, Toekneeweather said:

They have to wet the ground don’t you see it on the text that national weather service states. Today we had a trace of frozen stuff but longbeachsurf was talking about a few snow flurries that is not a trace. Flakes flying around and never really wetting the ground is not a trace. Maybe I’m wrong but I can picture a trace basically some white rain and boom it’s a trace

What exactly do you think happens to those snowflakes?  "Wetting" the ground is a very subjective thing, if the snow flakes dont accumulate, they are melting, it has to be one or the other.  Either they accumulate when they hit the ground or they melt.  I think you're thinking of virga, which happens much higher in the atmosphere.  Once you see a snowflake a few feet above the ground (let's say 6 feet- the normal height of a person) it doesn't have any room or time left to become virga, it will either hit the ground and accumulate or melt.  If it's only a few snow flakes you may never notice the "wetness" but that doesn't mean that it didn't hit the ground lol.

The idea of virga does bring up an interesting point though.  Is it possible for someone to witness snowflakes near the top of a skyscraper (like let's say the Empire State Building) that dry up before ever hitting the ground?  We know that snow can change to rain from that height, but can we also have virga from that height?

 

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