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December 16/17 Snow Wall Obs Thread


hazwoper
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25 minutes ago, Ralph Wiggum said:

Prior to the flip to sleet, I measured 6" of fluff here in Warminster. I cleared the measuring board and woke to an additional 2.75" of fresh snow/sleet on the board Does that count as a grand total of 8.75" then? Just trying to be accurate. 

I can tell you that as a trained spotter it also matters how often you clean the board. I believe it should be every 6 hours you clean it once but yeah clearing it before the sleet was a good idea. That should count yes. 

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Probably about 7-8" in Pottstown. New blower (two stage rider) from two seasons ago worked like a champ. Wrap around was a nada here. Roads were still pretty rough near Pottstown on my way over to East Earl at 9:30 am this morning. A little overforecasted but the deep interior made out. Not bad for December.    

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5 hours ago, Newman said:

You're right! I measured too early haha. Went out this morning and another inch fell. 10.5" storm total. Solid storm. Getting into work this morning was a nightmare. 

Even though it wasn't the blockbuster that was advertised it was a nice storm, heavy snow wind, heavy sleet wind, back to moderate snow with wind. Ill take it for Mid December. 

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Dozens of measurements here average 8" on the grass, which means inflated number, but with sleet and compaction it probably cancels out the inflation who knows. Also taking into account measurements in the region it's probably right.

2" backside snow got it to bare minimum expectation.

 

 

 

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6 minutes ago, RedSky said:

Successfully warned everyone I know not to believe in the big numbers that sleet would keep it down at 8" or possibly less

 

I believe even in Orange County, NY most places only had 10-12". Incredible considering that many models had that general area being on the northern fringe a few days before.

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Final measurements out there (compacted from sleet/snow, average 5 spots including my little board) was 5.51".   The big PITA was doing the liquid equivalent.  Just trying to get the tube off the mount was a nuisance. :axe: 

I did both what had collected in the tube and then a core sample.  What was interesting (other than my back door being drifted in :huh:) was how powdery it was - even with all the sleet and the period of freezing rain.  I expected a whole layer of crunch on top with soft stuff underneath and it wasn't like that at all.  I think that is because it never got above freezing here the entire event duration, including antecedent conditions (literally stayed in the 26 - 28 range during the event) and the same was the case post-storm, where it eventually bottomed out to 23 after 3 am and didn't hit freezing or above until just before 11 am.  So I didn't seem to get my expected "club sandwich layers" when I did a core.

In any event, the "practice" (open tube accumulation) + the tube "core" sample gave me 1.13" and 1.16" liquid equivalent respectively (needed 2.00" hot water to get each attempt melted in a reasonable time). Edit to note I used my trusty "spiked" lanternfly/stinkbug swatter as a spatula - worked great! :lmao:

So with the 5.51" and 1.15" (rounded) water equivalent gives me about 4.8 : 1 ratio.  This makes sense with the temps and the periods of pancake/dinner-plate sized flakes initially (plus the periods of sleet and ZR) and then very fine stuff from the wrap-around.

Current obs - a surprising 34 degrees with dp 28 and cloudy.

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1 hour ago, RedSky said:

This storm reminds of one we had in I think the winter of 2017 forecasted for 12-18" area wide and it dry slotted and I got something like 7" 

 

March 2017 storm? The great sleet storm in that one, 14" total even though was advertised 2 feet in the medium range (just like this storm). I'd say this one was fairly close in many regards. It acted more like a SWFE.

 

On another note, anyone see those 40"+ reports coming from NY? Insanity! Those Kuchera maps verified after all, which doesn't surprise me. Deep cold air with such a moist system will create insane ratios and totals.

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I think you guys did a wonderful job with this one!   I went with 6” or less here telling a few folks it’s going to sleet/rain at night but they were stuck on the tv mets previous forecasts! 
 

Being by myself now, wishing we didn’t turn the garage into the Eagles nest-the car took me 10 minutes to just get the door open to start it, another 20/30 minutes cleaning it off, and a few tries back and forth to get over the hump since my son came thru the lane with the tractor.    Next storm I will go out in shifts.  

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