September 2025 OBS-Discussion centered NYC subforum

[FPizz]

14 hours ago, Sundog said:

The was the first and last time I was able to "shovel" 8 inches of snow with a broom, and I mean really effortlessly. 

The ratios were outrageous. 

Feb 16-17 2024, the foot of snow we got here was like that.  Ratios were 20 to 30:1

[TheClimateChanger]

2 minutes ago, Sundog said:

If not wildfire smoke then what would it be?

Well, I think it was wildfire smoke, but it wasn't without some questions. Sounds like the thought of wildfire smoke from Canada causing such an obstruction to the sky was just unthinkable in 1950, if they had only been around these days, it's no big deal anymore.

[LibertyBell]

14 minutes ago, TheClimateChanger said:

Interesting to see 1950 as the record low at Newark. Today is the 75th anniversary of Black Sunday. Very cold and dark day, with high temperatures in the 40s around the Great Lakes.

Black Sunday: Darkness falls in the PA Wilds - Pennsylvania Wilds

The Day the Sun Disappeared—September 24, 1950 - Burchfield Penney Art Center

 

 

Even 49/40 at Pittsburgh!

Are we sure wildfires in Western Canada caused all this?  It looks like night time in the middle of the day....

[LibertyBell]

16 minutes ago, TheClimateChanger said:

Interesting to see 1950 as the record low at Newark. Today is the 75th anniversary of Black Sunday. Very cold and dark day, with high temperatures in the 40s around the Great Lakes.

Black Sunday: Darkness falls in the PA Wilds - Pennsylvania Wilds

The Day the Sun Disappeared—September 24, 1950 - Burchfield Penney Art Center

 

 

Interesting news stories from 1950 lol, I take it the Korean war was ongoing?

 

[Sundog]

4 minutes ago, FPizz said:

Feb 16-17 2024, the foot of snow we got here was like that.  Ratios were 20 to 30:1

Ah yes my favorite event of that year

I think LGA had like 40:1 ratios in the 2004 event. 

[donsutherland1]

26 minutes ago, LibertyBell said:

I wonder how strong it is forecast to be when it approaches land

The preponderance of guidance had it either as a tropical depression or tropical storm. Intensity forecasts this far out aren't very accurate. 

[LibertyBell]

2 minutes ago, TheClimateChanger said:

Well, I think it was wildfire smoke, but it wasn't without some questions. Sounds like the thought of wildfire smoke from Canada causing such an obstruction to the sky was just unthinkable in 1950, if they had only been around these days, it's no big deal anymore.

It looks MUCH worse than what we went through a few years ago.

Are we sure it wasn't smoke from some mushroom cloud of nuclear testing going on somewhere?

[LibertyBell]

6 minutes ago, FPizz said:

Feb 16-17 2024, the foot of snow we got here was like that.  Ratios were 20 to 30:1

Was this another PD snowstorm that doesn't get talked about much?

 

By the way, I remembered another storm like that, I think it was in January 2022? The one that gave Brooklyn and Queens and points east a foot or more of snow.

The wind mostly blew the snow away so I didn't need to shovel at all.

[LibertyBell]

10 minutes ago, TheClimateChanger said:

They claim the smoke was at 15,000 to 20,000 above the ground, so probably minimal impact. But the AQI would have been horrible back then just from industry most likely.

Oh that's a good point maybe air pollution from industrial smoke stacks in PA also had an influence.

 

[SACRUS]

[FPizz]

3 minutes ago, LibertyBell said:

Was this another PD snowstorm that doesn't get talked about much?

 

By the way, I remembered another storm like that, I think it was in January 2022? The one that gave Brooklyn and Queens and points east a foot or more of snow.

The wind mostly blew the snow away so I didn't need to shovel at all.

This was a narrow band of heavy snow.  It lead to a normal winter for here while most had a well below average winter.  Shows how snow averages can vary widely for parts of areas by decade.  

[TheClimateChanger]

5 minutes ago, LibertyBell said:

Oh that's a good point maybe air pollution from industrial smoke stacks in PA also had an influence.

 

Yeah, I suspect haze and smoke from human-caused pollution also contributed to the darkness. In those days, it wasn't unheard of to have local spells of pollution pretty much block out the sky on their own.

Here's another site from 25 years ago, with witness experiences in the comments: darksunday

Looking at the area that was darkest, maybe a combination of wildfire smoke, industrial pollution, and lake effect clouds with the record cold air passing over the Lakes on the northwest flow.

[LibertyBell]

4 minutes ago, FPizz said:

This was a narrow band of heavy snow.  It lead to a normal winter for here while most had a well below average winter.  Shows how snow averages can vary widely for parts of areas by decade.  

This was our best storm in YEARS, notice how JFK had over 6 inches of snow too

we have a Central NJ kind of climate here lol

 

[LibertyBell]

2 minutes ago, TheClimateChanger said:

Yeah, I suspect haze and smoke from human-caused pollution also contributed to the darkness. In those days, it wasn't unheard of to have local spells of pollution pretty much block out the sky on their own.

Here's another site from 25 years ago, with witness experiences in the comments: darksunday

This was a bad time to be alive, I think London had a similar instance of air pollution, but there thousands of people died (there was some sort of inversion that caused the poisonous chemicals to remain near the ground and spread via a mysterious yellow fog.)

[Sundog]

9 minutes ago, FPizz said:

This was a narrow band of heavy snow.  It lead to a normal winter for here while most had a well below average winter.  Shows how snow averages can vary widely for parts of areas by decade.  

I begrudgingly gave you a like lol

[FPizz]

24 minutes ago, Sundog said:

I begrudgingly gave you a like lol

Haha, you guys cashed in on some coastals over the years that didn't do much here, but it does find a way to eventually even out.  

[anthonymm]

Wow disgusting mid july like dew points in place for the next several days. Yuck and why is this happening when it's almost October :/

[Dark Star]

1 hour ago, LibertyBell said:

This was a bad time to be alive, I think London had a similar instance of air pollution, but there thousands of people died (there was some sort of inversion that caused the poisonous chemicals to remain near the ground and spread via a mysterious yellow fog.)

Sulfur from bituminous coal, the low grade coal.  Both industrial and residential.  I think this incident help kick them off of coal?

[steve392]

It is just down right oppressive outside.  Did it even rain overnight? 

[the_other_guy]

1 hour ago, anthonymm said:

Wow disgusting mid july like dew points in place for the next several days. Yuck and why is this happening when it's almost October :/

I was just thinking the same thing as I sit in the traffic cesspool that Queens has become

[Sundog]

2 minutes ago, the_other_guy said:

I was just thinking the same thing as I sit in the traffic cesspool that Queens has become

I don't recall Queens ever not being a traffic cesspool