Blizzard of 2016 vs. history, neat model maps

The Blizzard of 2016 has begun. Keep up with the latest news on our live blog. I will also upload any additional interesting maps to my Facebook & Twitter pages this weekend. This is what it looks like at 3 PM Friday:

Here's our final snow map, along with similar historical storms for comparison:

As you can see, there's no exact match; it's like the 2010 blizzard, but more favorable for Virginia. Blizzard 2016 doesn't extend as far into New England as the Blizzard of 1993, 1983, or even 2003.

We talked earlier this week about the SREF plumes... I think Winchester, Virginia is the winner... the model there is predicting between 18 and 52 inches of snow, with a mean of 33 inches!

The experimental HRRR model has some neat maps of the snow, including this one, which shows accumulated snow depth. Note that there is a large area of 2 feet+, but some of the snow will pack down, so this won't be the reality of end measurements.