UPDATE: CentreDaily.com says the following records were broken:
+ Earliest measured snowfall. The previous record was 1 inch of snow that fell Oct. 17, 1977.
+ Snowiest October ever. Previous record snowfall for October was 3.1 inches in 2002.
+ Coldest Oct. 15 on record, with a high of just 39 degrees
+ Most snowfall on Oct. 15-16. The total measured 4.7 inches at Penn State’s University Park campus.
+ Wettest Oct. 15-16 on record, with 1.33 inches of water
UPDATE: I'm not the only one posting pics from the area... check out pics & videos from Frank Strait, Elliot Abrams, and others.
Here's an updated list of snow totals:
Centre Hall (Summit): 9.0"
Germania: 8.0"
Pocono Summit: 6.1"
Port Matilda, Stormstown, Park Forest: 6.0"
UPDATE: Here are some photos of the damage I took on the way to work this morning:
I'm really flabbergasted by the amount of snow and damage here in State College, PA, as are many of the meteorologists at AccuWeather. Best estimates are that we have 7 inches of snow here at AccuWeather HQ with probably more on the nearby ridges. Get outside of town, amounts decrease rapidly.
Here are some pictures I took yesterday with the fall foliage and snow.
It really seems that, for once, we were the epicenter of the snow. Over 10,000 are without power according to the local paper (which, up until 7 AM this morning referred to the event as "heavy precipitation" not snow). As I said yesterday, this broke the record for earliest measurable snowfall, and probably daily, perhaps October total snowfall. Trees and limbs are down everywhere; school is closed. I'm uploading pictures of the damage now - this morning I was within about a minute of a large branch closing a major road north of AccuWeather HQ!
And the craziest thing: There will be more snow tonight, to the tune of at least 5 inches according to AccuWeather.com - for some forecast models it's over a foot!
Here are the highest amounts so far:
State College, PA: 7.0"*
Stormstown, PA: 6.0"
Wellsville, NY: 5.5"
Pleasant Gap, PA: 5.0"
*Non-NWS report.
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Jesse,
I live in Easton PA. We received 1" of snow on 10/10/79
Posted by Rich | October 17, 2009 9:39 PM
Strange cloud filmed over Moscow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPE9Jl16T5c
Thanks James, I said something about this last week in "J's Breaking Weather News (at Right)":
Russia UFO Cloud - http://j.mp/kuG1E Doesn't baffle me... probably a Hole-Punch Cloud http://j.mp/12Bpgy with the sun at an unusual angle
Posted by JamesD | October 17, 2009 12:37 AM
What a great early season or for that matter any season dump for you guys in SC! You have earned it after the last few cruddy years. Now lets hope its translates into a overall snowy winter for the east
Posted by bart | October 16, 2009 11:39 AM
Thanks for posting those pictures Jesse! It was a cold rainy day for us down here in Maryland, but hopefully the AccuWeather winter outlook comes true and we can have some snowy days of our own.
Keep up the great work!
Posted by K | October 16, 2009 10:11 AM
While you're a great photographer, you have to admit that http://photo.accuweather.com/photogallery/details/photo/90283/Halloween+Snowman takes the prize for this storm :)
As to the question of whether this storm portends a snowy winter, hasn't that question partially been answered already? If the area receives an average of 45 inches of snow a year, and there may be a total of 12 (or even 18, if that model is correct) inches from this storm, then 1/4 of the entire year's normal snowfall has fallen already. It would actually have to be unusually non-snowy during the "winter" for this season to be below average, probably in the bottom 20th percentile of Nov-Apr "winters," right?
Posted by Steve | October 16, 2009 9:23 AM
i still remember the gfs model a couple days back showing between 14-16 inchs of snow right in the heart of central pennsylvania and i thought it was being rediculous because ultimately i thought there would be more rain then snow and obviously more rain would mean less snow and after seeing that total in state college i don't know- well 2009 in general has broken several records- in fact North Little Rock-close where i live in arkansas-is only 6.65 inchs of rain to be the rainest year on record
Posted by Donny | October 16, 2009 9:08 AM