22 Storms in NE: Winter 2009-2010 Radar Loop

Today what could be the last Nor'easter of the season is affecting the Northeastern U.S. It's interesting if you compare the heavy rain area for today's storm with the heavy snow area from this winter, they are very similar. Major storms are continuing to move up the East Coast as they have all season, it's just warmer now so we're seeing rain instead of snow.* These winter storms have dropped 30-40 inches of rain (and liquid snow) in the I-95 corridor, which would normally only receive 20-25 inches over the winter (below is a "departure from normal" precipitation map via NOAA).

Here's a 4-month radar animation from December 1, 2009 to yesterday, showing (what I count as) 22 major storms that doused the Northeast. You can download a high-res version here as a MP4 or <a href="MOV file. A slower version is available here.

* SIDEBAR: People will often say "Hey what if all this rain was snow?" but that isn't entirely accurate because the lack of cold air is sometimes what makes for huge rainfall amounts (example: hurricanes) so in most cases if more cold air were present, less precipitation would fall. In other words, you can't assume that this storm's 6 inches of rain would have been 60 inches of snow (using the approximate 10:1 ratio conversion) if it had taken place earlier in the season when temperatures were colder.