Blizzard 2010 v. 2.0: Final Totals, Maps, Photos
UPDATE 2:30 PM: We've updated our map again (old one here) based on some of your suggestions, and will probably refine it again in tomorrow even more. One note: at this time, we are not including snow in the southern Appalachians due to upsloping winds -- not directly related to the snow storm.
Someone asked if I am going to list wind speeds. Outside of what I did in last night's Carolinas Wind article, probably not -- winds weren't very impressive during this storm. I like to see winds over 50 or 60 mph before I do a list. I will say that they buoys showed some impressive stuff, such as waves over 26 feet and Buoy #44141 off the Canadian coast has pressure at 28.51" and still falling - that's within a hair of Category 3 Hurricane Pressure. On land, Nantucket dropped to 28.93". Worth noting too that this storm has spread high waves and storm surge in to the Caribbean and put a cold front through Haiti.
And finally, some people asked about why the storm didn't deliver as much snow as expected in CT/RI/MA and I have addressed that in the Comments below.
If you haven't already, check out the photos of the storm from the Photo Gallery & our Facebook Fans:
LATEST MODERATORS PICKS FROM PHOTO GALLERY (TAG "SNOW")
UPDATE: Here's our preliminary map. Please leave Comments as to what you think is wrong, and we will take them into consideration, but please realize that we can't include everyone's house on here and for the large part have to rely on the totals that NOAA issues, especially if your is in start disagreement with nearby points. What we do want to know, though, is if we've missed any big areas.
Here are some final totals from the third major snowstorm in the mid-Atlantic, and a preliminary map. One Ski Resort in Pennsylvania claimed 40 inches and there were several reports of over two feet in Maryland.
NOTE: This map is from NOAA NORHSC and goes through 7 PM last night only. I will upload a better version later today and AccuWeather.com will have a map as well which I'll post here.
Liberty, PA: 40.0"* Garrett, MD: 28.0" Wisp, MD: 24.0"* Canaan Valley, WV: 24.0"* Davis, WV: 26.0"** Ortanna, PA: 27.5" Mountain Creek, NJ: 21.0"* Wintergreen, VA: 21.0"* Ewing, NJ: 18.7" Great Kills, NY: 17.0" Chevy Chase Village, D.C.: 15.5" Lucketts, VA: 14.0" Bear & Wilmington, DE: 12.8" Greenwich, CT: 12.5" North Kingston, RI: 8.5" East Sandwich, MA: 8.3"MORE CITIES
*Ski Resort; **May not be correct; not reported by HPC; runner up: Martinsburg, WV: 16.0"
Comments (21):
jfr117:
Jesse, here in north, central CT (BDL) after the morning's hole filled in, we had radar returns indicating decent snow, but in fact it just didn't come down hard and when it did, it didn't accumulate. The T's were much warmer than i thoguht they would be. Without the snow, we were in the mid 30's by noon. When the snow really started it dropped to 32 and stayed there. It is my supposition that this dramatically decreased the ratios.
Posted by jfr117 | February 12, 2010 8:53 AM
Toad:
Merrick in southern Nassau County on Long Island received 15.8 inches. Many other towns in the county are reporting very similar numbers.
Posted by Toad | February 11, 2010 9:48 PM
Sam:
Your 12-24 line is way to far south in Eastern Pa...I live in Monroe county(Saylorsburg,Pa) and we got about 16" of snow and we are in the 6-12 range.
Posted by Sam | February 11, 2010 9:43 PM
Vince Dio:
I do think that everyone needs to understand what a Blizzard is. This storm for a small area might have had blizzard conditions but the I-95 corridor did not. The NWS did not do a good job with that. The one thing that these storms did not have was wind and dry powdery snow. I live in NW Jersey and the 1996 snowstorm we had we had drifts over 8 to 10 feet. We had 40 to 50 mile gusts on the front side and on the back side of the storm the same thing. Temps started out at 5 and the storm was blinding. That was a blizzard. These are good snowstorms but without wind these storms are not paralyzing. Within hours all roads are clear. In 1996 because of the wind road crews took over 24 hours even on main roads on major highways. Good storms but not blizzards.
Posted by Vince Dio | February 11, 2010 9:06 PM
DaveWV:
I see many posts blasting the forecasters... Personally, I envy having a job where you need to be as close as possible to your 'results/output' but are never expected to be EXACTLY right.
Posted by DaveWV | February 11, 2010 8:51 PM
Curtis Carmack:
Jesse,
To add to the other NJ poster, we had about 19" in Summit, which is 10 miles west of Newark and on the top of a small ridge (we always get a little extra out of each storm).
Curt
Posted by Curtis Carmack | February 11, 2010 7:29 PM
Dave in MD:
Jesse, I love your blog. I got about 20 inches of snow in Marriottsville, MD (southeastern Carroll County) from the second storm. I came up with this by measuring 10 locations around my yard and averaging them out - avoiding drifts and obvious low points. How about a primer on how to best scientifically measure snow fo0r a wind blown event?
Posted by Dave in MD | February 11, 2010 4:17 PM
mike:
You still have to come further north with the 3-6 and 6-12 inch zones across NE PA and central New York. Binghamton should be slightly in the 6-12 inch zone, and the 3-6 should be almost up to syracuse, NY
Posted by mike | February 11, 2010 4:00 PM
Randy:
It's really depressing here in Maine! Not a half inch of snow has fallen here in southern Maine since January 20th! All along Route 95 from Portsmouth, NH to Bangor, Maine the ground is 90% bare. In fact, a winter festival scheduled for this weekend in Portland had to be called off because of - would you believe - lack of snow!
For the entire season to date, Portland has received just 33.9". Nearby Concord, NH has received 38.9." At my home in York Maine, I’m at 39.1” season to date. However, eastern Maine as a whole did very well in the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 seasons, so that does offer some comfort! That being said, I am still hoping that we can salvage some of this winter!
Posted by Randy | February 11, 2010 2:40 PM
Dan:
I am in Cranford NJ, got 16 inches and am a good distance away from the 12-24 range. Westfield and Clark (neighboring towns) claim closer to 20. I think the 12-24 needs to be nudged to the north.
Posted by Dan | February 11, 2010 2:26 PM
Ryan:
around 35 miles north of NYC we've got 9 or 10 inches.. not the 3-6 that you have us in
Posted by Ryan | February 11, 2010 2:16 PM
Jeff:
I don't think either map is accurate for our location– between Philipsburg and Sandy Ridge, PA. We had 4" on the ground when I plowed yesterday morning, and another 7" when I plowed at the end of the storm. We are at an elevation of 1780 ft., close to the Allegheny Front, and we get some nasty weather. Our temps are usually equal to Emporium, PA, much colder than State College, DuBois or Altoona.
FROM JESSE: Yeah we got shafted in State College with only 4-5", I heard of 10" in Port Matilda area, but I think it was a pretty small area.
Posted by Jeff | February 11, 2010 1:34 PM
E1st:
Might need to drop that 12-24 in zone 30 or 40 miles further south between Baltimore and Washington.
BWI's NWS report was 19.5 inches and many spotter reports in Anne Arundel and Howard counties are in the 18 inch range - currently the southern extent of your 12-24 is just north of Baltimore. It does look like rain/non-snow dropped the totals at the bay itself, but once you get more than a few miles inland the 16-20 totals start piling up. This is the same area that was topping out at 30 a few days earlier.
http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=NWS&issuedby=LWX&product=PNS&format=CI&version=4&glossary=0
Posted by E1st | February 11, 2010 1:05 PM
Rob:
Maps right on to me another Mid Atlantic Wallop. Even though the storm turned North sleet/icy mix, mixed in heavy around central and eastern MD and points North along the coast--the ones who were supposed to get the biggest snows from this one! Either way I live in the Southern Suburbs of Baltimore County we got 20.5 inches(with freezing rain/sleet mixed in for approximately 1 hr.).
Btw Keep the storms coming Jesse, I haven't had class since last Friday :-)
Posted by Rob | February 11, 2010 1:02 PM
Bob S.:
Lamest "Blizzard" in NYC I've ever seen!! This was no where near a blizzard. Central Park .. a whooping 9 inches of snow!!! Geez.... I can hardly walk.
Another overhyped forcast from the boys at AccuWeather. You guys sure know how to make a buck! Hype, hype, hype!!!!
FROM JESSE: Bob, see comments to "Rob. In Connecticut" where I mentioned NYC.
Posted by Bob S. | February 11, 2010 12:56 PM
mike:
You deffinetly have to move higher totals further north across NE PA and the southern tier of NY. Binghamton got between 6-8 inches( not the 1-3 you have right over them) scranton Pa got similar amounts(6-10) but just south of scranton( the area ur map has right on the 1-3 3-6 inch border got 12-18 inches. you can check out NWS binghamtons official reports to verify.
http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=BGM&issuedby=BGM&product=PNS&format=txt&version=1&glossary=0
Posted by mike | February 11, 2010 12:43 PM
Doug:
Hi Jesse,
I didn't see any reports for NC and the NW flow event. Ski Beech resort is reporting 14.5 inches and another reliable source reporting 14 inches in Boone. Although admititedly this was tough to measure due to blizzard conditions, just thought I would add in a note for the WNC mountains. Keep up the good work!
FROM JESSE: Thanks yeah I didn't want to get into that due to lack of time but I appreciate your reports. Also didn't have time to do Midwest totals from the Blizzard.
Posted by Doug | February 11, 2010 12:23 PM
Rob:
Jesse-
Please explain why the forecast busted so bad for Southern New England. We were forecasted in CT for 12" to possibly 18". "Some outlets even had 18" to 24" for the CT shoreline. We were hard-pressed to get 4" for most of the shoreline and parts of Northern CT got a dusting. What happened?
We're waking up today and hearing our TV mets apologizing on the air and reading newspaper headlines like "Snow-verblown" and "sNOw Big Deal".
FROM JESSE: Well, our last forecast map had CT in 3-18" from north to south and the reports on the HPC statement from spotters put actual amounts from 4.5-10". But all of those were in the southwest corner near Long Island.
The problem (like New York City during the last storm) is that you were on the northern edge and the storm didn't come quite as far north as expected in your area, leaving the heavy snow over the ocean, and most of the state with a sharp gradient from almost nothing to several inches. The same was true for the Boston area, and (to a lesser extent) New York City or at least Long Island. Whoever sits on the northern edge of these storms is most likely to come away frustrated, even if the storm's deviation is only 50 miles (looking at the two maps, that's about what the forecast error was for the 6-inch snow line).
Posted by Rob | February 11, 2010 11:51 AM
MikeS:
The map is off substantially. Not sure what source data set they used for that map, as it appears to not to be using any reporting numbers displayed by the local NWS offices. Also we have about 3X what is displayed on the map in my local area (being conservative)
Actually, it's almost 100% what was reported by the NWS office. Where do you live?
Posted by MikeS | February 11, 2010 11:39 AM
Allan:
Hi I would just like to report that Long Beach New York received 8 inches of snow. Now the question is whether mondays clipper will move
harmlessly out to sea or will be another east coast storm. It will be interesting to see how it evolves on the models. We are presently in an interesting El Nino pattern.
Sincerely,
Allan
Posted by Allan | February 11, 2010 11:13 AM
dave:
I don't see any real faith in your estimates. I live in Salisbury, MD. I know how to measure snow. We've had 14 inches, then 18 inches, and now wed. another 10 inches. Measured within a 1/2 inch plus or minus. Measurements are very accurate. Your maps are simply not even close to accurate as shown.
FROM JESSE: As stated, this is a prelim map from NOAA. When I do add our map, it is not meant to include everyone's house, but rather be a general idea - we are pretty much limited to NOAA's reports. If you submit your reports to NOAA, that may help.
Posted by dave | February 11, 2010 11:01 AM
