Will the Arctic Cold Front Cause Severe Weather and Damage to Crops?

[turbo]

There is no longer any snow-fall here. If it starts up later tonight, I hope it's short and sweet.

 

[G01]

I see that Maine's 19 cars all crashed into each other.

What do you expect? It's New England, the only place in the world where 19 roads can meet in one traffic circle.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Here are two flakes that fell on my front yard, the first at about 3:00 am this morning, and the second at around 4:30.

 

[turbo]

We have a foot or so on the ground, and it's still coming down at a pretty good clip.

 

[G01]

We have about 2 feet. Looks like it's finally slowing down. Thankfully, the city of Boston sent a backhoe to clean my one way, uphill street. Unfortunately, the backhoe driver got stuck in a snow drift:

 

[turbo]

We have about 2 feet. Looks like it's finally slowing down. Thankfully, the city of Boston sent a backhoe to clean my one way, uphill street. Unfortunately, the backhoe driver got stuck in a snow drift:

No chains! Those rear tires are wide and they "float" more than you might expect, even in fluffy snow. If I get my tractor stuck in snow, I can generally get right back out by using my loader bucket and shifting the transmission down to "low". I hope the snow stop soon here. My wife has gone out a few times to clear the snow in front of our front door, and it's time for me to go clear that doorway again, so we can get the door open.

We have just broken through the 10 deg mark. I don't recall the last time it snowed this hard at such a low temperature. Generally, we get heavy snowfalls when the air temperature is a little under freezing.

 

[SW VandeCarr]

Milford, Connecticut got 38 in (96.5 cm) of snow while Centereach, Long Island (NY) got 32 in (81 cm). These two communities seemed to be in an north-south oriented band of particularly heavy snowfall extending from central Long Island into Connecticut. Boston eventually ended up with just under 25 in (62.5 cm, Logan Airport) according to a TV report.

http://www.ibtimes.com/blizzard-nem...heast-states-new-england-new-york-connecticut

 

[turbo]

Maine could get some warming and mixed precipitation after Sunday. That would be a great thing for snowmobilers, because this light fluff stuff is impossible to pack, and the trails have no base. I don't have a snowmobile, but I own 1/2 mile of trail on the Eastern border of the property, and I'd like to see snowmobile riders get some quality time. Those sleds can be very expensive, and some winters we have not had enough snow to allow riders to use them.

The president and the trailmaster of the local snowmobile club trailered their machines to northern Maine so they could ride their Arctic Cat 4-strokes (over $10K each).

 

[turbo]

Finally finished digging out today. Our nearest neighbor broke the snow-bank with his plow-truck so we could get our vehicles out, and a long session with the tractor and lots of hand-shovel clean-up did the job. The tractor was not as useful as usual because the snow was really dry and fluffy, and hard to scoop up in the loader bucket. The bed of my pickup truck was full of snow, with snow half-way up the rear window. It's tough to estimate totals, because the wind was brutal yesterday, and snow accumulated in varying quantities as it was deposited and then blown around. Typical Nor'Easter.

 

[lisab]

Still no weather here.

 

[G01]

It took me 3 hours total to dig out my car this morning.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Still no weather here.

This unusual condition was brought about by a wildcat strike of the meteorologist union local 4524.

 

[Evo]

So glad I'm missing the storm. Evo Child was born in New York during a blizzard that made NOAA's worse storm events lists. I left New York right after the blizzard of 1993, which also made the worst storms list.

 

[turbo]

Mother Nature is whacking us again. I estimate 1-2"/ hour of light snow. Sometimes, it's hard to see the trees across the road. When this stuff happens, I'd like to have a truck with a plow, but we don't have room for that. If I didn't have elderly relatives (and severe reactions to fragrance chemicals) I'd like to sell off and relocate to Trinidad.

For those not familiar with tractors, it is very hard to get decent bucket-loads of fluffy snow. It takes (easily) twice as long to clear fluffy dry snow than it takes to clear snow that is more prone to clumping.

 

[dlgoff]

For those not familiar with tractors, it is very hard to get decent bucket-loads of fluffy snow.

But that could be a good thing.

http://www.theskichannel.com/news/featured/20130206/epic-alert-east-coast-powder-alert-northwest-rockies-and-central-nevada/

 

[KrisOhn]

It's -1C here today, essentially t-shirt weather after mid January...

 

[Evo]

The snow started about 1 1/2 hours ago. It was supposed to start at midnight last night, but didn't start until around 7am.

It's really coming down hard and we're supposed to get around 12 inches, but I don't understand this message that is in the official weather warning.

THUNDER MAY ACCOMPANY THE SNOW RESULTING IN HIGHER SNOW RATES OF 2 TO 3 INCHES PER HOUR AT TIMES.

How do conditions that create thunder increase the snow so dramatically?

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

How do conditions that create thunder increase the snow so dramatically?

It's not the conditions that create the thunder, it's the thunder itself. What part of 'avalanche' don't you understand?

 

[Evo]

It's not the conditions that create the thunder, it's the thunder itself. What part of 'avalanche' don't you understand?

Lol, so the thunder will shake the snow out of the clouds? Well, I'm just sitting inside, so I want to see this happen. I've been in snow thunderstorms, but didn't notice an increase in snowfall.

 

[Evo]

The snow off the patio is already over a foot deep, well above the top of my dog's head, so I had to shovel the grass. On the north side, it's over 2 feet deep because of snow blowing off the neighbor's roof. I know it's over 2 feet because I had a 2 foot tall planter outside and it disappeared earlier.

We got some thunder, but I didn't notice an increase in snow, it's dry and fluffy, so it's easily coming down 1-2 inches an hour right now, maybe more.

Damn I'm good, just checked the weather website.

Feb 21, 2013; 8:58 AM ET Thunder, lightning, and 1-2" per hour snow rates.

That was earlier, it's heavier now.

Whoa, huge hunk of a tree just came down. Part of it caught on lower branches and it's hanging. Watch out squirrels!

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

On account of your neighbor stealing your planter, I googled thunder snow. What I got was graupel. I never heard of it before, but I saw it for the first time in my life when some came down here about a month ago. Now I can attach a name to what I saw. It's small, about 2 mm, round like hail, but soft like snow.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Oh yeah, about the thundersnow.

Thundersnow, also known as a winter thunderstorm or a thunder snowstorm, is an extremely rare kind of thunderstorm with snow falling as the primary precipitation instead of rain. ... Thundersnow often produces snowfall rates in the range of 2 to 4 inches per hour.

wiki, and therefore unreliable

 

[Evo]

Oooh, now I'm getting snow devils! Little mini snow tornadoes! At one point, there were 4 going at once, just sucking the snow off the ground and leaving funnels in the snow. I'm getting a bit of everything.

 

[turbo]

Very light snow today, with huge fluffy flakes. They look like feathers in the wind.

 

[Astronuc]

The snow started about 1 1/2 hours ago. It was supposed to start at midnight last night, but didn't start until around 7am.

It's really coming down hard and we're supposed to get around 12 inches, but I don't understand this message that is in the official weather warning.

How do conditions that create thunder increase the snow so dramatically?

We get thundersnow when there is a heavy fall of wet snow. It's much like a thundershower. It's interesting to be in one with the lightning flashing through the snow.

 

[Astronuc]

So glad I'm missing the storm. Evo Child was born in New York during a blizzard that made NOAA's worse storm events lists. I left New York right after the blizzard of 1993, which also made the worst storms list.

That's when I got stranded in Charlotte for 3 days because LaGuardia airport and others were closed. The closest airport to my home was actually open, and the pilot could have landed the 737 there. But no, he had to fly back to Charlotte.

 

[turbo]

That's when I got stranded in Charlotte for 3 days because LaGuardia airport and others were closed. The closest airport to my home was actually open, and the pilot could have landed the 737 there. But no, he had to fly back to Charlotte.

The airport in Bangor is a former SAC base with an impressive array of plows, de-icers, etc. Still, I got "stranded" at airports all over the East coast that were unprepared for snow, so they wouldn't let flights depart. Newark was probably the worst. I spent many, many hours in that bland hell-hole. At least at O'Hare, you could get an OK sandwich and some hot coffee.

 

[dlgoff]

How do conditions that create thunder increase the snow so dramatically?

I don't know but evidently it does. I was still in bed and awakened when I heard the rumble. I got up and looked out to see just a dusting, but two hours later there was 12 inches.

YEA Some H₂O at last. Let it thunder.

 

[Evo]

Poor Evo Child, on the news they said where she lives they were getting over 4 inches an hour with the thunder snow. It's snowing again right now.

 

[AnTiFreeze3]

We were supposed to get 7+ inches of snow, and looking outside, I see hardly 2 inches of snow. It also hasn't snowed in several hours.

They canceled most after school activities, and ended our basketball practice at 5, and it didn't even end up snowing until 8:30, and it ended around 9:30...

 

[turbo]

My wife and I have a couple of neighbors who bought a nice place up here in Maine so they could ride their snowmobiles. (trail-side access, since the trail that runs along 1/2 mile of our property cuts right through theirs) Unfortunately, their home-town in Mass is getting a lot of snow, and we are getting very little. They are going to get whacked again this weekend, for the 3rd weekend in a row. The problem is that they live in South Boston (think Quincy, Weymouth, Brockton, etc) and that area is far too congested. There are no snowmobile trails there and no opportunity to establish any, which is why they bought a second home up here. There is enough snow here for them to ride their machines, but they will likely stay at home this weekend and dig out.

 

[Evo]

So, now we have another snow storm coming, 6-10 inches or more. Great, I haven't even dug my car out yet from the wall of snow and ice the plow mounded up behind it.

The stupid weather channel has started naming snow storms. The last snow storm was "Q", this one they're naming "Rocky". I hear meteorologists are rather upset, snowstorms aren't named. It's just something else the weather channel has dreamt up to further sensationalize weather reporting. What's next, names for rainstorms?

 

[jtbell]

I thought the last one was "Nemo?" (as in Jules Verne's captain, not Disney's fish)

Anyway, I hope you all get a breather soon. In South Carolina we've been getting mostly rain, which we really need because of the drought conditions. Today and yesterday were pretty gloomy, tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, then more rain beginning on Monday. Lows just above freezing.

We did get a bit of snow last weekend. Where I live, it didn't build up on the ground at all. Proceeding northwards towards the mountains there was some accumulation. I drove up to Charlotte last Sunday, and found about 1" to 2" on the ground in towns along the way, except on the roads which were clear. The tree branches were all coated with snow. Very pretty in the bright morning sunshine. It made me wish I had a dash cam in my car, like all the Russians seem to have. Most of the snow melted before I drove home late in the afternoon.

 

[Mute]

I spent about 1+2.5 hours sitting on planes on tarmacs yesterday courtesy of a snowstorm - indirectly, at least. First plane sat on the ground for an hour because O'Hare was grounded, second plane sat on the ground for about 2.5 hours because our captain was still in the air on another plane, and we couldn't get a replacement. When he finally arrived it took forever to get a truck over to de-ice the plane because it ran out of gas and they couldn't get a replacement (despite the fact that every plane on either side of us was being de-iced).

Not the worst bout of winter-flying delays I've had, but I really wish I'd bought another book for my kindle before my trip.

 

[Borg]

Washington DC is finally going to get its first significant snow of the season. And, in honor of last week, they're calling this the Snowquester. I'm west of I-95 where they are calling for the most snow. Predicted totals vary at this point - I've seen everything from 5 to 12 inches forecast for where I live.