U.S. East Coast Heavy Snow Warnings

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Crippling Blizzard Predicted

The ocean is warmer and evaporates more water.  In cold weather, it falls as snow and hail.  Looks like an Atlantic storm of unprecedented proportions.  Luck, people.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

This is looking worse and worse.

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Millions in path of huge blizzard

A storm of this magnitude is similar to Sandy.  Arkansas to Maine?  Looks like the east coast will be paralysed.  I hope people will realize this is not a false alarm.

[SimEMS38 246]

I wouldn't go as far as calling it similar to Sandy except for the fact that this storm is coming up the coast with a full moon which is gonna give the coastal areas the possibility of major flooding due to higher tides. A lot of the geeks around here are pointing out that this storm shares many similarities with the Blizzard of 1996. That blizzard dumped 3 feet of snow on my city and drifts up to 15-20 feet out in the county when all was said and done. This storm is looking to do the same thing and we've been painted in some of the heaviest amounts for the last several days. I'm 90 miles north of DC and 55 miles west of Philly. DC and Baltimore stand a good shot of breaking their all time snow records with this one,  I wouldn't be surprised if we do.

This isn't really unprecedented, rare? Yes, but it's a Nor'easter and this is what Nor'easters do! It all depends on the setup and where all the ingredients come together.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

From tonight's reports, this looks like the kind of thing that hits the Avalon Peninsula (Newfoundland) out of the Atlantic regularly, but it is much farther south.  The weather mavens are predicting some snow for Nova Scotia and the Avalon.

[SimEMS38 246]

Storms like this one comes thru every 5-10 years or so. They come in off the west coast, dip down into the gulf states and either go out to sea or ride up the east coast (hence the Nor'Easter name) into the Canadian Maritimes or hang a right hook somewhere off of New Jersey and out to sea it goes (which is what this one is predicted to do). It's happened in my backyard in 2010, 2002, 1996, 1993, 1983, and 1978. Not regularly here but not unusual either.

With that said I'm sitting at 16-18 inches with it to start winding down sometime tonight. I'm not a snow fan at all, not since Basic Training at Fort Knox, Ky in the winter of 97/98, spening 2 weeks out in the field in the dead of winter with sub freezing temps and a foot of snow on the ground effectively killed and buried my love for snow and events afterwards only solidified my angst towards that fluffy white stuff! My daughter can't get enough of it though so for that it's worth it.......until it comes time to shovel!

[Mr Saturn64 742]

Right now my window is completely covered in snow.  There's a good foot on the ground already, and it's still going strong.  Oddly enough, I was supposed to take the SAT today.  Didn't happen.  Anyway, the forecast for the shore sounds eerily familiar to that of Sandy, and having property down there gives me a bad feeling about that.  Flooding from the back, high tide, and a full moon.  That's the same trio of bad signs that occurred during Hurricane Sandy.  Our place was completely wiped out during that.  The exterior was the only thing still standing.  I can only hope this isn't the same...

[Sabretooth78 808]

Man, we never get the good storms.  Only broken clouds and few lazy flakes floating by - probably just a smattering of boring old lake effect.

[SimEMS38 246]

I hope your property makes it out of this ok! As much as I don't like the snow.....I'll take it over a flood any day. I was watching TWC and they were showing areas of AC and the Wildwood area and it didn't look good at all. I hope we don't get the warmth and rain like we had after the Blizzard of '96, the Susquehanna flooded big time from the snow melt and ice on the river. Lot of places along the banks suffered big time.

I just had my appendix taken out at the beginning of the month. I'm on medical leave from work and I'm not supposed to be lifting more then 15 ilbs but this snow's gotta be cleared, the wifey's at work until at least tomorrow morning (we're both in the medical field). This is gonna be fun!

Hope all is well and ends well with your place down on the shore Mr. Saturn64!

 

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

^ With a fresh abdominal incision, you be a good boy!  If you pop that you could get peritonitis as you well know.  Get one of the local high-school kids to shovel your snow (negotiate a good price).  If the schools are closed, they need something to keep them out of the bars and pool rooms (or worse).

BBC report.

[Duke87 1,070]

Storm track seems to have shifted north compared to predictions. DC didn't get hit quite as bad as expected, but the total in NYC was already 17 inches as of a couple hours ago and it's still coming down hard.

This is what things look like here right now:

[SimEMS38 246]

1 hour ago, A Nonny Moose said:

^ With a fresh abdominal incision, you be a good boy!  If you pop that you could get peritonitis as you well know.  Get one of the local high-school kids to shovel your snow (negotiate a good price).  If the schools are closed, they need something to keep them out of the bars and pool rooms (or worse).

BBC report.

Nonny, I went into the ED on 3rd for what I thought was a nasty stomach virus/food poisoning from our New Years Day dinner and a pulled groin muscle after vomiting hard since then! I haven't been sick like that since I was a senior in HS ('97), and only taken off work once in my lifetime for an ear infection. They did tests an lo and behold it was appendicitis. an hour later I was under the knife, the surgeon said that my appendix had ruptured and I had a pretty nasty case of peritonitis as a result. Spent 5 days in the hospital and I got one hellacious region AG region going while recouping!  Just got off the antibiotics last week. Got an appointment with the surgeon on this coming Wednesday to see if I can go back to work or not. I feel 10x better but since I had laparoscopic surgery done as opposed to traditional surgery I'm at a greater risk for an umbilical hernia. Being an EMT and having to do heavy lifting in excess of 150+ ilbs it's gonna be a challenge once I get back at it!

That being said, I got a lot of the shoveling done, took a good two hours with my 6 year old in tow, she made sure I had more to shovel. I purposly waited until late afternoon so that maybe some kids would come around but none came around. While out shoveling there were a bunch of folks milling about on the roads and not one of them had a shovel......gotta love city living!!! Thankfully we've been sitting in the low to mid 20's thru out the storm so the snow is very light and powdery as opposed to the heavy back breaking, cardiac arrest inducing, concrete nastiness you get when the temps are hovering around freezing.

Duke, the models started trending north 2 days ago after showing Richmond, DC, and Baltimore getting nailed with 2-3 feet. A lot of places down there definitely got 2 feet and more into the mountains. Down here in on the boarder of central and south east Pa, we got at least 24 on the ground but it's hard to tell as the winds is strong and this stuff is drifting like crazy!

[Duke87 1,070]

Informal use of a tape measure outside shows measurements ranging from 20-26 inches. Of course due to drifting this is just the depth in the measured spots, not how much fell overall. For that, I defer to the official weather station at La Guardia Airport, which reports a total of 20.4 inches (52 cm).

[philforhockey51 4,216]

From during the day

There are four cars in this picture:

and my neighbor will have a tough time digging out his Toyota 4Runner:

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

@SimEMS38

I'm glad you are OK.  I had my appendix out when I was 14 on the day I was supposed to write my one and only English paper to pass to the next grade.  They gave me compassionate standing and I was passed.  It was also the date of the death of King George VI.

Reports reaching me here in the frozen north indicate at least one death by heart attack of a person shovelling snow.  Really too bad.  The other thing that bothers me is the hubris of some people who get behind the wheel of their car in the face of the storm predictions.  It was nice of the various highway patrol authorities who kept many people stuck on highways alive by providing supplies.  I hope these fools also got tickets that will lead to their licences being suspended for being stupid.

[SimEMS38 246]

@A Nonny Moose Thanks, I woke up this morning feeling good, I didn't over exert myself yesterday! Today though I gotta clean up the several inches that fell after I shoveled plus I need to make a path to the trash cans and then around to the back of the house to the back door......easy peasy! Luckily this snow is very light and fluffy as opposed as the concrete sticky junk we usually get from storms like this. I can only imagine how modern medicine was like when you were a young whippersnapper! Folks today would probabably consider it primitive by today's standards!!

According to our newspaper, we totaled 26.5 inches from this storm. The official measurement taken at Millersville State University which is 2.5 miles as the crow flies from me. I believe it but it's impossible to tell what I got in my back yard with drifting, some places it's 1.5 feet and others it's closer to 4 to 5 feet. We missed our official all time record by 4 inches from the Blizzard of '96.

Everyone here is blaming the state for the folks stuck on the turnpike. The Pa National Guard, emergency responders, and turnpike crews eventually got to the them but hey, in my mind if you're going to out in a storm you need to be prepared for the worst case scenario whether you get into that situation or not. In this day with our massive social media network, smart phones and gadgets, getting real time information is at the touch of a finger and being prepared for the worst case scenario is easier then it ever has been. We lucked out with this storm as it was well advertised although in defense of those who got stuck on the turnpike, the did receive more snow then what was forcasted.......which is why ya need to be prepared! They won't get tickets as the turnpike wasn't officially closed when they got stuck, now if it was closed or a travel ban was in effect at that time, then yeah they should get slapped with something.

@philforhockey51 That looks a lot like my neighborhood. I drive an '03 Focus and the only part of it exposed is the passenger side rear view mirror!! How much did y'all end up getting?

@Duke87 I heard Central Park missed the all time total by one tenth of an inch.....really?? Can't they just call it a tie being that close?!?! JFK racked up 30.5 inches....crazy range of totals depending on where you're at!

[Msprintz 25]

This storm was truly one for the record books even if it didn't break the all time record at Central Park, already people are saying it surpassed the 1996 storm which Ironically was 20 years ago and also occurred in the month of January.  Around here on Long Island I've heard reports of anywhere between 20-30 inches of snow depending on location, and on a widespread scale which is almost unprecedented on Long Island.  The Northeast clearly got hammered, and around here there were questions up until about Friday as to the exact amounts of snow we were getting ( gotta hand it the NAM weather model, the only one showing 20-30 near NYC ).  That's another thing that will be studied as well, why the other models didn't actually catch onto this until it was late in the game.  

As for the roads being treacherous, they were treacherous throughout the duration of the storm.  Almost got stuck in the AM hours Saturday going to work at the hospital.  I opted to actually shelter there, as opposed to attempting the drive home at 4pm.  Thankfully most of my co-workers who left around that time frame made it home with little to no incidents ( one pair got stuck and the other helped push them back on their way, another pair not so lucky got stuck and opted to turn back ).  Can't really blame them for trying to brave the weather, but on the other hand it's not the wisest of decisions when the weather can sometimes overwhelm even a 4WD vehicle.     

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Saw a report somewhere that some turkey shot and killed a guy who stopped to help in after sliding off the road.  What more can be said about gun licensing?  Any bets the good Samaritan was black?

[philforhockey51 4,216]

@SimEMS38   They say 25.7" but that seems short, the drifts are closer to 5 feet, as the pictures show, mind you these were taken in the middle of the day yesterday so only half way through the storm.  

My neighborhood is a very interesting little corner in the city of Newark, mostly 3 story walk ups like the second picture shows the back of, but there are some stretches like across the street in the first with rows of one family homes, about 7on my street.

I also noticed after posting the pictures that the birdhouse(next to garage) might have seen it's last winter, it is over 40 yrs old, but the roof seems to have broken in the middle and it is leaning much further than it has before. It was my grandfathers but it hasn't seen a bird in it in over 15yrs, shame I liked to keep it as a reminder of him. 

[Duke87 1,070]

Looks like I spoke too soon about La Guardia. The total for Saturday was updated to 27.9 inches, with an additional 0.3 inches on Sunday for a total of 28.2 in (72 cm for you metric folk).

Here's a couple more pictures from the storm. The first is what the waterfront looked like at about 2 PM on Saturday:


And the second is from Sunday morning, of a huge drift against this building:

 

 

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Details on Good Samaritan Murder

In addition to the murder charge, will the D.A. add DUI?

[Sabretooth78 808]

What a loser.  I say just send him to Syria and try his aim there.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Meh.  Just set him down outside Edwards Air Force Base.  The scorpions and gila monsters can have him.

[SteveMSim 275]

Among the records set by the blizzard is an incredible 66 inches (170 cm) of snow atop Mount Mitchell, North Carolina, breaking the previous record set in the March 1993 superstorm.  Mount Mitchell is the highest mountain in eastern North America.

http://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2016/01/24/mount-mitchell-digs-out-66-inches-snow/79262838/

 

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

And as more water vapour evaporates from the various large bodies of water because they are warming up, what do you suppose it likely to happen in the future? 

"Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow
"You're always a day away." - Annie.

[raynev1 1,886]

    We got lucky here where I'm at , we only had 20+/- inches . My sister-in-law said she had 33 inches on her driveway and she lives on the eastern side of the same state . Funny thing is we usually get more than her . Haha , the shoe is on the other foot now . Today was the first time I seen my street surface since Friday , at least some of it . 

 

[SimEMS38 246]

Enjoy the snow while it lasts! Looks like next week we'll be getting up into the low 50s where I'm at and higher except for areas north of me. Thankfully it looks like the melting has been pretty steady here so when it does warm up, it won't be as bad. The Susquehanna can get pretty nasty going from very cold to very warm with 3 feet of snow on the ground and ice in the river!!

My daughter got real lucky, whole week off of school and they say that today, all the streets will be passable.......is it MAY yet?!?!?

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

53 minutes ago, SimEMS38 said:

Enjoy the snow while it lasts! Looks like next week we'll be getting up into the low 50s where I'm at and higher except for areas north of me. Thankfully it looks like the melting has been pretty steady here so when it does warm up, it won't be as bad. The Susquehanna can get pretty nasty going from very cold to very warm with 3 feet of snow on the ground and ice in the river!!

My daughter got real lucky, whole week off of school and they say that today, all the streets will be passable.......is it MAY yet?!?!?

A whole week off school?  Lots of work to make up, then.  Expect the class year to run overtime at the end of the session.

[SimEMS38 246]

@A Nonny Moose Yup a whole week! It's ok right now since they have snow makeup days spread thru out the year.  As long as we don't get a couple more cancellations, she'll be out on time which is somewhere at the last week of May or first week of June.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

^ I'll cross my fingers for her.  However, the March equinoctal gales are coming.