Weather!

[geckzilla]

Just one giant cup of it, beyond. Expertly made, mind you.

[owlice]

That's some snow, geckzilla! Did you measure how deep it is?

And did the giant cup of hot chocolate have peppermint schnapps in it, perchance?

It's been terribly windy here, and is now nearly impossible to tell that it snowed at all. I got up early this morning to put my (tall, broad, lidded, very very full) recycling bin down by the curb since recyclables get picked up on Mondays. I hadn't put it out last night for fear the wind would knock it over and there would be cat food cans scattered from here to the grocery store a mile away.

Even the little cat, born feral, did not want to venture outside today when the wind was howling. I didn't, either, and except for putting stuff down at the curb for pick up and then retrieving my empty bin, I've stayed in all day.

[geckzilla]

Nah, I don't drink at all. (According to many sources, this is the root of all my problems)

And I never figured out how to measure the snow. I mean where do you measure it? It was over a foot deep in most places, two feet deep in others, and 0 inches on top of the cars where the wind blew it off.

[owlice]

(tall, broad, lidded, very very full)

It just occurred to me that this description matches me as well as it does the recycling bin.

And I never figured out how to measure the snow. I mean where do you measure it?

For accuracy, in a place that is protected from the wind; for bragging rights/woe is me tales, wherever it's drifted the most.

[orin stepanek]

Nah, I don't drink at all. (According to many sources, this is the root of all my problems)

And I never figured out how to measure the snow. I mean where do you measure it? It was over a foot deep in most places, two feet deep in others, and 0 inches on top of the cars where the wind blew it off.

That's just the problem; I usually get more snow than my neighbors.
I think it is measured in two or three places and that averaged out.

[bystander]

Click to view full size image

GOES-13 Satellite Captures Powerful Snowmaker Leaving New England

On Monday, December 27 at 1731 UTC (12:31 p.m. EST) the GOES-13 satellite captured this visible image of the powerful low pressure system that brought snows from Georgia to Maine along the U.S. east coast. Some of the snowfall can be seen over South and North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and southeastern New York. The clouds of the low obscure New England in the image.

Credit: NOAA/NASA GOES Project

Snowfall Totals for the Blizzard of December 2010

[bystander]

Video: Satellite Views of the “Christmas Blizzard 2010”

[owlice]

bystander, that video just showed up on the 11 PM news here. 32" of snow, according to the report.

[Beyond]

The weather guy just said that some parts of New york and New Jersey got (2) to (3) FEET of snow.

[geckzilla]

I'm still waiting for Chris to chime in with something along the lines of "You call that a snowstorm?" Or did he say he lives in the dry part of Colorado? Whatever, I'm just going to imagine his house covered in 10 feet of snow.

[Chris Peterson]

I'm still waiting for Chris to chime in with something along the lines of "You call that a snowstorm?" Or did he say he lives in the dry part of Colorado? Whatever, I'm just going to imagine his house covered in 10 feet of snow.

We've had no weather at all. Since summer ended, I guess we've had 3" of snow, in a couple of little showers, nothing that stuck. Daytime temps have been in the 40s or 50s, nighttime barely below freezing. I watched the Geminids this year in a flannel shirt- a first. I've never seen winter conditions like this here. While we should be fairly dry- we don't usually have standing snow for more than a couple of days, and storms are usually a few weeks apart- it should be cold.

The weather is off-kilter everywhere.

[neufer]

We've had no weather at all. Since summer ended, I guess we've had 3" of snow, in a couple of little showers, nothing that stuck. Daytime temps have been in the 40s or 50s, nighttime barely below freezing. I watched the Geminids this year in a flannel shirt- a first. I've never seen winter conditions like this here. While we should be fairly dry- we don't usually have standing snow for more than a couple of days, and storms are usually a few weeks apart- it should be cold.

The weather is off-kilter everywhere.

[c]Strong La Niña + Low index Arctic Oscillation[/c]

[color=#FF0000]Low index Arctic Oscillation[/color]

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[color=#0000FF]Strong La Niña[/color]

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http://asterisk.apod.com/vie ... 87#p139687
http://asterisk.apod.com/vie ... 75#p139075
http://asterisk.apod.com/vie ... 73#p114130

[Beyond]

Oh man, got up this morning and thought I'd gone deaf. Couldn't hear any wind roaring. Opened the curtain to look outside and my eyes were stabbed by the brightness.y-a-w-n It looks like it's going to be a nice day. YEE-HA!!

[Beyond]

What a winter--so far. Now that we've had a monster storm followed by a couple of good days, the EPA has hit us((Connecticut))with a quality of air Alert for the next two days. Aparently there's not much air movement now and those with respiratory problems may have a hard time of breathing the build-up of polluted air. What a way to end the year

[orin stepanek]

Yesterday morning it was about 50degrees F and then the temperature started dropping. It was around 22 by nightfall. Today I looked out at the thermometer I have on the patio and it was showing a cool 11 F. On top of all that it is snowing;- - -Ugh! I am fearful that the forecast may be true and we will get dumped on good.

[owlice]

Orin, I'm sorry you're getting cold and snow; I thank you for sending warmer weather my way, though! It's over 40°F already, and supposed to get close to 50° today. I will surely get in a bike ride, and am excited about that! Bike rides always make me feel better.

[bystander]

It's 45 outside, the high for today, temperatures falling, high winds, lows in the teens tonight. Happy New Year!

[Chris Peterson]

We're finally seeing a bit of winter here in the Colorado mountains. Got about 4" of snow overnight- typical for winter storms on the east side of the Continental Divide. A lot colder than normal, though- down to -10°F last night, and still at -5°F a couple hours after the Sun came up. High today won't be out of the low single digits, I think.

We haven't seen much in the way of really cold weather the last years, but it's needed to control some pests, like pine beetles, so no complaints. Probably a little hard on the horses, though.

An old tradition here is that a club (called the AdAmAn club, because they add one new man- or these days, woman- each year) hike up to the top of Pikes Peak (14,115 feet) with a few hundred pounds of fireworks- a 14-mile one way trip (they drive back down). The fireworks get set off at midnight, to ring in the new year. They set off for the top yesterday, and I hear it's been a tough climb- subzero temperatures, blowing snow, and high winds. We watch the fireworks every year from our deck (or through the window when it's really cold). It's 24 miles between here and the peak, with no intervening mountains. I shot the image below off the deck last winter.

[orin stepanek]

Looks like we will luck out with the snow. The system seems to have moved Northward. We did get a good two inches of powder, and there wasn't any wind. My wife and I cleaned the walks and drive pretty quickly. Our dog Sassy came out with us; and really loves rooting in the new fluff. She doesn't have a very heavy coat, so she gets cold pretty fast. She was more than willing to get back in the house. It's really cold though so I am happy to be inside also.

[neufer]

MODIS natural-color image of the northeastern United States

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<<A severe winter storm dropped up to 32 inches of snow on parts of the northeastern United States in late December 2010. The two-day storm brought especially heavy snow to parts of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, where wind gusts up to 80 miles per hour struck Cape Cod. Airlines canceled hundreds of flights, and tens of thousands of residents lost power. With ambulances stranded in snow-clogged streets, 911 dispatchers in New York City were forced to resort to triage.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image of the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada on December 28, 2010. Snow and clouds blend seamlessly, but can be distinguished by their different textures. The wide swath of uniform white that extends from Michigan and Ontario toward the southeast is a cloudbank. Under clear skies, snow cover from the storm creates a mottled appearance.>>

[BMAONE23]

MODIS natural-color image of the northeastern United States

---

<<A severe winter storm dropped up to 32 inches of snow on parts of the northeastern United States in late December 2010. The two-day storm brought especially heavy snow to parts of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, where wind gusts up to 80 miles per hour struck Cape Cod. Airlines canceled hundreds of flights, and tens of thousands of residents lost power. With ambulances stranded in snow-clogged streets, 911 dispatchers in New York City were forced to resort to triage.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image of the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada on December 28, 2010. Snow and clouds blend seamlessly, but can be distinguished by their different textures. The wide swath of uniform white that extends from Michigan and Ontario toward the southeast is a cloudbank. Under clear skies, snow cover from the storm creates a mottled appearance.>>

Sounds and looks like a repeat of

1888 proved quite harsh in the prairie states. A massive blizzard that accompanied arctic cold of 20 to 40 degrees below zero stretched from Texas to the Dakotas on January 12. Two headlines from the New York Times that January summed up the massive storm. First from January 13:


THE NORTHWEST BLIZZARD; SEVERAL LIVES LOST AND MANY PERSONS MISSING.
THE RAILROADS BLOCKADED, TRAINS ABANDONED, AND GREAT DAMAGE CAUSED TO LIVE STOCK.

And another from January 21:

THE BLIZZARD’S VICTIMS
TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY SEVEN LIVES LOST

many blizzards were measured against the 1888 beast
This includes the blizzard of March 13, 1891
The February 27, 1894 blizzard where “only about a foot and a half of snow fell in 24 hours
The blizzard of April 12, 1894 was described by the Times as “almost a repetition of the blizzard of 1888.
Then came the blizzard of January 28, 1897 that slammed the eastern seaboard.
"There have been few heavier snowfalls since the blizzard of 1888. Ice has fastened itself in the waters of the rivers and Chesapeake Bay“. Then just northeast of New York City came the word that “Rockville, Conn., reports a fall of 34 inches of snow, drifts 5 to 8 feet deep, and that the blizzard has been the most severe since 1888"
The final blizzard of the 1800′s did not, apparently, rise to the level where it could be compared with that of 1888. This storm occurred on February 11, 1899, and was nothing more than heavy snow accompanied by 50+ mile per hour winds, and it followed a week of record cold where, as the storm began

1888
1891
1894
1897
1899
etc.

All info from the New York Times archives

Sure glad I live on the west coast instead of where blizzards seem to be regular visitors.

[neufer]

Sure glad I live on the west coast instead of where blizzards seem to be regular visitors.

Note that blizzards are defined more by prolonged white out conditions than by total snowfall.

<<A blizzard is a severe storm condition characterized by low temperatures, strong winds, and can include heavy snow. To be a blizzard, a snow storm must have winds in excess of 56 km/h (35 mph) and reduce visibility to 400 metres or less and must last for a prolonged period of time — typically three hours or more. Ground blizzards require high winds to stir up already fallen snow.

The Saskatchewan Blizzard of January 10, 2007, brought motor vehicle traffic to a standstill, stranded people and shut down many public services. Two people died in the storm. An 18-year-old man and 38-year-old woman, both from the Onion Lake First Nation, were caught in the blizzard and died from hypothermia after attempting to walk home from their vehicle. The 9.8 inches of snow that fell during the blizzard far surpassed the old record of 4.0 inches set back in 1938.

The Iran Blizzard of February 1972 resulted in the deaths of approximately 4,000 people. A week-long period of low temperatures and winter storms, lasting from February 3 to February 9, 1972, dumped more than ten feet of snow across rural areas in northwestern, central and southern Iran. Southern Iran sustained as much as 26 feet of snow, burying at least 4,000 villagers.>>

[BMAONE23]

Worst blizzards since 1888

[Sam]

Brutal weather stops AdAmAn club short of summit, cancels fireworks on Pikes Peak

December 31, 2010 8:10 PM

ANDREW WINEKE
THE GAZETTE
For the first time in living memory, the AdAmAn Club was turned back from its annual New Year’s Eve summit of Pikes Peak.

Gale-force winds and temperatures 25 degrees below zero forced the group to turn around just a mile from the mountain’s peak, where the club has set off a New Year’s fireworks show nearly every year since 1922.

Reached on Barr Trail descending from the frigid climb, club president Don Sanborn said conditions were “brutal” above treeline, but that it was nevertheless a hard decision to turn back.

“We have a couple cases of frostbite, but nothing too major,” he said. “I’m convinced that if we had kept going, we could easily have lost some fingers or toes or lost somebody’s life.”

Pikes Peak ranger Jay Vickerman said subzero temperatures and 70 mph winds hammered the climbing party as it approach the summit.

“Some of the worst wind conditions ever were today,” Vickerman said. “A lot of the guys dropped out at the A-Frame. The climbing would have been just horrible — you would have had that wind blowing right in your face.”

Sanborn said he believed the club had failed once before in its summit attempt, but no one can remember when. The fireworks show has been called off before because of weather, even though the club still made the climb. The last time that happened was 15 years ago, Sanborn said.

“It’s a difficult decision to turn around on something like this, where the community is waiting and hoping for you to set off fireworks,” he said. “You don’t want to let down that tradition.”

Kathy Lindeman’s husband, Ted, has been made the climb 41 times with the club. She said the weather was the worst he’s ever seen. In 2006, heavy snows forced the club to hike up the Pikes Peak Highway to avoid avalanches. What was different this year was the fresh snow combined with bitter cold and high winds. After spending Thursday night at Barr Camp, the group began climbing Friday morning and made the decision to turn back at about 1:30 p.m., Sanborn said.

“People were struggling,” Sanborn said. “It was seriously cold.”

The AdAmAn Club was founded in 1922 by five friends and adds a new member every year (hence the name), whose role is traditionally to break trail for the group and brave the cold to set off the fireworks while the rest of the group keeps warm inside the Summit House.

Sanborn said the club would save this year’s fireworks and return to the mountain at the end of 2011.

“I think we’ll call it a year,” he said.

I was surprised they didn't make it based on their track record, but it is quite cold here in Colorado Springs and probably a little worse at 14,115', so I'll forgive them for not sending shimmering colors down the mountain face this time. Hope they all still manage to have a Happy New Year!

[orin stepanek]

Brrr! -1 degrees F It warmed up to 8 degrees since sunrise!