According to The Winter of 95-96: A Season of Extremes, National Climatic Data Center, Hartford typically receives about 45 inches (114 cm) of snow in an average winter. The record seasonal snowfall was 115.2 inches (293 cm) during the winter of 1995–1996. Compare that to January 2011 which has so much snow that roof collapses are becoming a concern.
Seen above: New Haven, CT has declared a snow emergency.
WGN-TV’s Tom Skilling writes:
Hartford, Connecticut’s monthly snow approaching six feet!
The prolific snows which have hit the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast this winter–during January in particular–are without precedent. January tallies haven’t just surpassed previous snow records–they’ve obliterated them. In the New York City area, where an 8.1 inch total is considered normal to date, snow totals have reached 3 feet–at some locations, even more! Central Park’s 36.0 inch month to date tally has eclipsed the 86 year old previous record of 27.4 inches set in 1925. Records have also fallen at Newark (37.3 inches), La Guardia (32.4 inches), Bridgeport, Connecticut (41.8 inches) and Islip on Long Island (34.2 inches).
Among the most stunning of all the January snow totals close to the New York City area is the 56.9 inches which have hit Hartford, Connecticut. That’s four and a half times the city’s typical full-January total of 12.6 inches.
Word of the huge monthly snow amounts there comes just days after that area was hit by yet another snowstorm–a system which rode into New York on gusts as high as 49 mph. Snowfall at New York’s Central Park hit 19.0 inches as did tallies out of Clifton and Roselle, New Jersey.
The same lightning-laced snow system put down 15.1 inches in Philadelphia, 16 inches Jersey City, New Jersey and 11.5 inches at South Boston, Massachusetts. The Nation’s Capital measured 5 inches at Reagan National Airport.
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How bout NE Ohio. Over 55 inches of snow at the youngstown airport in december and 25 inches so far this month. What’s more depressing is that from December 1, 2010 to January 28, 2011, there has been a trace or more of snow 88% of the days and the temps have been below normal 82% of the days. Sun, what sun?
just amazing what GAGW will do…./sarc off
It’s global warming – Kaku knows.
I moved from Connecticut to Maryland in ’79.
Just in time……..
pRadio
And, as usual, the Alarmists will claim Man’s rampant use of fossil fuels caused it.
So how will the people hit by this “unprecedented” cold weather keep warm?
By burning more fossil fuels. Well, for those that can AFFORD to burn fossil fuels, that is.
And, when people die from exposure, they can claim those deaths as a result of AGW.
And the current GFS model has a repeat performance on tap for us Wednesday-Thursday again. Can you say: “another 17”?
In our record year of 1996, here on Long Island, we had over 90″ for the season – 3x the normal average. We had at least four storms over 14″ that year. But I don’t remember there ever being as much snow on the ground at one time as we have right now. We typically have substantial melting between major storms. Not this year.
If this keep up, I’m moving to Syracuse.
RE: “another 17”
Not if I have to shovel it. I’ve shoveled so much snow in the last month that I’m seriously considering moving south. But hey, I thought snow would soon be a thing of the past…
With La Nina continuing strong in the Pacific next winter has a chance of being worse.
Mike Monce says:
January 29, 2011 at 1:30 pm
And the current GFS model has a repeat performance on tap for us Wednesday-Thursday again. Can you say: “another 17″?
Joe Bastardi is forecasting a big one next week. In his tweets:
Media hype surprisingly non existent. For nation as whole, next week is the worst of the winter.. between this storm and extreme cold
http://twitter.com/BigJoeBastardi
Joe Bastardi tweet,
Major disruptive winter storm much of nation next week. Arguably it will be the worst week of winter for nation as whole. Get the Groundhog!
http://twitter.com/BigJoeBastardi
I shook my magic 8-ball after asking what could cause such a thing, but it keeps coming up ‘Global warming’. Maybe I should market this?
So we know snowfall depth is up, how about area? That’s the more important number, I think.
You have a non-existent link for “The Winter of 95-96: A Season of Extremes, National Climatic Data Center”, in the first sentence of this blog item.
[fixed ~mod]
Considering difference in latent heat content between rainwater and snow at 0°C, when so much snow is produced a lot of heat should be released to the atmosphere. It is equivalent to the amount of heat needed to warm up the same amount of water by 80°C. Still, this heat is nowhere to be seen (if not in South-West Greenland), global average temperature is falling like rock.
I guess as the heat is released at cloud tops, it is readily radiated out to space, as freeze-dried air above is pretty transparent to thermal IR, because the so called Arctic window on the other side of CO2 absorption band (at wavelengths longer than 16 μm) is also open.
In other words if the extra snow is caused by global warming indeed, we have the luck to identify just another strong negative feedback loop.
Why this there so much water vapor in the atmosphere? What could cause that?
“The prolific snows which have hit the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast this winter–during January in particular–are without precedent.“
Can anyone be sure of that? Maybe within the writer’s lifetime but before that…???
Quoting scripture (Soloman, The Wise, IIRC): “There is nothing new under the sun.”
Extreme weather events? In perspective, let’s keep things like this in mind….
Great floods of California, extreme weather events that pale today’s, back in 1862.
http://www.redlandsfortnightly.org/papers/Taylor06.htm
Do any of these NE cities keep records of how long the snow stays on the ground? If it sticks around longer, lasting into late winter and early spring a tad more each year, then we may be witnessing the beginning of a trend- a New Ice Age?
Mike says:
January 29, 2011 at 3:01 pm
Why this there so much water vapor in the atmosphere? What could cause that?
The real question is why the excess water vapor comes down as snow rather than rain. What could cause that?
Mike says:
January 29, 2011 at 3:01 pm
Why this there so much water vapor in the atmosphere? What could cause that?
==================================================
Exactly!
And why is it snowing and not raining?
I remember all those rainy, damp, gloomy, overcast winter days, what happened?
The reason global warming is so prevalent is similar to the Emperor’s New Clothes – nobody wants to admit they don’t understand it. They say they understand it and try to repeat mangled and illogical excuses they hear from media personalities, because it strokes their ego – they think it makes them look intelligent.
This is why the “global warming causes snow” excuse will work on the masses because if it doesn’t make sense then you have to be really smart to understand it – like me!
On another note:
David Falkner says:
January 29, 2011 at 2:11 pm
“I shook my magic 8-ball after asking what could cause such a thing, but it keeps coming up ‘Global warming’. Maybe I should market this?”
This sounds like the perfect basis for a new global warming cartoon with Mann stacking the magic eight ball with “global warming’ pyramids. Perhaps show him crossing things out like “solar variation” and “oceanic cycles.”
To rain rather than snow, you might recall large floods in Queensland Australia in recent weeks. Warwick Hughes has some comments on these on his blog:
http://www.warwickhughes.com/blog/
For perspective, it’s worth reading this URL from commenter Peter West:
http://reg.bom.gov.au/hydro/flood/qld/fld_history/brisbane_history
There have been larger floods in Brisbane, but this knowledge is being made fuzzy in order to hype “Global Warming = more severe events”.
Rain inputs to the Brisbane River come from a relatively small, enclosed basin that seems too small to model with GCMs or derivatives. There is resistance here to a multi billion $ levy, in part because people are realising that high transaction costs and low economic efficiency are typical of government programs. Also, in part, because of the speding to repair thousands of homes that history shows will flood again.
Mike
Jan 29, 3:01 pm
Why is there so much water vapour in the atmosphere? What could cause that?
Cooling oceans.
Mike says:
January 29, 2011 at 3:01 pm
The salt in the oceans changed on the surface which moved the ocean heat into the Arctic.
This is pumping tremendous amounts of water vapor in the northern hemisphere.
Meanwhile:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/29/3124776.htm