UPDATE: The East coast snowstorm seen from space
The Mid-Atlantic states were completely white on Sunday, December 20, 2009, in the wake of a record-breaking snow storm. The storm deposited between 12 and 30 inches of snow in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. on December 19, according to the National Weather Service. For many locations, the snowfall totals broke records for the most snow to fall in a single December day.
The storm shut down the federal government in Washington DC, stranded travelers, left hundreds of thousands without power and sharply cut holiday sales the weekend before Christmas.
From the “weather is not climate” department here’s interesting news from the National Operational Hyrdologic Remote Sensing Center. While certainly not unprecedented or unusual, it is interesting, especially when comparing years past:
Indeed, it looks like a white Christmas for much of the USA. Here’s the data:
December 21, 2009
| Area Covered By Snow: | 51.7% |
| Area Covered Last Month: | 8.0% |
| Snow Depth | |
|---|---|
| Average: | 3.8 in |
| Minimum: | 0.0 in |
| Maximum: | 887.0 in |
| Std. Dev.: | 6.4 in |
| Snow Water Equivalent | |
| Average: | 0.7 in |
| Minimum: | 0.0 in |
| Maximum: | 435.0 in |
| Std. Dev.: | 1.4 in |
Their weather summary indicates more snow on the way:
One to 3 feet of snow fell in the western Plains yesterday, while up to 1/2 inch of freezing rain fell in the central Plains. The precipitation was in response to a potent upper low in the Southern Plains and an associated surface low, which caused upslope flow conditions. The heaviest snowfall amounts were observed in the Colorado Front Range and in the Sangre de Cristo mountains of New Mexico. Strong surface winds in these areas caused much blowing and drifting snow.
Most of the snowpack across the West and western Plains is cool, with cold conditions at the lower elevations of the Great Basin. In the central Plains, where rain and snow fell yesterday, the snowpack there is warm, but snowmelt occurred along the southeastern edge of the central U.S. snowpack. Very warm conditions exist on the windward side of the Cascades where warm onshore flow occurred yesterday; slow snowmelt occurred there. Strong surface winds caused high blowing snow sublimation in the Western Plains from southeastern Wyoming and the Nebraska panhandle southward to northeastern New Mexico.
The upper low, currently over the Central Plains, will move slowly northeastward during the next three days, passing through the Great Lakes region by Sunday. A surface low will accompany the system. Little additional deepening of the system is expected since it appears that dry air is wrapping around the system. But on the cold side of the low, about 1/2 foot of snowfall is expected today in northeastern Colorado through southwestern Minnesota today. Heavier amounts are expected in orographically-favored areas of the Western Plains and northern Front Range. Snowfall is expected in the eastern part of the Upper Midwest and south of western Lake Superior. Up to 1/2 foot of snowfall is possible in this band with higher amounts snowfall likely in northwestern Wisconsin and the Michigan Upper Peninsula.
A deep surface low just off the central British Columbia coast has a cold front extending southward through the Northwest. Onshore flow behind the cold front and midlevel dynamics associated with the front will bring up to a foot of snowfall to the Cascades, Intermountains, Northern Rockies, and northern Sierra Nevada today and from northwestern Wyoming through southern Utah tomorrow. Another front will bring 4 to 8 inches of snow to the Cascades on Saturday.
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Of course there is the question: Is this really snow and is it really cold? Once the data has been adjusted no doubt we will have had a very warm winter. I am on the freezing cold south coast of England. But that’s only about 1,500 kilometers from the north coast of Africa and the Sahara starts a little way south of that. That’s close enough for a ‘scientific’ measurement isn’t it?
“In space no one can hear your teeth chattering.”
AGW believers.
“There will be extreme weather events, heavy snow, drought, record temperatures, floods, rising seas and hurricanes, all at the same time and in the same place”
HMMM, I left out volcanic eruptions and shifting tectonic plates.
The news here in the UK is “More snow brings travel chaos to Britain”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/6861343/Transport-chaos-blizzards-bring-Britain-to-standstill-with-more-snow-on-the-way.html
The Uk has had four days of deep sub-zero temperatures now and some regions have had a great deal of snow. Motorways have been closed – along with many major roads; Gatwick airport was closed today and the Eurostar trains have been unable to operate for three days now. Thousands of people are sleeping on the concourse at St Pancras Station – some have been there with their children for two or three successive nights now. It is chaos.
Chuck L (14:22:43) :
“I know that global cooling is a far more serious matter than global warming but I am praying for a “little ice age” to shut up all of these AGW alarmists, especially Romm and his ilk.”
Perhaps independently, but I suspect if a Little Ice Age hit then we’d be far better off not having to cope with the various regulations, taxes, and overreactions meant to deal with global warming.
We have about 12 inches of snow over North Yorkshire, most I have seen in over 30 years.
Chuck L (14:22:43) :
“Joe Romm has a posting blaming the big weekend snowstorm on global warming.”
Its this kind pf nonsense that has turned over half of Americans into skeptics.
TerrySkinner (16:16:16) :
Just how far south do you want to go? Looks like snow to me.
John Egan (16:03:13) :
Hello ???
I know what I am talking about.
There’s no snow in Burlington, Colorado or throughout most of the High Plains.
Here’s a Colorado DOT webcam image from this afternoon.
Not a bit of snow.
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j270/JohnnyGunn/BurlingtonWebcam20091221.jpg
The linked map is titled –
“Scaled Snow Precipitation
24-Hour Total Ending 2006-12-21″ with an 06 following
It’s 2006.
Here’s the correct image – –
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j270/JohnnyGunn/Snow_precip_24hr_2009122105_Nationa.jpg”
************
No, thats not the correct image, nor the same image, nor is either an image from 2006. Go to the source and choose
“Snow Depth”:
http://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/nsa/index.html?region=National&year=2009&month=12&day=21&units=e
I think I’ve pointed out before that the data base that generates the maps and tables has something weird about it. There is apparently one station with a snowpack of 400+” of water equivalent. This makes all the info in the site suspect. Whoever is in charge of the site should explain what is going on here.
Fortunately the US is going to get the two of the one two punch from mother nature. Ice storms in Chicago Wednesday. Christmas shopping is canceled.
John, sorry – Glen wins.
I think the green goddess is punishing us for not signing a deal at copenhagen. Maybe we should play it a different way, and ask them how much coal we have to burn to get back to the winters of the 90s. I liked them. Perhaps they should adjust cap and trade for how cold it was the year before. Or maybe we will have less time now because of all of the gas we burn keeping our houses warm. That 50 days has just ticked down to 49, or have we already run out of time..
Glenn and the rest of you piling on to John the links in the text are pointing to the wrong flipping maps.
MODS please fix the links.
I SWEAR to GOD, my Dad told me “People don’t understand this global warming”.. I said, oh, how so. He said “Well, cold places will get warm and warm places will get cold”. So, really, this snowfall, the fault of AGW. Period. I don’t know what to do.
The Chunnel has been shut down because some trains have been stranded in it. One theory is that it’s due to snow in France getting sucked into the tunnel.link
Oops, I apologize, John.
The link on the words “snow fell” in the first sentence “One to 3 feet of snow fell in the western Plains yesterday,” is from 2006. Anthony, this needs correcting.
Wow, practically the entire state of Nevada is covered with snow.
John Egan (16:03:13)
You’re right, I misread what you were saying.
Larry (16:56:27) :
Is this the green goddess you have in mind? She’s coal fired!!
http://www.rhdr.org.uk/rhdr/engines/01.html
Laura Ingram on FOX news now asking; What happened to global warming, coming up soon.
Doug in Seattle (16:54:44) :
“John, sorry – Glen wins.”
No. I misunderstood what was being referenced; it wasn’t the map but the hyperlinked words in the text. The “linked map” language fooled me.
I keep checking to see if the links point to 2006 maps, and I find 2009 maps. Where are you finding the links to 2006?
Oh, I see. Some of the words (snow, etc) are hyperlinked to the wrong things. The map and the data shown at the top are 2009 data.
Mankind gathers in Copenhagen, with certain absolute knowledge that it is they who have screwed up to climate of the planet and they alone who have the power to fix it.
Mankind is rewarded with a massive global cooling and snowfall that shatters many previous records, with many lives lost in the freeze.
I hope the truth about Climategate is spread far and wide. I hope this fraudulent “man-made warming” nonsense is thoroughly destroyed.
Because, say what you will about the divine, if there is such a gathering next year at Mexico City with as much or more supreme confidence in the power of man over planetary affairs, I fear it would likely require massive volcanic eruptions to cause enough cooling for those at the conference to take notice. And that will not be pretty, and it will take years for the effects to pass, if it doesn’t throw us right into another ice age.
Ignoring that one volcano in the Philippines for the moment, would you say we have had quite a lull in volcanic activity for awhile?