Let it snow… let it snow… let it snow…biggest snowstorm since 1922, and still not over.
From the New York Times, a crippled government. Even the post office gave up.
Capital Is Crippled as Blizzard Continues
A winter storm continued its blizzard rage in some parts of the Mid-Atlantic region on Saturday morning, dumping nearly two feet of wet, heavy snow that cut power to about 200,000 residents, caused the roof of a private jet hangar to collapse at Washington Dulles International Airport and forced the nation’s capital into quiet hibernation.
All postal operations in the Washington area, including the suburbs in Northern Virginia and Maryland were canceled on Saturday.
Full story at NYT here
CBS news calls the storm “epic”. See video report below.
From NOAA/NWS
…EXTREMELY DANGEROUS WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS CONTINUE THIS
AFTERNOON AND EVENING FOR THE BALTIMORE-WASHINGTON REGION…EASTERN
PANHANDLE OF WEST VIRGINIA…AND NORTHERN SHENANDOAH VALLEY…
…BLIZZARD CONDITIONS ONGOING IN SOUTHERN MARYLAND…
…POISED TO SET ALL-TIME STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL RECORD FOR
BALTIMORE…
BLIZZARD WARNINGS CONTINUE UNTIL 10 PM FOR MARYLAND EAST OF THE
INTERSTATE 95 CORRIDOR BETWEEN BALTIMORE AND WASHINGTON DC AND WEST
OF THE CHESAPEAKE BAY. WINTER STORM WARNINGS FOR HEAVY SNOW
CONTINUE ELSEWHERE ACROSS THE REGION UNTIL 10 PM.
AT 11:45 AM THIS MORNING…WEATHER OBSERVERS AT BALTIMORE`S THURGOOD
MARSHALL BALTIMORE-WASHINGTON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT REPORTED 26.5
INCHES OF SNOW ON THE GROUND. THIS IS ONLY 0.3 INCHES SHY OF THE
26.8 INCH RECORD FROM THE PRESIDENTS DAY FEBRUARY 2003 STORM. THE
AIRPORT IS FORECAST TO HAVE AN ADDITIONAL 3 TO 6 INCHES BEFORE THE
STORM ENDS THIS EVENING. A RECORD REPORT WILL BE ISSUED WHEN THE
RECORD IS REACHED.
GENERALLY…24 TO 32 INCHES OF SNOW HAVE FALLEN ACROSS NORTH OF A
LINE BETWEEN ANNAPOLIS MD TO WASHINGTON DC TO PETERSBURG WV. SOUTH
OF THIS LINE TO CHARLOTTESVILLE VA…APPROXIMATELY 14 TO 20 INCHES
HAVE FALLEN.
AN ADDITIONAL 4 TO 8 INCHES WILL FALL ACROSS THE REGION BEFORE THE
SNOW TAPERS TO FLURRIES LATER THIS EVENING. AREAS SOUTH AND EAST OF
BALTIMORE AND WASHINGTON WILL SEE ACCUMULATIONS AT THE HIGHER END
OF THIS RANGE…ALONG WITH WIND GUSTS TO 35 MPH CREATING BLIZZARD
CONDITIONS.
Blizzard Warning
URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC 1002 AM EST SAT FEB 6 2010 DCZ001-MDZ007-011-013-014-062315- /O.CON.KLWX.BZ.W.0001.000000T0000Z-100207T0300Z/ DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA-HARFORD-SOUTHERN BALTIMORE-PRINCE GEORGES- ANNE ARUNDEL- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...WASHINGTON...BALTIMORE...ANNAPOLIS 1002 AM EST SAT FEB 6 2010 ...BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 PM EST THIS EVENING... A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 PM EST THIS EVENING. * PRECIPITATION TYPE...MODERATE SNOW. * ACCUMULATIONS...AN ADDITIONAL 4 TO 8 INCHES TODAY WITH TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS OF 20 TO 30 INCHES. * TIMING...MODERATE INTENSITY SNOW BANDS WILL MOVE SOUTHEASTWARD THIS MORNING THROUGH EARLY THIS AFTERNOON. SNOW WILL BECOME LIGHTER THIS AFTERNOON AND WILL TAPER OFF BY EARLY THIS EVENING. * VISIBILITIES...VISIBILITIES AS LOW AS ONE-QUARTER TO ONE-HALF MILE ARE EXPECTED THROUGH EARLY THIS AFTERNOON. * TEMPERATURES...TEMPERATURES WILL REMAIN NEAR 30 DEGREES THIS MORNING AND WILL FALL INTO THE MID TO UPPER 20S TONIGHT. * WINDS...NORTHEAST WINDS 15 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 25 MPH THROUGH THIS AFTERNOON...ESPECIALLY ALONG THE COAST. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... ALTHOUGH WIND SPEEDS WILL DECREASE THROUGH THE DAY...VISIBILITIES WILL BE AT OR BELOW ONE-QUARTER MILE AT TIMES IN MODERATE SNOW... WHICH WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY DANGEROUS. A BLIZZARD WARNING MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. FALLING AND BLOWING SNOW WITH STRONG WINDS AND POOR VISIBILITIES ARE LIKELY.
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The _snowstorm_ has crippled Washington D.C.? Hmm… Republican snow? I’m sure someone will say so at some point.
Anyway, I was watching this story on my local station this morning (WGN, Chicago) and as they were showing the snow pile up, some voice off camera said…
“Where’s global warming when you need it?!”
It wasn’t live footage, so they could’ve edited it out, but chose not to instead. There was some agreement from the reporters and anchors. Indeed… where is it?
It’s comin’ down, from the bottom up!
MOD: “Reply: Already happened. A Pakistani journalist claims there is a HAARP installation near the spot in Norway the strange twirling light in the sky was seen a while ago. RT – Mod]”
Strange twirling light seems like a description of a Birkeland current – I wonder what the aurora was doing these last few days.
and to think – all that snow in DC is being caused by moisture that came up to texas through mexico, evidently generated from el nino weather patterns that ran further up the coast and crashed into a buncha cold arctic air coming down from the NW. Or at least that’s what it seems to be. All this moist weather here this winter on the gulf coast of tx is evidently el nino generated.
gee ya think all that extra el nino surface warming might be generating lots of extra evaporation and h2o vapor cycle heat transfer rather than simply continuing to inject more heat energy deep in the ocean?
Steve McIntyre (12:32:54) :
We’ve had almost no snow in Toronto this winter. IT’s cold today but the ground is bare.
REPLY: IIRC last year was your snow year extraordinaire – Anthony
Yes, and it is only February, wasn’t there roofs collapsing in March last year? Or was that in 2008? I know that Norway had roof collapses in 2008 – the fjordhus I had on order was delayed because of damage to the factory. Most of the low-level (below 400m) in Scotand is gone now, but more is forecast for this week.
Hey Brian
“When I think of the DAMAGE and MALICIOUSNESS that “global warmers” want to (demand to) vest upon innocent people, Murray, I make NO APOLOGIES AT ALL
and I think it is HIGH DAMN TIME for people to speak out against the green crap
JUST LIKE THAT THERE
People can lie down and TAKE IT or they can YELL”
Wrong forum for that discussion, and intemperate language makes no contribution. We had the same dire predictions before the “Clean Air Act” nearly 20 years ago, and what we got was beneficial. Move to an appropriate blog.
Sorry, Murray.
Freedom of speech means, some of what you hear might not be music to your ears.
Clean Air Act was costly, but this is a different animal today. “Clean Energy/Climate Protection” amounts to Government-sanctioned methods to force people to suffer via demolishing an economy.
The Nation cannot have “green” technologies without a “non-green” economy that supports them, and it cannot be done by demolishing the “non-green” system.
Before irreversible and pointless mistakes are made, I yell and holler that people will be harmed. It’s that simple.
One strategy for you, is to ignore anything that is appended to my name. Another strategy for you is to be found in the last sentence of your missive.
Identifying yourself completely, as I do, goes a long way to enhancing your credibility Murray.
Lamb was a prolific writer. The book TonyB recommended is a good one, and concise, but you might also consider a heftier tome, and one pointed toward the future. TonyB probably knows of it also…
H.H.Lamb, Climatic History and the Future, Princeton U Press, 1977. ISBN 0-691-02387-5. Look at plate IV for an interesting visual anecdote about the far north of Canada during the Holocene Optimum, 5000 ybp.
Hubert Lamb had a great influence on Tim Ball, who in turn had a great influence on me, ever since I approached this area in my work for the US DOE in 1987.
Tim Ball in Canada, and Fred Singer in te US, remain two unsung heroes who had a great deal to do with helping to prevent North America from falling into an abyss of superstition long ago.
Hooray for them and all of the others!
This is totally unfair!
I live in Ottawa, which wrestles Moscow for the title of “winteriest” capital of the world.
Last weekend, the cross-country ski club that I belong to hosted the Eastern Canadian championships, and we were summoned a few days before the race to shovel snow from the woods onto the bare parts of the ski trails.
It is plenty cold enough, but we have almost no snow in the city, and just enough outside the city (UHI effect on ski trails!) to give reasonable coverage on most of the ski trails.
We have another race coming up, and it looks like we will again be called out to man the shovels.
Any chance of shipping some of your snow up North to Canada?
@ur momisugly _Jim (21:08:05) :
Kay (17:30:29) :
There are around 100,000 in my area still without power.
… No power=no heat, and it’s going down to 5 degrees F tonight. … I have power … we’re on different grids.
Probably you mean literally “on different spokes of the power distribution system“.
Thanks for the explanation. 🙂 Whatever the reason, this happens every time we have a storm. They lose power; we don’t. One year we had a wind storm and they lost power for a week. And they just built a new substation two blocks down the road, too. (I doubt that has anything to do with it, but you’d think it would be more reliable!)
tallbloke (11:08:08) : “…Warm air over the warm ocean in El Nino. More evaporation. Warm wet air meets cold continental air –> Mucho snow. Nothing to do with global warming, just weather.”
Yes, but if the “cold” in the continental air (∆H1) is just equal in BTUs to the “warm” in the air off the ocean (∆H1), you’d have a net balance:
ocean water + ∆H1 → vapor
vapor – ∆H1 → rain.
To make snow, on the other hand requires extra “cold” BTUs.
vapor – ∆H2 → snow
∆H2 > ∆H1
Looking at just the El Nino vapor, and assuming that everything else is in balance, how can you have global warming and extra cooling at the same time? Impossible.
Anyone out there who believes global warming causes more cold? If so, I have a bridge I’d like to sell you.
I left my bicycle outside over the weekend and had to dig it up from the snow afterwards: http://zi.fi/photo/fillari.jpg
This is in Southern Finland (Espoo). More snow has been pouring almost every day and today I once again need to take a shovel with me to access the bike.
RFK Jr. – 2008 “Snow is so scarce today that most Virginia children probably don’t own a sled.”
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/RFK-79834057.html#ixzz0ez5WFvME
vukcevic (11:48:18) :
It should not be forgotten that the Washington DC’s population is not just politicians. Few years ago, when I was there, I saw many ‘down and outs’, I think more than I encountered in any other major US city I visited. It is those we should be concerned for.
Yes and as rbateman (11:15:41) : asked
“What’s the President doing in all of this?
The blizzard did not keep President Obama from traveling a few blocks through deserted streets in a motorcade of sport utility vehicles from the White House to a nearby hotel to speak at the Democratic National Committee’s winter meeting.
In his opening remarks, Obama thanked the activists for being willing to brave the blizzard…”
Obama would make a better “show” by expressing concern for those caught without housing in this blizzard. I wonder what the death toll will be and whether any of the journalists will bother to report it. Since it will reflect badly on the current administration, I can see the stats being “homogenized” and swept under the rug.
The possibility of families caught with out housing is very real. Many are people who have no idea of how to “work the system” or are to proud to ask for help.
In September, U.S. foreclosure filings rose 29.2 percent. In the third quarter, foreclosure filings were up nearly 22.5 percent from 2008 and 2008 was already heading into the recession. One in every 136 U.S. households faced possible foreclosure and 16,687 borrowers in Virginia were struggling to make mortgage payments during the third quarter of 2009.
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/business/local/article/B-FORE15_20091014-220205/299406/