The storm is over, the totals and reports are in.
Here’s the lowdown on the snowfall records from the Baltimore NWS:
NOUS41 KLWX 070328 CCA PNSLWX DCZ001-MDZ003>007-009>011-013-014-016>018-501-502-VAZ021-025>031-036> 042-050>057-WVZ049>055-501>504-071100- PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT...CORRECTED REAGAN NATIONAL INFO NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC 1030 PM EST SAT FEB 06 2010 ...PRELIMINARY SUMMARY OF TWO-DAY STORM TOTAL SNOWFALLS EXCEEDED IN THE BALTIMORE-WASHINGTON AREA... THE 32.4 INCH TWO-DAY STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL RECORDED TODAY AT DULLES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT EXCEEDS THE PREVIOUS TWO-DAY STORM RECORD OF 23.2 INCHES ON 7-8 JANUARY 1996. THE 24.8 INCH TWO-DAY STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL ESTIMATED TODAY AT BALTIMORE/WASHINGTON INTERNATIONAL THURGOOD MARSHALL AIRPORT EXCEEDS THE PREVIOUS TWO-DAY STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL RECORD OF 24.4 INCHES FOR BWI AIRPORT FROM 16-17 FEBRUARY 2003. THIS WOULD ALSO BE THE 2ND HIGHEST TWO-DAY STORM TOTAL ALL-TIME SNOWFALL FOR BALTIMORE RECORDS WHICH DATE BACK TO 1871...BEING SECOND ONLY TO THE 26.3 INCHES WHICH FELL 27-28 JANUARY 1922. THE 17.8 INCH TWO-DAY STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL RECORDED TODAY AT RONALD REAGAN WASHINGTON NATIONAL AIRPORT IS THE SECOND HIGHEST TWO-DAY STORM TOTAL RECORD...SECOND ONLY TO THE 18.7 INCHES FOR NATIONAL AIRPORT FROM 18-19 FEBRUARY 1979. THIS WOULD ALSO BE THE 4TH HIGHEST TWO-DAY STORM TOTAL ALL-TIME SNOWFALL FOR WASHINGTON RECORDS WHICH DATE BACK TO 1871...BEHIND ONLY THE 27-28 JANUARY 1922 KNICKERBOCKER STORM WITH 26.0 INCHES...THE 12-13 FEBRUARY 1899 STORM WHICH PRODUCED 19.0 INCHES...AND THE 18.7 INCHES WHICH FELL 18-19 FEBRUARY 1979. AS WITH ANY MAJOR CLIMATE RECORD ACHIEVEMENT...THESE PRELIMINARY RECORDS WILL BE QUALITY CONTROLLED BY NOAA'S NATIONAL CLIMATIC DATA CENTER OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL WEEKS.
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R. Gates (10:57:15) :
R. Gates:
First off, no one knows the centuries long trends of icecap extents. No records.
Second, no one has demonstrated a link between CO2 levels and icecap extents.
Thirdly, no one has demonstrated any harm to the environment or mankind from icecap extent extremes.
Fourthly, no one has demonstrated that cutting back on CO2 production will have any impact on global temperatures.
Fifthly, even if CO2 emissions on the part of mankind are having any impact on the climate, Utah’s attempt to do so will have no impact at all. Chine and India will continue to put CO2 into the atmosphere at accelerating rates. The great experiment continues. We will know for a certainty whether CO2 rates in the next few decades have any significant impact on the climate.
So sit back and relax.
The “Capital Weather Gang” at the Washington Post has an interesting article on the 7 year periodicity of the snow onslaughts:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/
It shows the heavy snow years in 95-96, 02-03 and now 09-10. I also recall (about 15-20 years ago) an analysis of rain and drought in the southwest showing a 7 year cycle as well as defined by tree ring patterns in bristlecone pines.
Yea, we only got 8 inches (2 whites below bottom center widows peak).
To ,
I note your amusement at how much fuss this major snowstorm on the USA East Coast has generated. A lady I used to work with was an emigrant from Russia who had spent time as a schoolteacher in Siberia. Her tales of school not being canceled until the outdoor temperature was -67 degrees C., the dangers of exposure of skin to the extreme cold, and of piles of snow reaching the height of a 5-story building, give me a little appreciation of your amusement.
It’s all in what you’re used to, I suppose. For Baltimore, the all-time record for the snowiest winter is something like 62.5 inches. After this past weekend’s snow, Baltimore is at 60.4 inches for this winter. We are poised to receive another 5-10 inches tomorrow night, therewith obliterating the old record. A typical winter in Washington. DC, 44 miles south of Baltimore, has 16.6 inches of snowfall, so to receive more than that in a single fall twice in the same winter is quite an anomaly.
Now if only this would cause the assorted politicians haunting the USA’s capital to wake up and question the idea of global warming….
Arrggh. Lack of edit for comments!
My previous comment was supposed to be addressed to Alexander Feht.
We gotta stop stopping global warming, its making the world too cold
I really, really hope that the comments I’ve read here pointing to the snowfalls in Maryland and Virginia as evidence against global warming are simply intended to be ironic and aren’t serious.
There is a world of difference between climate and weather. Saying that global temperatures are increasing doesn’t mean that every location will always be warmer all the time. In fact, changes in global temperature are likely to cause changes in weather patterns that in some areas may mean cooler average temperatures, more or less precipitation, and other changes.
I find it absolutely absurd that news conglomerates like Fox, Fox, and, say, Fox have repeatedly insinuated that these snowfalls somehow contradict the theory of global warming.
Americans desperately need to be educated about simple climatology. Somewhere in between Fox’s deceitful sniping and Gore’s alarmist exaggerations stands the truth that the planet IS warming on a global scale, and that we’d be wise to take personal actions to make a lighter impact on the planet. Global data concretely support a warming trend in the last century, and CO2 and global temperatures have been positively correlated in investigation after investigation. Furthermore, looking at simple carbon budgets and data from collection units all over the planet shows that humans are releasing enough CO2 to cause substantial increases in global concentration. Finally, CO2 is KNOWN to function as a greenhouse gas. The only small link that can be disputed is whether or not what we are doing is enough to imbalance the climate. I don’t feel like gambling our climate on the odds that it isn’t.
There is no way around it: it is pathetic for people to say “well, I guess we’ll find out,” rather than taking even simple steps to not HAVE to discover whether we can send our climate spiraling out of control. You may not intend to be here in 50 years, but I do.