UPDATE: The map and data have been updated from NOHRS. We now have added to yesterday’s total with new overnight snows, bringing the CONUS coverage to 70.9%. KGMB-TV in Hawaii reports, that with snowfall on Mauna Kea, 49 out of 50 states have snow on the ground, with Florida the exception. -Anthony
Meanwhile, New York City declares a weather emergency due to snow.
Data from the National Weather Service National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center in Minnesota show that nearly 70 71% of the USA has snow cover.
January 12, 2011 Data:
| Area Covered By Snow: | 70.9% |
| Area Covered Last Month: | 35.1% |
| Snow Depth | |
|---|---|
| Average: | 6.9 in |
| Minimum: | 0.0 in |
| Maximum: | 895.5 in |
| Std. Dev.: | 11.3 in |
| Snow Water Equivalent | |
| Average: | 1.4 in |
| Minimum: | 0.0 in |
| Maximum: | 435.1 in |
| Std. Dev.: | 3.0 in |
January 11, 2011 data:
| Area Covered By Snow: | 69.4% |
| Area Covered Last Month: | 33.1% |
| Snow Depth | |
|---|---|
| Average: | 6.9 in |
| Minimum: | 0.0 in |
| Maximum: | 897.2 in |
| Std. Dev.: | 11.4 in |
The map above is done from snow reports from COOP stations and other observers. Here’s the map done by satellite:
The 70% value may be exceeded tomorrow as the area around Washington DC has picked up a couple of inches of snow, which is shown as no snow cover in Jan 11 maps above. See this from NWS Baltimore/Washington:
At the time of this post, the Northeastern USA was getting hammered with significant snowfall:
Earlier today, NYC mayor Bloomberg declared a snow emergency:
This from Notify NYC, a city email messaging service:
The Mayor has issued a Weather Emergency Declaration for NYC. The public is urged to avoid all unnecessary driving for the duration of the storm and use public transportation. For info on MTA service visit http://www.mta.info. Any vehicle found blocking roadways or impeding ability to plow streets will be towed at owner’s expense. Alternate Side Parking, payment at parking meters, and garbage collection are suspended citywide until further notice.
The NWS has issued this:
URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY 1054 PM EST TUE JAN 11 2011 ...WINTER STORM TO IMPACT THE AREA TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY... NJZ002-004-006-103>108-NYZ072>075-176-178-121200- /O.CON.KOKX.WS.W.0002.000000T0000Z-110112T2300Z/ WESTERN PASSAIC-EASTERN PASSAIC-HUDSON-WESTERN BERGEN- EASTERN BERGEN-WESTERN ESSEX-EASTERN ESSEX-WESTERN UNION- EASTERN UNION-NEW YORK (MANHATTAN)-BRONX-RICHMOND (STATEN ISLAND)- KINGS (BROOKLYN)-NORTHERN QUEENS-SOUTHERN QUEENS- 1054 PM EST TUE JAN 11 2011 ...WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM EST WEDNESDAY... A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM EST WEDNESDAY. * LOCATIONS...NEW YORK CITY...AND NORTHEAST NEW JERSEY. * HAZARDS...SNOW...HEAVY AT TIMES. * ACCUMULATIONS...8 TO 12 INCHES...WITH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS POSSIBLE. * WINDS...GUSTS 20 TO 25 MPH. * VISIBILITIES...LESS THAN 1/4 MILE AT TIMES. * TIMING...HEAVIEST SNOW OCCURS AFTER MIDNIGHT TONIGHT THROUGH DAYBREAK WEDNESDAY. * IMPACTS...HAZARDOUS TRAVEL TONIGHT AND THROUGH THE DAY WEDNESDAY. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HEAVY SNOW MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW ARE FORECAST THAT WILL MAKE TRAVEL DANGEROUS. ONLY TRAVEL IN AN EMERGENCY. IF YOU MUST TRAVEL...KEEP AN EXTRA FLASHLIGHT...FOOD... AND WATER IN YOUR VEHICLE IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY.
Looks like a fun day tomorrow in NYC.
Yet tonight on one of the Fox Business channel shows there was a visiting Warmer who was going on endlessly about this being “The Warmest Year EVVaaah”…
WHO you going to believe, the computer video game or the snow on the ground?
Cue in massive albedo feedback.
It will be even colder tomorrow.
Ice Age next week ….
More federal aid needed immediately, women and minorities affected most.
/sarchasm – That gaping whole between a liberal/socialist and the truth.
Well, we have nearly a quarter inch here at the Southern tip of Vancouver Island…I blame “climate challenge” and, of course, Sarah Palin.
I was rather hoping that somebody would confirm that this has happened before 30 years ago or something like that! Just like the floods in Australia, although they are at least confirmed as having happened 30 years ago & more & that greenie influence on weak politicianans have effectively caused the devastation through the cancelation of necessary flood defences, note all the homes are built on flood planes, deja vu?
I wish we had snow, it is freezing rain here in Beaverton, OR. They predict spring weather for the rest of the week. One can only hope.
Jay Currie says:
January 11, 2011 at 10:49 pm
I blame “climate challenge” and, of course, Sarah Palin.
I thought it was the Tea Party.
Jay, I’m in Powell River and we have 3 inches and blizzard conditions
makes me laugh because I grew up on the Alberta prairies….
And I just bought new boots…..
Only 70%? Here in Canada it’s about 99.9% coverage….get used to it!
John :-#)#
REPLY: Bragging or complaining? 😉 Anthony
Request from NJ to everyone in America:
We are sick of snow. Please put your electric room heaters outside, point them towards Jersey, and turn them to high. Thanks in advance!
Lucky the AGW/CC efect isn’t stronger because warming causes cooling and the other 30% would be covered, unless.
E.M.Smith says:
January 11, 2011 at 10:43 pm
me, or your lyin’ eyes?
Mark
Unfortunately, in spite of the fact that CO is about 100% covered right now, nearly all of the snow has been going to the mountains. Wait, I guess that’s not “unfortunate” since the skiing has been epic. It is, however, unfortunate that the front range (particularly Colorado Springs and Denver) has seen record low snowfall totals this year and we really, really, really need some moisture. Three inches of snow once a month when the ratio is as high as 40:1 (snow to water) doesn’t help much.
Mark
My current view on climate follows John Mayned Keynes:
As I learn more about the climate, my view changes.
At present I would class myself as a denier rather than a skeptic.
(Denying that humans have any perceptable effect on the climate, that is).
BUT
We must not blame everything on alarmists or on incompetent governments.
My perception is that members of the public have freely chosen to buy houses in known flood plains and that local government has not been prepared to stand up to complaints that they were being bureaucratic in attempting to resist individuals desire to live close to a pretty river bank, or in a shaded low lying corner of our fair land.
Oh yes, we must not forget “Greedy” developers, estate agents and farmers, wanting to sell their flood prone properties in their old age and retire to the coast and relax.
We are all human.
Flood plain maps are available for all areas in Australia.
The problem is that the climate cycle is long and eratic.
People just do not understand that the next “one in 100 year” flood could occur tomorrow and that the following one could just follow next week.
Most people have become imune to the fear of floods, believing that the earth was warming and that Australia was drying up.
The climate of Australia is very eratic, unless like me, you are interested in trends spanning a century or more.
(A good friend of ours was drowned a year or so ago, trying to cross a flooded creek on his way home, in his high chasis four wheel truck. His wife had crossed successfully fifteen minutes earlier in her low slung small car. Things change. Sometimes quite rapidly. Plans for new dams and improved flood levies often follow major floods, but are forgotten when the next drought takes a hold on the country).
Ah, but its not all 50 states as FLA seems to be left out. That must mean all the global warming has gone there for some oj and a tan!
“Alan the Brit says:
January 11, 2011 at 10:52 pm”
There is a very good reason why a “Queenslander” (Type of house built in…errrmmm…Queensland) is built on stilts/posts, typically 2m above the ground level. And most of the central Brisbane CBD in 1974 was dockland, now its residential. Someone at the local planning office needs to be hauled over hot coals for residential building approvals, that are not above ground level, on a floodplain.
Tell me about it! This better turn to rain tonight!!!
http://thevirtualbarandgrill.com/wordpress/images/SnowFall.mp4
Snowed under, I suppose……………;-)
Al Gore must have spread himself all over the US of A these last few days.
Only Florida (& Hawaii) seems to be snow-free if I’m not mistaken…
AusieDan says:
January 11, 2011 at 11:22 pm
Patrick Davis says:
January 11, 2011 at 11:29 pm
Common sense seems to still rule parts of Australia, please lend us Brits some as we have substituted ours with PC governance from the PDREU/EUSR. Interesting reversion to lake people building technique using stilts! My sincere condolences to you, Dan, at the loss of a friend in such tragic circumstances. To Patrick, you are far too lenient, a wall up against which they should be stood, is far more appropriate imho, I’ll design it & build it for you if you want!
Everytime it rains here & floods occur, the ecostalinists jump on the AGW bandwaggon. However, almost without exception, every flooding occurrence is the result of poor investment in flood defences, poor management of the catchment area, outrageous permitting of construction on flood planes without due consideration, other than arrogantly presuming that it won’t happen again, & if it did those responsible will be long gone retired on taxpayer funded pensions, or dead! The typical respones is that “we were following the best available advice” when they were not doing anything of the kind, other than giving in to nutters (a Structural Engineering expression although not restricted to use by SEs) who “believe”. Vive la nouveau age noir!
OT. I watched one of the annual traditional Royal Institution Seasonal lectures over the holiday period. Forgive if alread mentioned elsewhere, but I was disturbed to watch someone lecture school children on the wonders of carbon technology & what a wonderful thing carbon was!!!! I have no idea if CO2 was talked about in the other lectures. How screwed are those kids gonna be when they are bombarded about the dangers of carbon at school, day in, day out?
AtB
My sister and her 2 kids in Manila had their Christmas vacation in Florida and were disappointed to have below zero C temperature there, they they not bring thick jackets :-). I mentioned this article of US snow here, http://funwithgovernment.blogspot.com/2011/01/time-magazines-global-warming-part-2.html
“Volt Aire says:
January 12, 2011 at 12:38 am
Only Florida (& Hawaii) seems to be snow-free if I’m not mistaken…”
Just Florida apparently:
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=13826342
All lies Anthony, the met office commodore 64 (in between playing games of Daley Thompson’s decathlon), tells us the cold is not global, but limited to parts of England and a small pig farm in northern France.
How many times do we need to go through this guys? As we’ve seen over and over for the past couple decades, heavy, extensive snowfallls and bitter cold are the direct and unequivical results of a warming planet! Many expensive computer models have predicted this and they been well documented in only the finest peer reviewed journals. Have you not all heard of the Hockey Stick graph? Where is hockey played? On ice!! That’s what the graph’s been about all along. But the skeptical contrarian deniers have been too ignorant to figure that out,
Isn’t it clear to everyone by now that we need to stop emitting CO2, reverse the warming trend, and get back to a warmer climate? /sarc off (in case you couldn’t tell!)
I was hoping to be able to brag and say that Kamloops in south central BC had almost no snow and that there should be a little green dot there, but a look out my front window just now reveals that there’s another inch or so of snow that seems to have appeared last evening.
We were lucky last winter in that many February days were warmer here than Florida and I hardly had to shovel my driveway. This year has been an interesting one of cold weeks followed by above freezing temperatures which melt the snow and then it freezes again leaving very annoying widespread ice. Fortunately sublimation of ice from the roads is a rapid process on sunny days but I’m wondering if the 400 lb of MgCl2 I got in the fall is going to be enough to keep me from sliding down my driveway for the rest of the winter.
Was hoping to sleep in today but it looks like I get to engage in the Canadian winter ritual of shoveling snow off my driveway before heading off to work. Is there anywhere in the northern hemisphere at 45 degrees latitude or above that doesn’t have snow now?