Here are some pictures I took of the snow that fell in my neighborhood. About 3 inches in total. The first two were taken Friday night as the snow was still falling. Unfortunately, the iPhone quality isn’t so good.

After the break, more pictures taken this morning with a better camera.

The Atlanta area got its second snowfall of the season on Friday, as a winter storm moved across the south. The snow began falling around 1:30 PM with wet, heavy flakes that immediately began sticking to the grass, and eventually the roads. Overnight, the weather cleared and the temperatures dropped, providing residents with a beautiful winter morning typically seen on Christmas cards.

Snowfall totals in Georgia from the February 12th storm include 3.6 inches in Atlanta and 4.5 inches in Athens. The heaviest snow appeared to be in Henry County, with 6 inches. Other reports around Georgia include Savannah with .9 inches and Metter with 2 inches. Charleston, SC reported 3.3 inches of snow.

This morning, there is snow on the ground in 49 of the 50 states, which may be an all time record, according to the AP. People in Hawaii are scouring the tops of mountains there, looking for traces of snow in the only state not reporting snow on the ground. Here is a map of snow cover as of Friday Saturday afternoon:

With temperatures expected to reach over 40 degrees this afternoon, much of Atlanta’s winter wonderland will melt. But, there’s a possibility of yet more snow on Sunday or Monday. Enjoy the snow while you can.

The Washington, DC area is recovering from its second major snowstorm of the season. At Dulles Airport, the 32.4 inches of snow was the highest two-day total ever recorded. 17.8 inches of snow was measured at Reagan National Airport. That was the second highest total recorded at that location, and the fourth highest total snowfall recorded in Washington. (26 inches was the record DC snowfall, in 1922.)

While the Baltimore airport only recorded 24.8 inches of snow, just to the northwest, in Elkridge, they seem to have gotten more snow than anywhere else, with 34.8 inches.

The bad news for the Washington area is that they are again under a winter storm warning, with a prediction of an additional 10 to 20 inches between noon Tuesday and Wednesday evening. In Atlanta, the storm will only be rain, with the possibility of some snow in the Northeast Georgia mountains.

The real threat for Georgia is this weekend. when another in the series of storms comes barreling north. Some models are indicating several inches of snow, with the snowfall possibly extending into middle and south Georgia. There’s not a lot of confidence in the forecast yet, which is why the early forecast for the weekend doesn’t mention it. But, the models are best at the predictable, and this winter has certainly not been that. Keep your eyes on the forecast as it gets closer to Friday.

The weather news this weekend is the predicted record-breaking snow in the Baltimore-Washington area. Atlantans are famous for stocking up on bread and toilet paper whenever the white stuff is predicted to fall, but apparently it’s just as bad in DC, except there they are stocking up on bottled water and liquor.

And then there’s this forecast:

A three foot snowstorm is never a lot of fun – especially when last week’s snow is still on the ground. In 1077, I was living in Meadville, Pennsylvania, which is about 90 miles north of Pittsburgh. We got three feet of snow over a two day period, and I had to walk to work in it (or maybe it was wade to work in it). At the time, I was working as a newscaster on the local radio station. ABC radio news called from New York for a snow report. I think that was the only time I ever made an appearance on a national radio news broadcast.

As of 11 PM, it looks like snowfall between 4 and 18 inches has been reported in the Virginia/DC/Maryland/West Virginia area. The show is expected to last through Saturday night.

It seems like the cold weather just doesn’t want to go away. With the turn of the new year, the weather pattern changed as well, with high pressure systems over the Plains states and off of New England forming an opening between to allow unusually cold air to sweep southward. Mix that with a non-existent southern jet stream, and the cold moves across the eastern seaboard.

The map to the right shows the low temperatures across the country on January 9th. For the first ten days of the month, the mean temperature I’ve recorded here is 27.5 degrees–below the normal low for this time of year, which should be 33. The mean temperature for the same period in 2009 was 49.9.

We haven’t seen record cold, though. The lowest temperature I recorded here through the period was 13.5, last seen on January 16, 2009. The 13.9 chiller ties the record for the coldest temperature my thermometer has measured over the last eight years. Official records from Atlanta Hartsfield put the low records for the first ten days of the month in the single digits.

The good news (if there is any) is that with the extremely cold temperatures, we didn’t get a lot of precipitation. The snow on Thursday amounted to less than half an inch in my yard. Panic, school closings and shortages of bread and milk all occurred, but that’s par for Atlanta. I don’t know how much liquid precipitation fell on Thursday–snow and my rain gauge don’t play well together–but it was the longest stretch without rain since the latter part of November.

Elsewhere, heavy snow and cold led to snowplows being thwarted in the Midwest, and even snow flurries reported in Miami yesterday by the National Weather Service:

BY THE WAY…COUPLE TRAINED WEATHER SPOTTERS REPORTED A FEW SNOW FLURRIES IN THE WEST BOYTON BEACH… AND A FEW SMALL ICE PELLETS IN PALM BEACH THIS EVENING WITH THE RAIN SHOWERS. ANOTHER TRAINED STORM SPOTTER IN BROWARD COUNTY REPORTED A FEW FLURRIES IN OAKLAND PARK WITH THE LIGHT RAIN SHOWERS EARLY THIS EVENING…ALONG WITH A TRAINED SPOTTER IN MIAMI-DADE COUNTY REPORTING A FEW FLURRIES WITH SOME SLEET JUST SOUTHEAST OF TOWN AND COUNTY MALL.

It has been interesting to watch the forecasts over the past few days. Earlier last week, forecasts were predicting 50 degree temperatures today. It got up to 34. By Thursday, it’s supposed to be in the upper 50s. Want to bet it gets there? The models used to forecast upcoming weather assume that cold spells in the southeast are somewhat short-lived, so they try to get back to normal temperatures fairly quickly. This bias is what causes predictions of an earlier than actual warmup.

It will warm up. The North American Oscillation, which is a good indicator of temperatures on the east coast is trending positive, and the 6-10 and 8-14 day forecasts call for warmer than normal temperatures in the southeast. But, I wouldn’t be surprised to see another one or two rounds of colder than normal temperatures before winter ends in March.

And of course, when it finally does warm up by next weekend, what are we going to get? Significant rainfall and a chance of flooding. But that’s a topic for another post. And for those that asked I will try to post more. Blame the holidays and a busy schedule.

It looks like there’s a small chance of snow tonight, although the weather service is indicating the best chances of accumulation are going to be in northwest Georgia — so probably not affecting the metro Atlanta area. There may be a few flakes here and there towards morning, but it shouldn’t amount to much. On the other hand, I wouldn’t miind having to eat my words.

They are getting snow in Houston — a bunch of it., at least for them. About an inch of snow fell in Houston today, marking the earliest ever recorded snowfall in that southern Texas city. The previous earliest snowfall was set last year on December 10th. This is also the first time it has snowed in Houston two years in a row.

Whether snow falls overnight or not, Saturday night promises to be the coldest night of the season so far. Temperatures are expected to drop into the mid 20s, as high pressure and radiational cooling take over. Temperatures have hovered around the freezing mark several evenings this fall, but this should mark the first hard freeze of what is expected to be a colder than normal winter.

The Atlanta area saw its first snowfall in over a year on Sunday as March roared in like the proverbial lion. Precipitation changed from rain to snow around noon, and the snow continued to fall until around dark. Unfortunately for snow lovers, the already wet ground and warm soil temperatures meant that much of the snow didn’t stick, although it was enough to close most Atlanta area schools this morning.

Georgia snow totals from the storm include:
Atlanta: 4.2 inches
Athens: 6.5 inches
Columbus: 6.5 inches
Macon: 1.0 inches
Gwinnett County: 5.0 inches
Cobb County: 1.5 inches
DeKalb County: 1.5 inches
Henry County: 3.0 inches
Madison County: 7.0 inches

The greatest measured snow total was in Madison county, northeast of Athens.

The storm moved north overnight, bringing similar amounts of snow to major cities on the east coast:
Charlotte, NC: 6.0 inches
Arlington, VA: 8.0 inches
Baltimore, MD: 5.1 inches
Philadelphia, PA: 5.3 inches
Atlantic City, NJ: 6.8 inches
New York, NY: 7.0 inches
Bridgeport, CT: 8 inches

The weekend’s rain raised the water level on Lake Lanier from 1056.9 feet to 1057.7 feet, with a further increase likely as the snow melts. Atlanta is still short of normal rainfall by 2.5 inches — almost identical to where we were on the first of March in 2008.

While temperatures will be about 20 degrees below normal today and 15 degrees below normal tomorrow, in typical March fashion, we’re in for a big change after that. A warming trend will bring high temperatures to around 70 degrees by this weekend. So, get out and enjoy the snow today, while it lasts.

For the last hour or so it’s been snowing in Lawrenceville. Big, heavy white flakes continue to fall, causing some of the shrubs to bend over as if it was ice. With the temperature having dropped to 33 degrees, the snow is beginning to stick on the grass and cold cars, however it’s turning to slush on roads, walks and driveways.

A picture from a little while ago shows the snow in my backyard:

Looking at the radar, it looks like the heaviest precipitation is falling in the metro Atlanta area. The back end of the snow appears to be along the Georgia/Alabama line, so I don’t know how long it will last. Update: The weather service has issued a winter storm warning for much of north central Georgia, including the metro Atlanta area through midnight tonight. They say we could get an additional two inches of snow. If this is true and tonight’s low temperatures drop into the 20s as expected, it could be nasty in the morning.

The real threat, of course, is not here in Georgia, but further north, from DC to New England, as this storm, combined with the one that pulled through yesterday could be one of the worst of the season as it passes through tonight and Monday.

I’ll post more updates later, but feel free to comment on the snow in your area.

There’s a reasonable chance that this weekend’s spell of wet weather could end up producing a few inches of snow before it’s all over Sunday night. While the Weather Service forecast from this morning hasn’t mentioned it yet, WSB TV has put out a report calling for between two and four inches of the white stuff on Sunday. I heard Kirk Melhuish mention the possibility of snow while driving around at lunch time, and Accuweather is calling for just over an inch in Atlanta on Sunday.

I guess it’s just a question of whether you trust the computer models or not. The HPC is indicating that there is a 40% chance of four inches of snow in much of eastern Georgia (Athens to Augusta), and a 10% chance further west, including Atlanta. If it does happen, it will be unusual. Typically, when temperatures cold enough to support snow come in, the cold front preceding it has moved most of the precipitation out of the area. If the models are right, the precipitation will last long enough to support some snow.

We’ll know more by tomorrow afternoon — still with plenty enough time to run to the store and stock up on bread and milk.

While the last two weeks have been relatively quiet weather-wise in Atlanta, that certainly hasn’t been the case elsewhere in the country. a massive storm earlier this week brought snow, then ice, then more snow to a wide area from Arkansas to Pennsylvania, with Kentucky perhaps suffering the most. State officials there are calling the power outage caused by the ice storm the worst in the state’s history. Chicago has had six or more inches of snow on the ground for the last 20 days, a top ten record, and as of yesterday is recording its third coldest January on record, with a mean temperature of 15.8 degrees, more than six degrees below normal.

Despite a general impression of a cold January in Atlanta, it’s actually been warmer than normal. At Hartsfield, the mean temperature through today is 44 degrees, 1.3 above normal. It’s been a bit cooler here in Lawrenceville, with a mean of 42.5 degrees, but that’s to be expected. The January mean temperature in 2008 was actually over a degree cooler than this year, although 2007 and 2006 were both above normal.

After this weekend, which could be quite pleasant, we have the threat of the worst storm of the winter season. The eyes of the weather world are focusing on Monday and Tuesday, when a powerful storm will start in the southeast and move north, bringing a chance of snow to North Georgia, and likely a doozy of a storm to the mid-Atlantic states.

Most of the country’s weather this winter has been affected by the northern branch of the jet stream. In essence, the northern branch divides cold Canadian air from the (slighly warmer) air to the south. It can dive south, as we saw mid-month when we got the coldest temperatures of the season. For the first time this winter, the southern branch is also active as well. The southern branch divides warmer, tropical air to the south and the colder air to the north. When these two branches join back up, you have a good possibility of wintry weather.

The forecast models have been changing from run to run on the position of the two jet streams, and where the snow will fall, but there is a definite possibility that Atlanta could see some wintry weather on Monday or Monday night. In the worst-case scenario, we could see something like what happened in March, 1993, when the Atlanta area got over a foot of snow. Or, we could get just rain, and not much rainfall at that. Keep your eyes on the forecast over the weekend to get updates.

The History of the Global Warming Argument

The founder of the Weather Channel, John Coleman, has published a blog entry describing the history of the global warming (or climate change, to use the current PC term) debate. Coleman says there is no basis for the climate change threat, which he argues was blown way out of proportion because a researcher was looking for more government funding.