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.
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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.
Sphere: Related ContentThe 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.
Sphere: Related ContentThe 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.
Sphere: Related ContentIt 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.
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