Thursday, February 25, 2010

Oh freakin' joy... 8-(

From the National Weather service:

Issued by The National Weather Service
State College, PA
4:10 am EST, Thu., Feb. 25, 2010

... WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 7 AM THIS MORNING TO 5 PM EST FRIDAY...

A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 7 AM THIS MORNING TO 5 PM EST FRIDAY.

PERIODS OF LIGHT SNOW WILL CONTINUE THROUGHOUT THE DAY WITH 1 TO 3 INCHES OF ACCUMULATION EXPECTED BY LATE AFTERNOON. THE SNOW SHOULD BECOME HEAVIER LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT... WITH SNOW RATES OF AN INCH OR MORE PER HOUR ARE POSSIBLE. AN ADDITIONAL 3 TO 5 INCHES OF ACCUMULATION IS EXPECTED BY DAYBREAK FRIDAY.

THE SNOW WILL CONTINUE FRIDAY MORNING WITH 36 HOUR STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS EXPECTED TO RANGE FROM 7 TO 11 INCHES ACROSS THE WARNING AREA... WITH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS OVER NORTHERN LYCOMING AND TIOGA COUNTIES.

SHOULD A SIGNIFICANT CHANGE IN THE EXPECTED TRACK OF THE STORM EVOLVE... GREATER OR LESSER AMOUNTS MAY RESULT... SO STAY ABREAST OF THE LATEST FORECASTS AND WARNING STATEMENTS.

IN ADDITION... STRONG NORTHWEST WINDS WILL DEVELOP THURSDAY AND CONTINUE INTO FRIDAY. SUSTAINED WINDS OF 15 TO 30 MPH AND GUSTS TO 45 MPH ARE POSSIBLE FROM LATE THURSDAY AFTERNOON TO FRIDAY AFTERNOON... CREATING THE POTENTIAL FOR SIGNIFICANT BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW AND NEAR BLIZZARD CONDITIONS AT TIMES.



First: Please note the time of issuance: 4:25 AM. At that time they were saying "light snow" with "1-3 inches of accumulation expected by late afternoon." We already HAD 1-3 inches when I came downstairs at 5:30 AM. And as for "light snow" fagetaboutit! We've added 3 to 4 inches to the total. Yeah, it slowed down between 10 and 12 but it's coming down like crazy right now. Probably in the inch-an-hour range.

Oh, and the winds have started to act up. The hanging feeders are swaying, the wind chimes are...well, chiming, and the pine trees are starting to have their snow loads shed by the wind.

One thing that really brings me down (unless what I've just said is what they meant) is that little sentence I've highlighted:"THE SNOW WILL CONTINUE FRIDAY MORNING WITH 36 HOUR STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS EXPECTED TO RANGE FROM 7 TO 11 INCHES ACROSS THE WARNING AREA... WITH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS OVER NORTHERN LYCOMING AND TIOGA COUNTIES."

Hello! I'm sitting in northern Tioga County. Worse, since the center of the storm, based upon the swirl in the radar's time lapse pictures, is sitting about 75 miles to my northwest and is sucking moisture off the Atlantic and bringing it my way, I'm sitting in EASTERN northern Tioga County where things snow is really coming down. Could be worse, the I-81 corridor through PA and up to Syracuse looks to be getting a real shellacing. I haven't found any reference to it on line but I wouldn't be surprised if I-81 were not shut down along some of its length from, say, I-80 to I-90. Yeah, it's that bad and that stretch of highway is, shall we say, not the flattest. They did close that highway from Maryland to NY a couple of stroms ago when it got dumped upon.

1 comment:

Rev. Paul said...

Well, you wanted to experience Alaska weather ... :)

So you're getting snow, and we're getting snow. You'll probably get more than Anchorage, but you're farther inland. Areas just a few miles farther from the Inlet tend to get 2 or 3 times as much snow as we do.