I Hate It When They’re Complex

The funny part is in the end the number of inches you get hardly matters as long as it’s over 2″ and under 8″. That’s the vast majority of storms here

Here’s my weatherman’s secret. There’s less to predict during the summer than now. What I mean is, if I say rain you really don’t care how much. For snow you do.

The snow total has as much to do with cloud temperature as it does with moisture content. When Mother Nature sets her mind to it she can produce many feet of snow from a single inch of water. The fluffiest snow usually falls under conditions that produce a ground temperature near 15&#176F. That’s unusually cold for snow here.

The funny part is in the end the number of inches you get hardly matters as long as it’s over 2″ and under 8″. That’s the vast majority of storms here. Any storm in that range will produce virtually the same effect in difficulty of travel and closings.

The storm coming Tuesday evening will be a pain for a different reason. It’s likely to contain many different precipitation types, starting as snow and progressing through freezing rain and sleet to all rain. Phew. There will be mid-range snowfall accumulations inland with lesser amounts near the shore.

It’s that icy stuff that’s got me spooked.

5 thoughts on “I Hate It When They’re Complex”

  1. Already planning for a delayed school opening Wednesday morning.

    My wife is already calling clients to cancel a class tonight.

    That ice really scares people.

  2. Okay, a silly weather question:

    Does it more often snow during daylight hours or at night? Seems to me it snows more at night.

    Bonus points: Why?

    Thanks,

    Tom

  3. Tom,

    I don’t think it snows more at night or the day. It may seem to snow at night more because you fall asleep w/ no snow, wake up and there is 4 inches, giving you the impression it snowed alot.

    More than anything, it is the timing of the storm.

    For example, take the last few snow falls in CT. New Years Eve saw about 4 inches of snow fall between 8:30am-5pm. The 19th of Dec the snow started around noon, and really didn’t end until the 21st.

    You can double check with Geoff, but I truly think the timing of storms is the biggest factor.

    T-storms, however, are a different story.

    Hope this helps.

    Jacob

  4. You are SO RIGHT about ice spooking you, Geoff. It may be very pretty to look at, but I fear the New Hampshire debacle is going to hit with one of these ice storms.

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