OBS in North-Central NJ

[ninmaven]

Early in the day we had some freezing rain. When I left work (in Western Union County, 5 miles from my home) at 5:30 PM, I had to scrape 1/4" of ice off my car and flurries had just started.

At my home, I measured and observed the following:

6:00-9:00 PM -- .5" snow, started as an intermittant mix of sleet and flurries, light snow for the second half of that time period

9:00-10:00 PM -- additional 1.25", moderate snow

10:00-11:00 PM -- additional .25", for the first 45 mins. we were in a small dry slot that opened up, but the snow has picked up again at a moderate to heavy pace.

Total accum. so far - 2"
Current temp - 22.5 F

*~Loretta~*

[RU848789]

Loretta - sounds fairly similar to my observations, posted earlier. To update, we got about 1/8" ice up through about 6 pm, then some heavy sleet in a 30 minute burst, accumulating 1/2", followed by a few hours of intermittent light sleet/snow, with little accumulation. Then, about 8:45, we started getting heavy snow and it's been moderate to occasionally heavy since then, such that we now have, as of 11:45 pm, 3" of gorgeous, sparkly, highly crystalline, extremely fluffy snow on top of the earlier mess. Just came back in from a walk around the neighborhood (a Jeb walk of sorts, although I don't like to listen to music when I'm out in the falling snow - which is unusual, as I love music - but I prefer the unadulterated sounds of nature at that time) and it was very nice. Hope we can stay in the snow for a few more hours to get to 6", at least, which looks reasonable given about 1" per hour snowfall rate and 2-3 more hours of likely snow. All the NYC media have my area (northern Middlesex Cty) in the 5-8 range and have greater amounts as you go N and E - up to a foot or more on E LI and E CT! One last tidbit: school is closed for my 9-year old son tomorrow.

Loretta - question for you: does the NIN refer to Nine Inch Nails? That Trent is a pretty talented fellow...

[ninmaven]

RU- Yes, NIN stands for nine inch nails. There's someone else here with nin in their name and I've been wondering if it's for the same reason.

I've been using two pieces of corrugated cardboard in different locations as my 'snow boards' and I dump them after each measurement which is supposed to give a true accumulation reading and not have any compacting. My measurement of the snowfall between 11-12 midnight was an additional 1.5" which would give me a total of 3.5". However, when I stuck the ruler in several spots in the total accumulated snow, I got an average reading of 4.5". I'm inclined to believe that number because on the 11:00 PM news, totals in my surrounding areas were reported as 4".

The temperature is currently 22F.

Depending on how late I stay up, I will take at least one more measurement before I go to bed...maybe two.

I doubt my office will be closed tomorrow...probably a delayed opening. I love the snow, but I wish it was big enough to close my office, or would occur on a weekend, or wouldn't happen at all because the roads take a while to get plowed around here and I'm going to be very nervous driving! I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

*~Loretta~*

[ninmaven]

This is my last update for the night. Between the time period of 12 midnight and 1:00 AM the snow fell at a moderate pace and then became light. I measured an additional 1" on my boards giving me 4.5" total. I also took a wider range of measurements sticking the ruler in the total accumulation and I came up with 5" this time which equals what was just mentioned on TWC. Currently (just a half hour later), there are only flurries, and looking at the radar, we are just about out of the main part of the storm. We will have some more short bursts coming through over night and I'll measure again in the morning.

I'm looking forward to the potential of a larger storm in the near future. It would be nice to have a day off from work since my next holiday is Memorial Day! With the storm last year, I got President's Day off which was nice to have off like most Americans do.

*~Loretta~*

P.S. They just cancelled the winter storm warning west of the Hudson River. Ack! Oh well.

[Tip]

Just some quick obs for the Miller B event here in Hopwell Twsp. Basically, the snowfall ranged from 4-6 inches inthe the immediate area. But the real treat was watching the energy transfer from the primary low out west to the secondary near Delaware. When the sleet changed to snow, there was a quick wind shift to the WNW. Usally this wind direction means that the storm is ending, but in this case it was just begining. A tremendous band (deformation zone?) rolled over the area between 10-11PM.

[Anonymous]

I read this somewhere and was wondering if there was any truth to it. Like the first day that it snows for the season thats how many snow storms we get. Like if it snows on the 15th than we get 15 good snow storms. I don't believe this, what are your thoughts?

[Four Seasons]

I read this somewhere and was wondering if there was any truth to it. Like the first day that it snows for the season thats how many snow storms we get. Like if it snows on the 15th than we get 15 good snow storms. I don't believe this, what are your thoughts?

my thoughts are what if the first snowfall was on the 31st??

[JCT777]

my thoughts are what if the first snowfall was on the 31st??

Then we would ALL hope the saying of "the day of the first snowfall indicates the number of storms your area will receive" is correct!

My first snow of 1/2 inch or greater was on Dec 5. Last night's snowfall was the 6th or 7th event of at least 1/2 inch this season.

[RU848789]

Went to bed last night at about 2 am with ~6" of new snow on the ground and the snow having almost stopped, then woke up this morning and went outside at about 8 am and we must have had a few snowshowers overnight, as we had about 6.5" of new snow (on top of the 1/8" of ice and 1/2" of sleet from yesterday and on the grass, on top of the 3-5" of frozen mess from the last 2 weeks, very little of which has melted in the cold we've been in). Looks to be about the same amount here in Rahway and talking to folks I work with, sounds like amounts were less to the SW (4-5" in places like Princeton and Hamilton), similar to the south (heard 6" in Belmar and Old Bridge - being to the east cancelled out the later changeover to snow - look at LI/CT - over a foot on the east ends) and heard 7-10" to the N and W in places like Morristown, Passaic and Hoboken). So, not quite the 12"+ we hoped for 2 days ago, but not a complete bust.

1evans - believing in that days of snow thing would be worse than believing in astrology.

[Anonymous]

exactly, it holds no truth.

[ninmaven]

I measured another .5" on my 'boards' when I got up this morning giving me a total of 5" which goes along with what the NWS is reporting:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/data/PHI/PNSPHI
Compared to the towns on this list, I'm East of Bridgewater where they measured 4.1".

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/data/OKX/PNSOKX
Also, look at the data for Union County on this list (even though I'm in Somerset, I'm right near the south-west edge of Union County). The towns of Union Township, Roselle Park, Cranford and Garwood run in a line from NorthEast to SouthWest with Garwood being the closest to me and measuring 5.5". The snowfall totals get lower with each succeeding town This shows how the further South and West you go, the lower the totals were.

The reason I point this out is that I noticed at least one person on this board who is South of me claims that they had 8" of snow. I find this highly doubtful as it was only areas to the North and East that received amounts this high. I won't dispute the fact that some areas a little South of me did receive a bit more because they are also East of me (such as Metuchen) or maybe they had some heavier bands of snow move through their area, but in general there were lower totals to my South and West.

*~Loretta~*

[ninmaven]

I just realized that some people to the South received some additional snow this morning whereas I did not, so maybe their totals are correct after all. I just looked at the radar and there is also some light snow to the North of me and over Newark and NYC.
*~Loretta~*

[Anonymous]

I measured another .5" on my 'boards' when I got up this morning giving me a total of 5" which goes along with what the NWS is reporting:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/data/PHI/PNSPHI
Compared to the towns on this list, I'm East of Bridgewater where they measured 4.1".

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/data/OKX/PNSOKX
Also, look at the data for Union County on this list (even though I'm in Somerset, I'm right near the south-west edge of Union County). The towns of Union Township, Roselle Park, Cranford and Garwood run in a line from NorthEast to SouthWest with Garwood being the closest to me and measuring 5.5". The snowfall totals get lower with each succeeding town This shows how the further South and West you go, the lower the totals were.

The reason I point this out is that I noticed at least one person on this board who is South of me claims that they had 8" of snow. I find this highly doubtful as it was only areas to the North and East that received amounts this high. I won't dispute the fact that some areas a little South of me did receive a bit more because they are also East of me (such as Metuchen) or maybe they had some heavier bands of snow move through their area, but in general there were lower totals to my South and West.

*~Loretta~*

There is 8'' in my backyard, It's the truth.

[ninmaven]

I do believe you. As I said later, I didn't realize you got some more snow this morning. I think part of reason my totals were a little low is because of the small dry slot that opened up for 45 mins. at the height of the storm.
*~Loretta~*