Short But SWEEEEET!!!

Keeping in mind how I described measuring precipitation especially when it comes to forecasting for snow.. here is a look at the latest QPF (Quantitative Precipitation Forecasts) for Tuesday-Friday of this week!!

Snow Totals

Here is an image for the snow totals that have been recorded as of today. This was created by our own Plymouth State Weather Center.. you can visit our website at http://vortex.plymouth.edu ...It's actually a really good source for weather, we have updates for current weather and forecasting, as well as archived data and maps that can date back for awhile! You can pretty much get any information in terms of the weather that you're looking for from this website. I myself use it a lot in addition to the traditional weather.com and noaa.gov

Now, when you are reading this, please remember my last post about how to determine snow totals when given precipitation in inches (it might make this a little easier to understand). :)

Snowflakes Keep Fallin' on my Head

Hello all!

Snow is finally being predicted for the Plymouth State area!! Now the big question.. "Will classes be cancelled??!!" The answer my friends is no, not very likely. I am sitting here at 11:30 at night hoping the same thing, but after looking at the models, the odds just do not look good. Meteorologists are predicting about 1-3in. and sadly, I have to agree with them.

However, I would like to take this opportunity to inform those that may not know about the liquid to snow equivalent ratio. This will help all of you amateur meteorologists (such as myself) out there to predict snowfall amounts.

So Basically, on average the liquid to snow ratio is about 10:1. This means that if 10inches of snow falls, it will melt into 1 inch of actual liquid. So if a weatherman is saying 2.4 inches of precipitation is possible, and that precipitation just happens to be snow, you can expect about two ft. or so coming your way!! Although, if you would like to get more technical about all this (and I know you do), sometimes you may have to take into account the properties of the actual snowflakes and the surrounding environment. Below are brief explanations and ratios of what I mean by this...

Wet Snow/Above Freezing Temp: Wet snow can be about 50% ice and 50% liquid, it is a little more dense than the average snowflake. This mixed with an above freezing ground is what causes snowfall with no accumulation.

Wet Snow/Freezing Temps: (Properties of snow same as above) Only this time with the freezing ground temperatures, snow can accumulate. However, since the snow has a higher liquid content, the ratio is smaller.. 5:1

Dry Snow: This property of snow has no liquid to it whatsoever. It is purely a snowflake of ice crystals. This type of snow is much less dense than the above snowflakes. With this type of snow occurring, the surrounding ground temperatures will definitely be below freezing. The type of snowfall events are usually the small, heavy-falling snow showers. This boosts the ratio up to more than 10:1.. in extreme cases (such as recent events in Washington and Baltimore), the ratio's could be 20:1 or even 30:1! Unfortunately for the kids, dry snow is not very sticky, so snowballs are not exactly an option :(

I hope this was informative to you all.. for more information visit www.theweatherprediction.com ..Happy Forecasting!!

I'm Dreaming of a White... February??

Unless you've had no access to the news over the past week or so, you know exactly what's been going on in the Washington/Baltimore area with snow. These cities that have not seen more than a simple dusting over the past few years, now have been bombarded with snow snow snow!

Snow began to fall on February 5th. The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for the Washington Baltimore area on this day. Snow had continued to fall over these areas even as recently as yesterday (Feb 11th).
....So what exactly is going on with these storms?

The Northeast Quadrant at Blogger reported that the atmosphere has developed the perfect conditions for Nor'easters (a large cyclonic storm created by an extreme low pressure system). These storms got the name Nor'easter because of the fact that they mainly are formed toward the East Coast of the United States. Low-pressure systems have a counterclockwise "flow" and are associated with rising air parcels. High-pressure systems however, produce sinking air with a clockwise "flow". In order for a Nor-easter to form, the two, opposite pressure systems collide, and the genesis of a Nor'easter begins. The storm gradually starts to spin and move northward/northeastward along the coast (the storm usually follows the leading path generated by the upper level jet stream). All of this, along with shockingly low surface temperatures, are the cause of what seems like endless snowfall events.

If you would like to see some interesting coverage of the events from the snowstorms (since Plymouth, NH has not seen any interesting activity lately) weather.com is the place to go!

First Of Many

This is my first blog..

Basically my goal is to look up and research current weather phenomena. I will try to make it seem more interesting than just a week long forecast. For example, if there is a huge snow storm about to hit New York, I may discuss that rather than Plymouth, NH's current weather conditions. This blog will be both informative and interesting for those that enjoy weather, and even for those that may just want to know a little more about the weather.

I am a Meteorology Major here at PSU, so in addition to weather updates, I may also discuss certain topics going on in my class that may seem interesting and easy to follow for any reader.