Morning Blog Update
I will be updating more details on the storm during the day on another blog. Click here for updates or check @growingwisdom on Twitter.
“Yes, the weather is bad, and if I were dealing in weather it is not the brand that I'd put up in cans for future use.” A Day with Mark Twain" by John Henton Carter
Perhaps Twain's prose capture how some of you, maybe many of you, are feeling about another snow event and another Monday home with the kids.
It’s been an incredible period of time and becoming hard to remember the ground was bare just two weeks ago. Up to the 23rd of January Boston had only seen 5.5 inches of snow this winter. Since that time, we’ve had over 5 feet of the stuff. It’s certainly the snowiest 17 days in modern day record keeping in this area. The amount of snow that has fallen recently breaks 30 day and 40 day records as well. The tweet below really summarizes this well.
The snow for the rest of the storm will be highly variable. The general overview is areas inside the Route 495 belt see the most snow, areas outside that see much less. The exact placement of the numbers is meaningless; I put them down to evenly spread them out in each snow band. They don’t to indicate the town they are sitting on is the precise location of that amount of snow.
The greatest chance of seeing the higher totals will be where some ocean enhancement occurs along with the snow that is forming along a frontal boundary in the area. The snow is taking more of a needle form today, at least this morning. This occurs when the temperature is around 23F when the snow forms. If the temperature drops, the snow will take on a different form. Believe it or not the flakes themselves can impact accumulation. The needles tend to lie flat on each other and leave less air; therefore don’t pile up as high. Trying to figure out how this impacts my accumulation numbers is somewhat futile, but it will make the snow denser as you shovel.
When Does The Snow End?
Most of the additional accumulation will occur by 9PM this evening, especially inland. Along the coast, there could be some light accumulation after that time, finally ending completely tomorrow morning between 1AM and 5AM, west to east.
I will update the end time of the snow this afternoon here and on Twitter @growingwisdom.
Areas along the coast, south of Boston, some of you could see the snow continue a few hours beyond sunrise, but this would be the exception.
Next Two Storms
There will likely be more snow Thursday and again on Sunday. Thursday’s storm doesn’t look big, but currently will bring enough snow to shovel and plow. Sunday’s storm is nearly a week away, but has potential if the track is close to us to bring more snow. I need to see some more data later today and Tuesday before I give the start and stop times for the Thursday event, but it looks to possibly affect the evening commute Thursday more than the morning one.
Cold Continues
I don’t see any widespread above freezing weather on the horizon. Actually, many of us may not see the thermometer break 20F from Thursday evening into early next week. I expect at least one or two mornings to be below zero as well. The one good thing about all this cold is the snow is insulating the ground and preventing the frost line from going excessively deep.