Big Late January Snows (thanks SNOkie)

Wednesday I bravely predicted that snowfall amounts for this late January storm (The Northeast Quadrant is now calling #SNOkie) would be hard to call until Friday afternoon. Well I was wrong. It’s Saturday afternoon in DC, still snowing, and I’m not confident that we know yet. Conditions have been deteriorating since early Saturday morning. Currently in DC we have about six inches, with snow expected to continue falling heavily for a few more hours.

The current forecast shows that snow will taper off and then end from west to east overnight. Snow totals will locally exceed 1 foot from central Virginia into the Delmarva Peninsula. Washington will end up with between 4 and 8 inches and southern New Jersey could accumulate 2 to 4 inches.

How are folks dealing with the storm? Here’s a little round up of comments from around the Internet:

• Let the snow retardation begin. Someone just drove in to our building.
• I think the weather forecasters blew this call (3-5") already nearly 5" of snow here in Maryland...and not supposed to stop until 11 pm
• Can we dub the storm "WTFlurries"?
• 2:45 PM Roads are nasty. Mostly passable but in really bad shape. Saw very few plows. Peds must be careful - roads are extremely slick.
• Soccer in the snow, snow and more snow. So much fun, even when my eyelashes froze together. :-)
• There is no bad weather, only the wrong clothing.

Since were in the midst of the storm, let me take a moment to make a personal appeal – please people stop using umbrellas as a snow blockage device – you look dumb. Time to shovel (again) before it gets dark. Go SNOkie go!

Will Utah be Blogworthy for The Northeast Quadrant?

If you've been following along you know The Northeast Quadrant is going on the road late next week. That's right, we're takin' the show to Utah (well somewhat -- we'll still blog from the east coast too)! So you can imagine the joy we felt when surfing the updates on Facebook today and saw this posting from The Weather Channel:

"If you live in the west or if you're visiting, take some time and read these Special Weather Statements from the National Weather Service. Pay close attention to Hanford, CA, Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Flagstaff."

Here's what we cam across when clicked on Salt Lake City:

...SIGNIFICANT WEATHER PATTERN CHANGE BEGINNING EARLY NEXT WEEK...

AFTER A SEVERAL WEEK PERIOD CHARACTERIZED BY LONG STRETCHES OF HIGH PRESSURE FOLLOWED BY THE PASSAGE OF WEAK STORM SYSTEMS... THE WEATHER PATTERN APPEARS TO BE READY TO SHIFT LATE THIS WEEKEND.

THE WEATHER WILL REMAIN QUIET THROUGH TOMORROW ACROSS THE REGION AS ONE LAST AREA OF HIGH PRESSURE MOVES ACROSS THE REGION. HAZE AND FOG WILL PERSIST ACROSS THE VALLEYS OF NORTHERN UTAH AS THE INVERSION STRENGTHENS THROUGH THE WEEKEND.

A SERIES OF MOIST PACIFIC STORM SYSTEMS WILL BEGIN TO IMPACT THE REGION STARTING ON MONDAY AND LASTING THROUGH MUCH OF THE WORK WEEK. THE HEAVIEST PRECIPITATION WILL POTENTIALLY AFFECT SOUTHERN UTAH... THOUGH MUCH OF THE STATE WILL END UP RECEIVING A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF PRECIPITATION WHEN TOTALS ARE TALLIED AT THE END OF THE WEEK.

INCREASING SOUTHERLY WINDS ASSOCIATED WITH THE PATTERN CHANGE WILL BRING AN END TO THE FOG AND HAZE ACROSS NORTHERN UTAH BY EARLY NEXT WEEK. LOCATIONS WHICH HAVE BEEN QUITE COLD OF LATE INCLUDING THE UINTA BASIN AND NEAR GREEN RIVER WILL TREND WARMER. TEMPERATURES IN THE VALLEYS WILL LIKELY SUPPORT A MIXTURE OF RAIN AND SNOW DURING THE WEEK. PERIODS OF SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL ARE LIKELY ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS OF UTAH... FOCUSING ACROSS THE SOUTH.

BE SURE TO MONITOR WEATHER FORECASTS THROUGH THE WEEKEND AS THE PATTERN CHANGE APPROACHES FOR NEXT WEEK.

Well, it's looking likely we'll have some good blog posts while we're on the road. Stay tuned!