Updraft: February 10, 2010 Archive

Winter Olympics: Where's the snow?

Posted at 8:34 AM on February 10, 2010 by Paul Huttner (2 Comments)

It's a mad scramble on Cypress Mountain near Vancouver these days.

The usually white slopes are brown due to a lack of snow. Organizers are bringing in snow by the truckload from higher elevations to try and pull of a miracle at the Olympic freestyle venue.

High temperatures in Vancouver have been in the 50s recently, and the unusually balmy weather is forecast to last right through the Olympic Games during the next two weeks. What has fallen from the sky recently has been rain, and not the snow they depsartayely need. Temperatures have even stayed above freezing at night, so they can't make snow either.

You can probably blame El Nino for the mild weather in Vancouver. In a twist of atmospheric circulation, Washington D.C. might be a better place to hold the Olympic skiing events than Vancouver this year.

Plenty cold here:

Here in Minnesota we're trading snow for cold. Polar high pressure is settling in over the next few days. That means clear skies with bright sunny days, and cold arctic nights. The fresh snow cover radiates efficiently. That means sub-zero reading will be common at night.

Our next chance of (hopefully light) snow comes in on Friday and Saturday.

PH

(2 Comments)

Washington D.C. snowiest winter on record

Posted at 4:15 PM on February 10, 2010 by Paul Huttner

NWS office in Sterling, Virginia covered in snow these days.

It's a record winter in Washington D.C. and Baltimore, and it's not even President's Day yet.

Reagan National, Dulles and Baltimore Washington airports each set all time seasonal snowfall records with today's storm. Here are the impressive numbers.

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC
300 PM EST WED FEB 10 2010

...PRELIMINARY ALL-TIME SEASONAL SNOWFALL RECORDS SET AT THE
THREE MAJOR CLIMATE SITES IN THE BALTIMORE-WASHINGTON AREA...

AS OF 2 PM TODAY...WITH THE 9.8 INCH TWO-DAY SNOWFALL TOTAL MEASURED
AT RONALD REAGAN WASHINGTON NATIONAL AIRPORT...THE SEASONAL SNOWFALL
TOTAL IN WASHINGTON DC STANDS AT 54.9 INCHES. THIS WOULD BREAK THE
PREVIOUS ALL-TIME SEASONAL SNOWFALL RECORD FOR WASHINGTON DC OF 54.4
INCHES SET IN THE WINTER OF 1898-99. OFFICIAL SNOWFALL RECORDS FOR
WASHINGTON DC DATE BACK 126 YEARS TO 1884.

AS OF 1 PM TODAY...WITH THE 11.9 INCH TWO-DAY SNOWFALL TOTAL
MEASURED AT BALTIMORE/WASHINGTON INTERNATIONAL THURGOOD MARSHALL
AIRPORT...THE SEASONAL SNOWFALL TOTAL IN BALTIMORE STANDS AT 72.3
INCHES. THIS WOULD BREAK THE PREVIOUS ALL-TIME SEASONAL SNOWFALL
RECORD FOR BALTIMORE OF 62.5 INCHES SET IN THE WINTER OF 1995-96.
OFFICIAL SNOWFALL RECORDS FOR BALTIMORE DATE BACK 118 YEARS TO 1893.

FINALLY...AS OF YESTERDAY...THIS YEARS SEASONAL SNOWFALL TOTAL AT
DULLES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT STOOD AT 63.5 INCHES. THIS WOULD BREAK
THE PREVIOUS SEASONAL SNOWFALL RECORD OF 61.9 INCHES SET IN 1995-96.
AS OF 1 PM THIS AFTERNOON...THE TWO-DAY SNOWFALL TOTAL AT DULLES IS
8.5 INCHES...WHICH WOULD MAKE THIS YEARS SEASONAL SNOWFALL TOTAL
72.0 INCHES. OFFICIAL SNOWFALL RECORDS FOR DULLES DATE BACK 48 YEARS
TO 1962.

THESE PRELIMINARY STORM TOTALS ARE AS OF THIS WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON
10 FEB 2010...AND WILL BE UPDATED AFTER THE CURRENT SNOW HAS ENDED.

To put this in perspective for us in usually snowy Minnesota, these totals are higher than the average annual snowfall for the Twin Cities, which is 55.9". So far this winter season, the Twin Cities has 37.7 inches of snow. That's just 1.2 inches above normal.

Our snow depth of 15 inches at Twin Cities Airport is the deepest snow in nearly 3 years in the metro. Many Twin Cities area communities have closer to 20" on the ground.

A weather disturbance which may bring light snow to parts of western Minnesota Saturday will dive into the southeast early next week, and may give another shot of snow to the east coast next week.

They are keeping mighty busy these days at weather offices out east.

Snow takes a break in the Upper Midwest:

It looks like we may see an extended break from snow in Minnesota. A weak weather system sliding into the Dakotas Saturday may bring a few inches of snow to the Eastern Dakotas and western Minnesota. Latest forecast model trends push the system far enough west that it should miss the Twin Cites and eastern Minnesota.

As of right now, I do not see any significant snow in the forecast for the next week or two.

PH