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Thursday, February 20, 2003

 

Snow totals were all over the map

Volunteers record weather information to supplement the National Weather Service's data from radar and airport sites. Richard Hanauer of Furlong has measured 51 inches so far this season.

By: MARK E. JOLLY

Differing snowfall amounts were as common as snowplows Monday. And now that the National Weather Service's volunteer weather spotters have weighed in with their measurements, things haven't changed much.

They are still all over the map, from 24.5 inches in the Byberry section of Philadelphia to 14.5 inches in Lambertville and almost everything in between.

The 18.4 inches recorded by Richard Hanauer in Furlong makes the storm, according to his records, the third largest in the last 30 years.

Hanauer is one of an array of people who record their local weather for the National Weather Service, helping supplement what the government can discern from radar and electronic instruments in certain places, such as airports.

The work is entirely voluntary, so the data available (as seen in the graphic with this story) covers just the towns where people are willing to take measurements.

Hanauer made his measurement from the beginning of the storm, between 3 and 4 Sunday afternoon, and when it wrapped up around 4 p.m. Monday. The 18.4 inches narrowly missed the second-deepest snow he recorded in February of 1983 when 18.6 inches fell. But as a season, this winter far surpasses that one, racking up 51 inches total to 1982-83's 36.9, and this winter isn't even over yet.

"This year we've had a lot of snow," Hanauer said. "There has been abundant cold air available. The upper air wind patterns have been bringing the cold air in to the Northeast continuously. We have another month or so for possibly big storms."

Hanauer defines a big snowfall as anything above 4 inches. This season we've already had four; only three previous seasons stretching back to 1973-74 had more.

But high snowfall totals for the beginning of winter, October through February, seems to have no ability to predict whether March will be more or less snowy. Of all Hanauer's data, three above-average October-to-February snow totals were followed by above-average snow in March. But on the other hand, for three years the totals for March were below average.

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Mark E. Jolly can be contacted via e-mail at mjolly@phillyburbs.com .

Article's URL: http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/45848.html