Does anyone know where I can find how many inches of snow we have had this winter so far?

 

I was able to find that Chardon had over 90 but I dont know the date that was from

And I was able to find that New York City has had already over 55 inches.

http://www.weather.gov/climate/index.php?wfo=cle

 

click on the preliminary monthly climate data for each month and add...

 

There's gotta be an easier way, but I don't know it.

^Doing that I'm getting approximately 32 inches this year so far for Cleveland.  But that really varies based on location.  For example, that huge lake effect storm on December 8th dropped closer to 12 inches on most of the area from downtown Cleveland to Euclid.  However the official Cleveland snowfall for that day was only about 3 inches because of the location of the weather station (Hopkins).

Okay with that I got 31 inches

I think it's been a pretty normal winter so far. We've missed all the big snowstorms that have hit the East Coast.

 

I'm a frequent watcher of weather data. At one point, from 1978 to 2008 (the last time I looked), nine of the 10 snowiest winters in Cleveland history occurred during that 30-year span. The only one that didn't was 1909-10.

 

Average temperatures rose during that time. And it should be noted that a slight increase in average temperatures allows the air to hold more moisture and still fall as snow.

Warmer temps also prevents the lake from freezing over thereby allowing the lake effect snow to keep pounding us.

It varies greatly from location.  I live in northern Medina COunty, and do spotter measurements.  We are at 55.5 inches on the year so far.  North Royalton is around 60.1, while Hopkins as you can see is roughly half of that.

 

Chardon is typically called the snowiest place in Ohio.  However, Thompson in NE Geauga County into Trumbull Twp in western Ashtabula County is the snowiest with average snowfall of about 120" per year.  Probably more than you needed to know. 

Burke doesnt do any measurements? I guess Hopkins would be the best other source to estimate the amount of snow we get downtown correct?

Burke has an NWS automated monitoring station (for temps, barometer, sky conditions/cloud ceiling via laser, etc) but no one there to measure snowfall accumulations. I don't think it even has a rain gauge but I could be wrong. Many NWS stations around Ohio were unstaffed in the 1980s with improved technologies. I believe there are only two or three staffed NWS facilities north of I-70 nowadays -- Toledo at Express Airport and Cleveland at Hopkins. I know Mansfield-Lahm and Akron-Canton were unstaffed. I'm not sure if Youngstown-Vienna was unstaffed too.

 

Gotribe, do you know if this is the case?

 

For an article on the 20th anniversary of the Blizzard of '78, a Sun Newspapers photographer and I got a tour of the NWS offices at Hopkins, which are located over by NASA. I wished I had taken pictures too for my own collection. That was one of times I would have worked for Sun for free.

Ha! I was just thinking about this topic after my mom sent me a text this morning saying they got pounded by yet another snowstorm in New England. I'm kind of a weather geek so I poked around a little bit this morning on NOAA's website. I was surprised to see that Cleveland snowfall total for the winter is only 32 inches so far and Cincinnati being at 28 (with another inch or two tonight).

 

Cincinnati is practically smack-dab in the middle of a weather battle zone, so we can get weather from the Gulf, the Pacific, Canada, or lingering effects from the Great Lakes. It makes the weather here interesting. I just get tired of constantly hearing people complain about the weather. The funny thing is, the ones I hear complain about the weather the most are the people who tend be lazy and lead inactive lifestyles, and rarely do things outdoors (even when the weather IS 'nice').

^ I know what you mean with that last part lol

 

To be honest, I didn't even think this winter has even been that bad so far. And we can handle it if it does get bad. People on the east coast like NYC are freaking out like its the end of the world.

On average, NYC doesn't get 'much' snow. They get about as much as Cincinnati, maybe a couple inches more. Some people have the perception that NYC always gets a lot of snow because they hear about the nor'easters from the media.

 

Many areas on the east coast tend to get most of their snowfall in a few large doses, although the past few years have been a lot of large doses. We tend to get a bunch of 1-2in snowfalls with a few 3-5s here and there. Their snow also melts relatively quick, as they receive a lot more sunshine in the winter than us and their nightly lows are usually higher than ours.

 

I'm just wondering what February holds in store. If this February is like last year's, it will be a 'long' winter. Lol

Here's a bit of weather geekdom.... What was Cleveland heaviest 24-hour snowfall and when was it?

 

....21 inches, during the blizzard of November 1913.

 

Yes, it's a 98-year-old record. Some might be surprised at that figure, given that many East Coast cities have gotten more than that, and much more recently. The reason is that heavy, moisture-laden storms from the south or southwest (like panhandle hooks or gulf lows) have their heaviest bands of snow between 50 to 200 miles north and west of the low-pressure center. And what is about 50 to 200 miles south and east of Cleveland? The Appalachian Mountains! They tend to either tear apart storms or transfer their energy to lows off the East Coast. So sometimes we start to get hit by heavy snow from a storm out of the south or southwest, but it doesn't stay strong. A storm has to be on an almost perfect track about 25-50 miles north of the Ohio River for Cleveland to get clobbered by a hook-type storm. And those perfect storm tracks don't happen too often. Even so, the track is entirely over land, and like a hurricane over land, doesn't have the constant moisture being fed into it like an East Coast nor'easter does.

 

:speech: OVER!

^ I know what you mean with that last part lol

 

To be honest, I didn't even think this winter has even been that bad so far. And we can handle it if it does get bad. People on the east coast like NYC are freaking out like its the end of the world.

 

Who is freaking out like it's the end of the world??  I've lived here part time since '97, this is the most snow I've seen here, since I've been here.  But 5 storms in 5 weeks is crazy, even for Cleveland.

Ah, interesting.

 

I'm pretty sure that fact would surprise the average person. If you told a person the record 24-hour snowfall record for NYC was xx inches and asked them to take a guess on the recored for Cleveland, I'm willing to bet over half would give the higher number to Cleveland.

 

A lot of people are terrible with geography, so I could throw Cincinnati into the same question and probably yield similar results from many East Coasters.

Does anyone know where I can find how many inches of snow we have had this winter so far?

 

I was able to find that Chardon had over 90 but I dont know the date that was from

And I was able to find that New York City has had already over 55 inches.

 

Here you go:

 

http://www.weather.gov/view/prodsByState.php?state=oh&prodtype=climate#CLICLE

 

Currently at Hopkins 33.7"

Burke has an NWS automated monitoring station (for temps, barometer, sky conditions/cloud ceiling via laser, etc) but no one there to measure snowfall accumulations. I don't think it even has a rain gauge but I could be wrong. Many NWS stations around Ohio were unstaffed in the 1980s with improved technologies. I believe there are only two or three staffed NWS facilities north of I-70 nowadays -- Toledo at Express Airport and Cleveland at Hopkins. I know Mansfield-Lahm and Akron-Canton were unstaffed. I'm not sure if Youngstown-Vienna was unstaffed too.

 

Gotribe, do you know if this is the case?

 

For an article on the 20th anniversary of the Blizzard of '78, a Sun Newspapers photographer and I got a tour of the NWS offices at Hopkins, which are located over by NASA. I wished I had taken pictures too for my own collection. That was one of times I would have worked for Sun for free.

 

Burke does have a rain gauge. You can view historical weather records for BKL here:

http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KBKL/2011/1/29/MonthlyHistory.html#calendar

 

There are FAA contract weather observers at the following locations (airports) in Ohio whose duties do include snow measurements:

 

CLE, YNG, MFD, CAK, TOL, DAY, and CMH (oh and CVG, but technically Kentucky)

Determining how much snowfall Cleveland has/had is a pretty arguable point. Define "Cleveland" or better yet pick a street block, neighborhood or neighboring municipality. Because most of the snow here is frequent lake effect events day after day and most lake effect snow bands are very narrow, the cumulative effect over the course of a winter is wildly variable snow totals that can range 20 inches to the mile.

 

The airport averages roughly 63 inches of snow per winter based on 1970-2000 climate averages. After this year, the averages will move to 1980-2010 which means the average snow in Cleveland will increase to 68 inches.

 

In Cuyahoga County the snowfall averages between 50-100 inches depending on your location and elevation. Obviously the highest amounts are found near the Geauga County border near Chagrin Falls and lowest along the west shore.

 

Generally speaking with lake effect, the "snowbelts" do well with NW wind flow events. This creates the the upslope effect in the higher terrain, with a wide swath of snow inland which leaves downtown dry. The areas along the shore do well when the winds are westerly (a la the storm downtown in early December) This creates convergence along the shoreline, and a narrow primary band of snow develops from the east end of Lakewood through Downtown and out to the east side. The Easter snowstorm of 2007 is another classic example of a significant snow from this scenario. But because westerly flow events need to pull moisture from the western basin of Lake Erie, which is often the first part of the Great Lakes to freeze each winter, these events are often less dramatic than NW flow events in the primary snowbelt which also pull moisture in from Lake Huron and the later to freeze central Lake Erie.

Here's a bit of weather geekdom.... What was Cleveland heaviest 24-hour snowfall and when was it?

 

....21 inches, during the blizzard of November 1913.

 

Yes, it's a 98-year-old record. Some might be surprised at that figure, given that many East Coast cities have gotten more than that, and much more recently. The reason is that heavy, moisture-laden storms from the south or southwest (like panhandle hooks or gulf lows) have their heaviest bands of snow between 50 to 200 miles north and west of the low-pressure center. And what is about 50 to 200 miles south and east of Cleveland? The Appalachian Mountains! They tend to either tear apart storms or transfer their energy to lows off the East Coast. So sometimes we start to get hit by heavy snow from a storm out of the south or southwest, but it doesn't stay strong. A storm has to be on an almost perfect track about 25-50 miles north of the Ohio River for Cleveland to get clobbered by a hook-type storm. And those perfect storm tracks don't happen too often. Even so, the track is entirely over land, and like a hurricane over land, doesn't have the constant moisture being fed into it like an East Coast nor'easter does.

 

:speech: OVER!

 

I must be psychic! Several computer models that are forecasting the big storm for next week are suggesting that it could follow this track that is ideal for bringing heavy snow near Cleveland. The GFS model has the heaviest snow (at least one foot) hitting Cleveland. The Euro model has the heaviest band 50-100 miles farther north.

 

This time of year, you don't want to bet on a specific forecast that has a horizon of more than 48 hours, or when it comes to synoptic snowfall totals, more than 6-12 hours (for Lake Effect snowfall totals -- 1 hour! :-D).

 

So stay tuned!

OK, I realize the forecast models look ugly for this incoming storm, but the hyperbole is irritating the crap out of me. The Weather Channel is usually pretty straightforward and scientific, but you'd think ice/snowmageddon is coming.

Sweet mother of God I hate the winter hysteria.  Everyone runs to Walmart and buy gallons of milk and some loaves of bread like they're planning for a nuclear winter, instead of a 2-3 day storm.  I can't remember ever being snowed in for more than a day or two - I could easily live for a couple weeks based on the food in my pantry and fridge, so what's the point in running for all the milk and bread?  Why is nobody ever shown on the news stocking up on important stuff like Bud Light and cigarettes?

Why is nobody ever shown on the news stocking up on important stuff like Bud Light and cigarettes?

 

Or contraceptives! How often do we hear of "Blizzard Babies" nine months after the storm?

 

EDIT: BTW, the way we might get an early indication if this storm will become a "bomb" (develop explosively in to a deep low) is if there are a lot of severe thunderstorm in the warm weather sector (to the southeast of the low). Severe thunderstorms can feed tremendous amounts of energy (moisture and heat) into a low-pressure system and help it develop more quickly. That answer could come tonight or early tomorrow.

This time of year, you don't want to bet on a specific forecast that has a horizon of more than 48 hours, or when it comes to synoptic snowfall totals, more than 6-12 hours (for Lake Effect snowfall totals -- 1 hour! :-D).

Well it has started snowing. At least they got that much right.

More snow than I originally thought here on the westside and lakewood. There is some drifting going on at my house but I am guessing we got between 5" - 8". I made tlhe half hearted effort to make the commute to Akron today but turned around when we saw that the freeway was not moving.

St. Louisans are totally cracking me up about this storm.  It's HIGH-larious.

It's really not bad out at all today (so far).  I hear it may get ugly this evening though, but mainly because of freezing rain and ice, not snow.

I could have made to work but whats the point on sitting in my car (with carpool mate of course) for 2 hours when I have VPN and cn do the same thing sitting at home on my couch underneath my Ninja Turtle snuggie infront of my roaring fireplace (ok its a woodburner with a blower, so its really humming more than roaring).

It looked bad on 90 heading westbound towards downtown. I was going in the opposite direction, and while the roads were a little messy, it only took me about 5-10 minutes more to get into the office.

I thought Wednesday is supposed to be the bad day

I thought Wednesday is supposed to be the bad day

 

It is.  We got the storm before the storm last night.

I could have made to work but whats the point on sitting in my car (with carpool mate of course) for 2 hours when I have VPN and cn do the same thing sitting at home on my couch underneath my Ninja Turtle snuggie infront of my roaring fireplace (ok its a woodburner with a blower, so its really humming more than roaring).

 

 

^ Good catch. We got it from a White elephant christmas exchange that my wife was in at work....It has a hood too! it's bodacious!

 

Edit: There are no eyeholes in BTW,so that guy on the box can't see where he is going and will be spilling his coffee.

 

 

^ Good catch. We got it from a White elephant christmas exchange that my wife was in at work....It has a hood too! it's bodacious!

 

 

 

I think I'm going to faint.

 

^ Good catch. We got it from a White elephant christmas exchange that my wife was in at work....It has a hood too! it's bodacious!

 

 

 

Score.  Now I want pizza.

 

^ Good catch. We got it from a White elephant christmas exchange that my wife was in at work....It has a hood too! it's bodacious!

 

 

 

Score. Now I want pizza.

 

Really

 

Anyways, isn't their a possible ice storm tomorrow, I heard that was a possibility.

Is this a picture of you :?  :lol:

 

Wow.

 

Back to snow... Looks like the snow totals in Cleveland are going to be cut down due to a warm surge of air northward in advance of the storm. Chicago and Detroit will stay on the cold side while Cleveland will get a baklava mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain. Too bad. I wanted a blizzard! Oh well.

^I'd take 15 inches of snow over a half inch of ice any day.  Not good news about the storm tracking farther north.  But we'll see how the roads are tomorrow morning.

^No doubt. Just go back in from building a sledding ramp with my boys down the front porch steps.It would be a shame if this turns to sleet and melts all of this wonderful snow.

When I saw the second wave of this storm START in Cleveland as freezing rain, I knew we were in trouble. If you are reading this, consider finding your flashlight(s) and candles and keep them ready. Overheat your home to keep the temperature up a little longer. And make sure your cell phone is fully charged. I fear a lot of Ohio homes are going to lose power tonight. I hope I am wrong.

Freezing rain/Wintry mix - 1  Flat roof on my kitchen addition -0

 

I just noticed little drops of water running down the wall of kitchen and a water stain on the ceiling as I sat here logging on for work. Ugh. The ice is obviouslly make the water pool up and it has found the tiniest whole to make its way through. Need to go out and see if I can breakup the ice to get the water flowing.

 

They say that there are too kinds of flat roofs, those that leak and those that don't leak yet! I can;t wait to build a greenhouse on top of this sucker...

 

Edit: I think I got it under control. The gutter are frozen solid and the storm had made an ice damn on the outer edge pushing all of the water towards the house. I got my hammer and cleaned the ice and sludge off the top of the frozen gutter so the water is now falling over the gutter. Dripping has almost stopped now but I can see where I had tape "pop" on a seam. Looks like more drywall work for me. For the record the house came with this addition. I hate this flat roof, if they had not set it up as a second story porch I would have put a pitched roof on it. However I found a perfect lean-to greenhouse kit and that will be going up there as soon as I ssort out the funds.

^that's a great idea for the roof

 

I have a greenhouse window in my kitchen and I'm having some leaking at the seam where it joins the house. I'll have to go out when things thaw a little and re-seal it.

 

I had a pretty significant ice dam last week that caused a bunch of water in the front of my house inside a closet. I'll have to tear out that ceiling and put up new drywall in there as well. I think I'm going to have to re-insulate my crawlspace and check that the ventilation is sufficient. It's clearly getting too warm up there and melting the snow on the roof

Da#m that reminds me that I forgot to take down that icicle to end all icicles that is hanging from my back gutter.  That SOB starts at the top of my second floor and nearly touches the ground.

^that's a great idea for the roof

 

I have a greenhouse window in my kitchen and I'm having some leaking at the seam where it joins the house. I'll have to go out when things thaw a little and re-seal it.

 

I had a pretty significant ice dam last week that caused a bunch of water in the front of my house inside a closet. I'll have to tear out that ceiling and put up new drywall in there as well. I think I'm going to have to re-insulate my crawlspace and check that the ventilation is sufficient. It's clearly getting too warm up there and melting the snow on the roof

 

That sucks, at least it was a closet. I am sitting here at the kitchen table watching the expanding water spot as moisture works it way through the joint compound on  textured ceiling.

 

Sigh. I guess that's why they make KILZ primer...

 

Da#m that reminds me that I forgot to take down that icicle to end all icicles that is hanging from my back gutter.  That SOB starts at the top of my second floor and nearly touches the ground.

 

Be careful. Those can be deadly. I had one of those, well more like a 5-6ft that just missed a car parked in the driveway next to the house last year. That almost was another claim with State Farm.

 

I used to love when I worked in Key Tower that they would have to lock most of the doors  and put up protective barriers around the remaining entrances so that people would get killed by the ice that would form on the granite skin of the building and then come crashing down in huge sheets. Oddly enough the Barnes and Noble in Fairlawn appears to have a killer icicle problem too. They have to tape off about 80% of the front overhang so people won't get killed.

 

Edit: It's gotten really windy here in the last half an hour, the house is shaking. Pic of the sunroom/greenhouse kit I am looking at. Here's a pic from the RION website where they did what I am planning on doing.

I lost electricity twice last night. Once at 12:45 a.m. but it was only for about 5 minutes. Then I lost juice again this morning at 6:30 a.m. -- that was for about a half hour. Any longer and it would have started to get cold in my condo.

Quite frankly (and I thought this was going to be the case), at least in Greater Cleveland, this storm has not been the end of the world as predicted since Sunday (you know how the media, especially the weather, people have to justify their existence).  Apparently it was worse elsewhere but I can count 5-6 storms during the past year which were much worse here and more troublesome.  I had no trouble travelling the past two day and I drive quite far.  I am more concerned by a lot of standing water I see, which I fear is going to freeze and cause problems given that the temps are to fall.

^agreed. Things downtown look fairly fine as well. Nothing to make a big deal of, just winter

Yep. I wish I was in Chicago last night. That would have been awesome.

 

20 inches of snow and gusts up to 70 mph! But just because it didn't happen in Cleveland, doesn't mean it didn't happen.

Dammit, I'm trapped.  There's a narrow alley separating my carport from the outside world and it's got a foot of snow in it.

Yeah, I'm not leaving the house today. I'm watching the wind blow off the lake and it looks freezing.