"Snow Dome" effect Options

[NYCSuburbs]

Since this is a rather unusual (and disappointing) year for me so far, and also to give me another place to talk about the snow dome other than the main forum, I opened the snow dome thread... a still-unfolding story about how somehow it barely snows anywhere I go. I don't believe there's actually a snow dome, that part is obviously a joke, but the coincidence of the endless near misses is just ridiculous. If you've had experiences like this as well where it just doesn't seem to snow where you go, feel free to share it here.

After the historically snowy 2010-11 winter, 2011-12 started out great with the October snowstorm which I got about 7" from. Then things got ugly; no measurable snow through January 20. Finally got a 4" snowstorm on the 21st - my last 2+ inch event to date - then February was full of endless near misses, with snowstorms to my south, east and north. The end of the month had two very close near misses; it rained in NE NJ, while snowing with an inch of snow a short drive to my north. My last snow of the winter was 0.1" in early February.

2012-13 is just about as bad for me as it can get for a snow lover living in the Northeast away from the coast, staying mostly in Albany but going back to NE NJ for a month in late Dec-late Jan. NE NJ got slammed with the early Nov snowstorm and another late moth storm, bringing the total through late December to 7.4"; in Albany, I got a few dustings and an 0.7" snowfall, bringing the total through late December to barely 0.8", which was 11" less than average. As soon as I came to NE NJ, Albany got hit by many snowstorms over the month period, with nearly 16" falling while I was absent. These storms were wintry mix events in NE NJ, all of them 2" or less. 12/29 was expected to produce 4-5" of snow in NE NJ, but less than half of that fell. 1/16 brought an inch of snow/sleet, but just 30 minutes to the north almost plain snow with 4" fell.

I came back to Albany yesterday (1/21), with almost all of the snow cover having melted. A forecast 1-3" event today failed with just a dusting, while the NYC area overperformed with snow totals. With this event failing, I made it through a full year in the Northeast US without receiving a single 2+ inch snowstorm. Both NE NJ and Albany have had 12" and 17" to date this season, respectively; my personal total is barely 5.3". Now that I'm back in Albany, the latest outlooks show the potential for a moderate snowstorm in NE NJ on Friday, with Albany likely too far north.

I'm hoping this changes eventually, it can't go on like this forever... almost 2/3rds of the winter has passed and now I only have February and maybe March to rely on, otherwise I have to wait through yet another long summer until the next winter comes. I have hope for February to finally produce a 2"+ snowstorm for me, but hopefully next winter I won't end up going through this long with so many near misses. Below is a graph representation of the trends so far this winter.

[Apocalypse]

Well at least you got some snow on the ground. All I've seen this year is 6 inches of snow which melted the next day.

[NYCSuburbs]

Well at least you got some snow on the ground. All I've seen this year is 6 inches of snow which melted the next day.

What's your average snow to date usually? It hasn't been a very good winter so far for parts of the US, and apparently parts of Canada as well since your location states you're from Canada.

I can't complain that at least it actually snowed, there's places that have barely even seen that, but the disappointing part about all of this is how close I was to see much more snow this winter, but missed out due to bad timing... if I stayed in either place a little longer than I did, my personal winter total would've easily doubled.

[Apocalypse]

Should have around 13 inches by the end of Jan. normally. It's just been a lot of cold rain or rain/snow mix. It's also annoying that the models always show the cold about 1 week away and when you get there the cold air just disappears. I guess I should move east since I like winter . Oh and regarding your snow dome effect, it seems like wherever I go it's either not cold enough for snow or just plain dry. In 11-12 there was sea effect snow just south of me and that area saw around 6 inches of accumulations while I had a clear sky. 10km make a big difference I guess.

This post has been edited by Apocalypse: Jan 22 2013, 02:53 AM

[NYCSuburbs]

Should have around 13 inches by the end of Jan. normally. It's just been a lot of cold rain or rain/snow mix. It's also annoying that the models always show the cold about 1 week away and when you get there the cold air just disappears. I guess I should move east since I like winter . Oh and regarding your snow dome effect, it seems like wherever I go it's either not cold enough for snow or just plain dry. In 11-12 there was sea effect snow just south of me and that area saw around 6 inches of accumulations while I had a clear sky. 10km make a big difference I guess.

They do seem to have broken down the western North American ridging too quickly - the western ridge was originally shown to flatten out, but it's still holding strong and why we're finally seeing frigid temps in the East. The MJO was also initially modeled to stay in phase 6 or collapse to the COD but advanced into phase 7, although I'm no expert with MJO so I don't know exactly how much influence it had on this. Europe and Asia have been the winter spots so far this year and last year, although we'll see if winter can finally settle over at least parts of North America in February now that the PV is in this side of the globe, and finally having impacts outside of Alaska/Greenland as opposed to last year. Hopefully you do better next month.

This post has been edited by NYCSuburbs: Jan 22 2013, 02:53 AM

[Apocalypse]

All I want is just a thin blanket of snow on the ground to make everything white and cold temperatures to keep it that way. I'm not looking for crazy snow totals though I wouldn't mind . Usually by Feb. it's too late for us though but we have gotten significant snow storms in March before. A winter like 08-09 is perfect. We saw about 45 inches of snow that season which is around 240% our normal. Pic from TWN of 08-09 winter below.

You guys should be getting some cold weather now though so enjoy it!

[mmi16]

Send the 'cold' weather to Canada.

[snofan]

Since this is a rather unusual (and disappointing) year for me so far, and also to give me another place to talk about the snow dome other than the main forum, I opened the snow dome thread... a still-unfolding story about how somehow it barely snows anywhere I go. I don't believe there's actually a snow dome, that part is obviously a joke, but the coincidence of the endless near misses is just ridiculous. If you've had experiences like this as well where it just doesn't seem to snow where you go, feel free to share it here.

After the historically snowy 2010-11 winter, 2011-12 started out great with the October snowstorm which I got about 7" from. Then things got ugly; no measurable snow through January 20. Finally got a 4" snowstorm on the 21st - my last 2+ inch event to date - then February was full of endless near misses, with snowstorms to my south, east and north. The end of the month had two very close near misses; it rained in NE NJ, while snowing with an inch of snow a short drive to my north. My last snow of the winter was 0.1" in early February.

2012-13 is just about as bad for me as it can get for a snow lover living in the Northeast away from the coast, staying mostly in Albany but going back to NE NJ for a month in late Dec-late Jan. NE NJ got slammed with the early Nov snowstorm and another late moth storm, bringing the total through late December to 7.4"; in Albany, I got a few dustings and an 0.7" snowfall, bringing the total through late December to barely 0.8", which was 11" less than average. As soon as I came to NE NJ, Albany got hit by many snowstorms over the month period, with nearly 16" falling while I was absent. These storms were wintry mix events in NE NJ, all of them 2" or less. 12/29 was expected to produce 4-5" of snow in NE NJ, but less than half of that fell. 1/16 brought an inch of snow/sleet, but just 30 minutes to the north almost plain snow with 4" fell.

I came back to Albany yesterday (1/21), with almost all of the snow cover having melted. A forecast 1-3" event today failed with just a dusting, while the NYC area overperformed with snow totals. With this event failing, I made it through a full year in the Northeast US without receiving a single 2+ inch snowstorm. Both NE NJ and Albany have had 12" and 17" to date this season, respectively; my personal total is barely 5.3". Now that I'm back in Albany, the latest outlooks show the potential for a moderate snowstorm in NE NJ on Friday, with Albany likely too far north.

I'm hoping this changes eventually, it can't go on like this forever... almost 2/3rds of the winter has passed and now I only have February and maybe March to rely on, otherwise I have to wait through yet another long summer until the next winter comes. I have hope for February to finally produce a 2"+ snowstorm for me, but hopefully next winter I won't end up going through this long with so many near misses. Below is a graph representation of the trends so far this winter.

OMG - You are too funny! I see your frustration though! Hang in there!

This post has been edited by snofan: Jan 22 2013, 05:17 PM

[mmi16]

Since this is a rather unusual (and disappointing) year for me so far, and also to give me another place to talk about the snow dome other than the main forum, I opened the snow dome thread... a still-unfolding story about how somehow it barely snows anywhere I go. I don't believe there's actually a snow dome, that part is obviously a joke, but the coincidence of the endless near misses is just ridiculous. If you've had experiences like this as well where it just doesn't seem to snow where you go, feel free to share it here.

After the historically snowy 2010-11 winter, 2011-12 started out great with the October snowstorm which I got about 7" from. Then things got ugly; no measurable snow through January 20. Finally got a 4" snowstorm on the 21st - my last 2+ inch event to date - then February was full of endless near misses, with snowstorms to my south, east and north. The end of the month had two very close near misses; it rained in NE NJ, while snowing with an inch of snow a short drive to my north. My last snow of the winter was 0.1" in early February.

2012-13 is just about as bad for me as it can get for a snow lover living in the Northeast away from the coast, staying mostly in Albany but going back to NE NJ for a month in late Dec-late Jan. NE NJ got slammed with the early Nov snowstorm and another late moth storm, bringing the total through late December to 7.4"; in Albany, I got a few dustings and an 0.7" snowfall, bringing the total through late December to barely 0.8", which was 11" less than average. As soon as I came to NE NJ, Albany got hit by many snowstorms over the month period, with nearly 16" falling while I was absent. These storms were wintry mix events in NE NJ, all of them 2" or less. 12/29 was expected to produce 4-5" of snow in NE NJ, but less than half of that fell. 1/16 brought an inch of snow/sleet, but just 30 minutes to the north almost plain snow with 4" fell.

I came back to Albany yesterday (1/21), with almost all of the snow cover having melted. A forecast 1-3" event today failed with just a dusting, while the NYC area overperformed with snow totals. With this event failing, I made it through a full year in the Northeast US without receiving a single 2+ inch snowstorm. Both NE NJ and Albany have had 12" and 17" to date this season, respectively; my personal total is barely 5.3". Now that I'm back in Albany, the latest outlooks show the potential for a moderate snowstorm in NE NJ on Friday, with Albany likely too far north.

I'm hoping this changes eventually, it can't go on like this forever... almost 2/3rds of the winter has passed and now I only have February and maybe March to rely on, otherwise I have to wait through yet another long summer until the next winter comes. I have hope for February to finally produce a 2"+ snowstorm for me, but hopefully next winter I won't end up going through this long with so many near misses. Below is a graph representation of the trends so far this winter.

Be careful what you ask for - You may get it!

[NYCSuburbs]

Be careful what you ask for - You may get it!

And I'll gladly accept that at this point, but the story continues - the storm last Friday mostly missed me to the south, Mid Atlantic got 1-4" while I got 0.3", then a storm on Monday keeps the heavier accumulations (3+ inches) to my north with over 1" here if I'm lucky (which would be my 3rd biggest event this year), then a GLC, then back to a suppressed pattern. The only luck I had recently was with a surprise 0.3" from lake effect early last week. If there's any hope, it would have to wait until after the next 7-10 days. Eventually I would think I'd have to see at least one decent storm given the climatology (average is nearly 60"), I just hope it won't be too late in the season by then.

This post has been edited by NYCSuburbs: Jan 27 2013, 09:26 AM

[LoveNYCSnow]

Since this is an appropriate thread I can now go on a rant of my own, now it is officially 2 years since my last 2+ inch storm which was 1/27/2010 in NYC. I have seen a total of about 1.5 inches this entire winter with 1 inch coming from the November storm and than a bunch of tiny events since. Of course a lot of it is bad timing admittedly. My area has seen approximately 14 inches this winter and there are still leftover snow piles, but I just happened to miss all 3 storms. Still it's a little below average but not terribly below. However personally I can't catch a break. I do expect at least one decent storm for the HV between now and March 20th because it would be almost historically rare to go an entire two month period here without a 3+ inch event. Ok, rant over for now.

[The Day After To...]

Although I have seen a few 6" events, I haven't gotten an old fashioned mega-nor'easter in a while. Last 10"+ storm was OCT11