Say it isn't so!

And I'm expecting loads of manure and mulch this week! Whatta winter!

Carol

Blech!!!

Ahh, the pictures of manure and snow together in early Spring.

Isn't this our typical first day of spring snow storm? Last week a friend said she planted her peas a year ago and it was 68 degrees. Weird.

thyme2dig, I second your comment!

{{gwi:5901}}

I predict that once this storm is over, it will suddenly transform into instant summer (or warm spring at least) just like flipping a switch. And to think I have daffodils poking their heads up right now! They'll be under a blanket of white for a few days.

Claire, may I ask what url you used to arrive at that excellent snowfall prediction map? I'd like to go there and punch in my own location for this and future storms. (All the maps I can get from the Nat'l Weather Service site that I regularly visit, are maps with cryptic symbols and no key to what they mean.)

spedigrees: I picked out that map from TimMa's thread on the previous snow storm.

It's the NWS StormTotal Snow Forecast for Boston, MA There are some nice little side graphics showing the probability of 1 inch, 4 inch, 8 inch and 12 inches of snow.

I probably control-clicked on the image, then copied the image location, then looked at the URL to see where it was located and deleted the jpg portion. Or something like that.

I really hope your prediction is right and warm weather will suddenly burst out.

Claire

I'd like Sped's prediction about warmer weather after this March storm, but (((sigh))) today's early evening weather on a CT station reported that colder weather will continue following this storm.

But that's okay. We're New Englanders. We're tough. Besides, I'd rather suffer through the winters we have up here than the sinkholes folks worry about down in Florida.

I seriously question the "tough" part. New Englanders are more like ficus plants. There's always something not quite right for them so they throw a hissy fit and put on a messy display.

Here's the same map for most of NH and all of ME.

We are likely to get at least a foot and DH isn't planning on plowing because the ground has thawed and our gravel drive would all end up plowed into the yard. I'll probably hand shovel at least one drive end so I can get out if needed.

Here is a link that might be useful:

There is blocking high pressure that is unusually strong over Greenland. This causes the Arctic Oscillation Index (AO) to become negative--with unprecedented negative levels at the current time (another example of a climate extreme quietly in progress).

From wikipedia: "The degree to which Arctic air penetrates into middle latitudes is related to the AO index, which is defined by surface atmospheric pressure patterns. When the AO index is positive, surface pressure is low in the polar region. This helps the middle latitude jet stream to blow strongly and consistently from west to east, thus keeping cold Arctic air locked in the polar region. When the AO index is negative, there tends to be high pressure in the polar region, weaker zonal winds, and greater movement of frigid polar air into middle latitudes".

The earliest that this pattern may finally break down is the first week of April. So the expectation is for much colder than normal conditions for the next few weeks....ugh. And this will likely involve more snow events of varying magnitude, Worcester is now over 100 inches for the season....with another foot or so tomorrow! The map below shows the expected temperature departures for next week. I have been looking at these maps for many years and I have never seen such a large area of the deepest blues and purples indicating an almost 100% chance of much below normal conditions for most of the east.

I really can't stand it when New Englanders break out the tired trope "welcome to New England" every time a winter storm event happens. It is wicked provincial in a way because it seems to imply that these storm events appear out of nowhere and have no other impacts beyond New England. I lived in Minnesota for many years and I never heard anybody, not once, say something like "Welcome to Minnesota" after 30 days of below zero weather and 3 months with the temperature not cracking the freezing mark. So I am with tree-oracle on the very tired trope of the "hardy" New Englander (I was born and raised here). I think the difference is we complain about bad weather more than other people do (guess what--other places have bad weather too!). And we do an amazing job of completely ignoring long stretches of glorious weather----because well----that doesn't fit with our self-defined image now does it.

Colder than normal until the beginning of April? ...ugh indeed, rockman (bringer of depressing news).

I found another storm total forecast map from the Burlington, VT regional office that covers most of Vermont and part of upstate New York. It looks like only some regional offices have these maps, at least I couldn't find a general website. For some reason I can't seem to link to the whole image to display here - it just comes out zoomed. Maybe some one else will have better luck.

Storm total forecast Vermont

Claire

This post was edited by claire on Tue, Mar 19, 13 at 11:50

They all seem to have them, they just aren't easy to find.

Here is the link to the Albany graphical forecast, which covers the Berkshires, southern Vermont, and east-central New York.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1063721}}

So, thankfully, we only had a slushy inch last night down here on the south coast, and it has washed away this afternoon. But I just heard that Worcester is now having a top 5 snowy winter ever--with the seasonal total up to 107 inches. And I am sure there is more snow to come for central MA with this pattern being persistent for a few more weeks. Interestingly, the top 5 snowiest winters ever in Worcester have all occurred in the last 20 years.

*is getting snowed on*

It's been snowing, then raining, then snowing again off and on all day. I want SPRING!

Thank you, Mad Gallica and Claire! After futile searching last night, I sicced my geeky techy husband onto the task today and he came up with a national map similar to yours, Mad, but when zoomed in on, didn't show county lines as yours does. I didn't think to try the Burlington area as you did, Claire. Next time I will go there, as Burlington is more Sophisticated than Rutland, and thus more likely to have staff capable of creating a better map.

I suppose a visual of snowfall amounts is just a frill anyways; I can read the text predictions and look out the window and see it coming down. I really have nothing to complain about by comparison to the southern NE coast, since we had minimal snowfall from the last two storms this year.

Now to go out and clear snow to the tune of "I Shovel and Shovel and Shovel that Snow" by "Da Yoopers" about shovelling snow in Michigan's upper peninsula:
"I wake up in the morning and it's forty below.
The weatherman tells me it's too cold to snow.
I look out my window and I know that he's lyin'
My car's out of sight and the snow's still flyin'."

My favorite line is "One of these days that snow's gonna melt!"

Do you use a Yooper Scooper spedigrees?

I'd never heard of Da Yoopers - My Car Won't Go but I love an excuse to google.

Claire

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/btv/html/StormTotalSnow/StormTotalSnow.shtml

I just right clicked (or the Mac equivalent) copied the image to my desktop, and then uploaded like a regular photo.

Thanks for the intro to Da Yoopers, Sped and Claire. I love an excuse to giggle!

I never thought of saving the image to my desktop, then uploading it, but that didn't work for me either. Usually I just copy the image location and enclose it in the command.

I finally figured out that I'd been control-clicking (Mac) in the central part of the image and it responded by zooming, and what I copied was the zoom, not the whole image. When I control-clicked in the margin it worked fine - I got the whole image.

I think this graphic is more sophisticated than the Boston graphic which doesn't zoom.

Now that most people are probably bored to tears with this discussion, I'll close with this lovely image:

Claire

As much as I dislike (putting it mildly!) snow and cold, I do think the forecasters are doing a much better job these days. Of course they have all the technology available to them that wasn't there years ago. I used to hate it when the forecast was for "Partly cloudy", and then I'd wake up with about a foot and a half of "partly cloudy" to shovel off the driveway!

Well as of about 18 minutes ago, at least it's officially SPRING! Yea.....

{{gwi:5901}}

I knew it couldn't last. The snow-free weather, that is.

Claire, with a perpetual snarl on her face.

Drove to work in the falling snow this morning, and more is forecast for Monday. Today's did not amount to anything, but it sure was discouraging waking up and seeing my car covered in a layer of white stuff and the snowflakes falling again. Hopefully's Monday's forecast will fizzle out.

Dee

Claire - On my Mac, I control command click which gives me a menu that includes copy image and copy to desktop.

We had a lovely day in the low 40's and about half of the last snowfall has melted, and although we have a low chance of a bit of snow for the next couple of days, after that none is expected for a week and temperatures should be close to normal for this time of year. I think this snow will be gone soon. (knock on wood)

nhbabs: I seem to get the same menu with control-click and with control-command-click, with no copy to desktop. Maybe it's a different version of OSX? I have 10.6.8, whichever feline that one is. Maybe you have a newer version of OSX.

The latest map above shows me right in the band of 6-8 inches, which is what I see out there. I already shoveled to feed the birds and now that I'm almost finished with breakfast I'll go out and shovel for the car and people (and turkeys that have been gathered on the driveway looking annoyed).

Claire

Someone at work today said more coming to central mass on Monday! I'm not going to get my "winter" pruning done before Fourth of July!

They are misinformed.....if the current forecast is to be believed. The storm on Monday is forecast to bring snow to the Mid-Atlantic area, with the very northern limit of the snow just swiping the south coast of New England from CT to Cape Cod with maybe a few inches. That leaves central MA high and dry.