Stuck in a Rut

What a storm that turned out to be.  Was it just me or was that one of the best sticking snows?  You could measure three or four inches on small tree limbs.  Virtually everybody in the area came in somewhere around a foot.  My jaw dropped when I saw Central Park picked up 19 inches.  Now, we aren't only talking about the snowiest month ever, but perhaps snowiest season ever recorded in some places.

Here are a couple maps from Accuweather.  The first is the history of this last snow we just saw.  Notice the narrow zone of 12-20 inches within the darker shade of blue that stretches through Reading, Allentown, Philadelphia, North Central New Jersey and New York City and surrounding boroughs.

The second map shows the snow totals for the season.  It is pretty clear to see how storms have been tracking.  The white shade in central PA is being referred to as the "snow hole" this season.  Not close enough to get heavy lake effect snow and too far west to get the storms coming up the coast.  What can also be seen is the fine line for our area.  A variation of anywhere from 20 to 60 inches has fallen across the Valley into Northern New Jersey.  Meanwhile, New York is less than 20 inches away from breaking their all time record.

And it could happen.  This pattern of cold air and chances of snow is showing up on the models all the way into mid February.  Not even joking on this.  The light snow coming tomorrow and Saturday by way of clipper systems does nothing but get places like NYC a couple inches closer.  Compared to what we have been seeing, it's like drizzle in May.  What will quickly start to pop up on the radar and local stations is the storm that will take shape in the middle of next week.

Like a broken record, the track of the storm will be the ultimate factor because there will be plenty of cold air to work with.