And Again

They keep on coming.  Nor'easter number one is in the books and by all accounts I believe we can mark this down as a success for predictions.  The consensus was generally somewhere between 3 and 10 inches of snow for Berks and Lehigh.  It might seem like a big range but everybody agreed the gradient for snowfall was going to be tight.  In the end it was.

Here is a look at the results.

 

Normally this year I was showing a map of eastern PA that labeled reported snowfall totals.  This time I went with the color coded map.  It differentiates between the snow totals better.  The darker blue (Berks) indicates ranges from 4-6 inches.  The darker pink is 6-8.  The brighter the pink color the higher the totals were.  

The predictions were not dead on accurate but close enough to consider this a job well done.  National media, local media and weather groups all kept acceptable ranges including my pinpoint guess of 5-6 inches.  Allentown officially came in at 6.8.  Reading has no official total, and I caution to use any total I see for the rest of the season at this point.  The best we can do is use the total from a trained spotter in Wyomissing at 5.5 inches.  

There were some mistakes.  The southern region as shown above could not muster up much of anything which was expected though moisture wasn't as plentiful.  Philadelphia (all totals from the airport) came in at just 0.3 inches.  Ice was hit or miss.  I didn't go out looking so I don't know where the line of ice made it.  It wasn't up here as the snow transitioned to sleet as temperatures dropped.  Yes, dropped.  And you want to be a meteorologist.

Round 17

Maybe we aren't quite to that number, but it feels like it.  No time to sit around and discuss this past one as two days later we look towards another measurable snow.  Trust me enjoy this now because at some point we will be sitting around for two weeks in the middle of January waiting for a pattern like this to come.

This snow is the result of a clipper system moving on by.  Of course things can't be that simple.  Once it gets near the coast it picks up a little energy which will help to intensify the snow.  Everything has trended to keep the higher amount of snow to the north.  So Allentown is more likely to see more than Reading and substitute any other town north of any other town that is to the south.  

Once again the air is very cold which only enhances snowfall totals.  With clippers you can't get a ton out of them anyway.  The bad news is for the second straight Tuesday the morning drive could be a concern.  The good news is this snow is going to be very fluffy.  

Our advisory states 2-4 inches.  I'll take the low end of that for most of Berks especially from Reading on southward.  Lehigh Valley is in a better position to get closer to the 4 mark.  If I'm forced to make a call I say the Reading area struggles to hit two inches.  Allentown is in a 2-3 swath.  Looks like the parade of snow gets derailed after this one.