Going for Gold
>> Saturday, March 1, 2014
This would have been a great year to hold the Winter Olympics in Pennsylvania. Cold air has been plentiful as too has the snow. Erie leads all cities in total snowfall as of today. Philadelphia only trails Chicago in most snowfall for cities with more than one million people and sandwiched in between is Allentown.
The last time we spoke Allentown was currently sitting at their 4th snowiest recorded winter. Philadelphia sits in the bronze position dating back to 1884. Allentown would need 8.7 inches to reach the top spot. Oddly enough Philadelphia's record snow, recorded just four seasons ago, is higher than that of Allentown. Philadelphia would require 19.2 inches to eclipse that mark. They did pick up an additional 1.1 inches this week and are within reach of the second spot.
The calendar has officially changed to March. The weather won't be changing. February was a month to remember. In Allentown the temperature averaged six degrees colder than normal. That's a lot. The snowfall for the month was 36.5 inches. That's more than the seasonal average. If you now take November, December, January and February the temperature has averaged 3.5 degrees below normal. It might not seem like much, but that number is very unusual in it's consistency. The first two weeks of March are also projected to be below average which got me thinking. If we assume March is also colder and snowier than normal and we don't exactly know what April will bring, it's possible you could be looking at a six month period of winter-like weather. Ring your noggin off that one for a minute. Even the hardiest of us have to laugh at that concept.
But the real reason we are here is to discuss the title of this post. The snowstorm that could break an Allentown record.
It's certainly not unusual to get a snowstorm earlier in March. I'd love to go back and see how many we have had in the first week of March as I remember there seemingly being one every year when I was in grade school. In fact some of the best and most powerful storms occur in March because of the increase in energy and moisture as the arctic air battles the return of warmth from the south. If you remember the "Storm of the Century" back in 1993 when places from Alabama to Maine saw upwards of 20 inches of snow with many pockets of over 30, the date would have been between March 12th and March 14th.
We aren't going to see that this time since it is tracking from west to east and not up the coast. However, that doesn't mean we won't see some impressive totals. The question as always is where will that be.
I've been onboard the express train to Philadelphia all season long. I'm not getting off now. Everything is suggesting the further south you go (to a point) the more snow you are going to get. So if you drove from Scranton to Allentown to Reading to Philadelphia, the totals would progressively climb. The bulk of the moisture is trying to go through Maryland and D.C. Not only that but temperatures are going to plummet during the storm especially for places to our distant south. At the onset temperatures in D.C. could start in the 50's before ending as heavy snow in the 20's.
For us it becomes more of a factor of where the heaviest bands set up. Right now the suggestion is along the Mason-Dixon line to points just north. Philadelphia would see a solid 10 inches or more. With temperatures being as cold as they are it would not be out of the question for places like Reading and Allentown to end with similar totals even though there would be less moisture. At this point I'd put Reading and the Lehigh Valley closer to the 8 inch mark. In fact I will say Allentown picks up 8.6 inches just so they trail the record by a tenth of an inch.
Not like that would matter. There is still a whole month to go even after this storm. At this point we might as well shoot for 80 inches. 10.5 inches gets Philadelphia to 70 for the season. It would only be the second time they have ever done that in 130 years.
If anything changes tonight into tomorrow I will post. Otherwise I'm holding on to the 8.6 and 10.5. Anybody ready for summer yet?
