You Can Put It On The Board

YES!

I had thought for sure that my first taste of winter would come on some 1,000 foot hill during a trail run watching snowflakes fall in a county north of here.  Or at least that is how I planned it in my head.  Turned out I didn't have to go anywhere.  Not only did we see our first snow but also knocked out the first accumulating snow.

Mark it down as November 13th.  I don't recall a forecast that mentioned accumulating snow.  A flurry maybe.  That's how weather goes.  I got the news while I was sitting in my windowless office.  It was snowing out.  Wait what?  If anything I thought it would be much later at night before a changeover took place.  It took me all of 7 seconds before the four-year-old in me had to get up, walk out of the office and go see for myself.  Indeed it was true.  15 minutes later and a co-worker who had already left work called and updated me on conditions.  Some of us just can't get enough.

It kept snowing for a solid four hours though it didn't really get to sticking until the sun had set for an hour or two.  By that point the flakes were large and a coating quickly showed on colder surfaces. 

It's not great but I do have proof of the snow.  Granted I didn't try hard to get a good picture as I snapped this one after getting back from my hockey game.

Next is a morning shot of the snow from the prior evening.

For a system that wasn't forecast to produce much of anything there were some decent reports coming in.  Now I'm going to state this now before any more snow falls this winter, but I have a hard time accepting some of the reports that come in even if it is through a trained spotter.  I'm a trained spotter, and I wouldn't trust myself to be accurate.  Some higher local locations reported between 3 and 4 inches around the Lehigh Valley.  Berks had amounts close to 2.5 inches from trained spotters.  I know where I was it wasn't close to that.

Officially Allentown reported half an inch.  These measurements are taken at the airport using a weather observation system.  It's basically a 24 hour system that updates every minute.  I'll take that reporting over the guy who measures snow in his yard with a stick (or if done by standard spotter rules, a piece of plywood) every few hours.

Plenty of cold air for us next week.  Not so sure about any snow events.  Small chance Sunday night and even smaller on the backside Monday.  Otherwise it doesn't look like we will see another snowy scene for a few weeks.