A Snowy Winter In The Works?

Snow! We had a couple flurries before, but right! now! we are finally getting out first snowfall of the winter. The grown-up in me likes the thought of an easy morning post for the blog, and the kid in me likes the thought of getting off from school and playing Madden ‘93 all day.

As always, Phillyweather.net has exhausting coverage:

The graphics up above from wxcaster.com show the snowfall potential for the NAM, WRF, and GFS computer forecasts. The resolution on the NAM and WRF is higher and seems to have a decent handle on how much may fall despite the location differences among all three models.

This is what I sound like when I talk about baseball statistics, I can only assume. I think I have a WRF file in my system directory.

NBC 10’s indefatigable Glenn “Hurricane” Schwartz came out, saw his shadow and forecasted a “rough” winter. (This differs from CBS 3’s winter forecast; Fox 29’s forecast is next week.)

For now, enjoy the light coating and 28-degree temperatures.

Snowball Fight Leads To Shooting

While most Philadelphians spent the weekend indoors watching injuries befall our sports teams and movies they haven’t seen win awards, there still was some snow on the ground from Friday’s first real snowfall of the winter. And so smarter Philadelphians spent most of their time playing in the snow. (Me, I spent most of the weekend indoors sick. Duh.)

A few tow-headed residents even decided to throw snowballs at people, a tradition of young brats since snow was invented. Unfortunately, uh, somebody shot one of the teenagers throwing snowballs. Two sixteen year olds were having a snowball fight when one of their throws accidentally hit a neighbor in the face. And, then, the neighbor returned and shot one of ‘em in the head at point blank range.

More »

Finally, We Get Some Decent Snow

Hooray! It seemed like it was never going to happen, but finally we have a snowfall we can be proud of. It’s not really all that much snow, but since we haven’t had any measurable amount in a while everybody’s running to the ACME to buy up all the milk and bread.

We’re supposed to get about 1 to 3 inches, with a changeover to rain by late afternoon.

We could get ice, too, making this nighttime just ever so fun. Good thing there’s RPS tonight!

Snow Returns, Reminds Everyone It’s Kind Of Gross

And there we go: First snowfall of the season, a 1.6-inch coating that, uh, didn’t really bother anyone all that much. It was kind of disgusting out, though.

But, more importantly: How did the local stations do in predicting it? Fox is actually in first — they were the only station to call for over an inch. Lowest score wins, and Fox still as zero points. NBC is incompetently already five points behind Fox, which may be hard to ridiculously easy to make up, I don’t know.

With only 1.6 inches of snow it’s not really enough for any sort of winter fun. But in Easton somebody put up signs threatening a $300 fine for sledding. The mayor and City Council don’t know where they came from; they just sort of showed up one day.

Dan Brettell, of Palmer Township (duh), does make a good point in the NBC 10 report, though:

“What is the city going to do when there’s 250 people? Come here with entire police force from Forks and Palmer townships and start handing out $300 fines? I doubt it.”

Yes, I doubt it too, Dan. I mean, when can you get the Forks Township police force to ever go into Easton?

Sledders may be slapped with fine for frolicking in snow [NBC 10]
Snowfall Challenge Grades, event #2 [Phillyweather.net]

I’m Dreaming Of A White Margaret Cho’s Birthday¹

Meteorologists are confident — so, you know, like .05% or so — Philadelphia will receive its first measurable snowfall sometime starting today, which means the hoodie you haven’t worn since mid-summer will finally get some work. (The snow we got over the weekend was just a trace.)

Phillyweather.net is once again rating the forecasters on how close they get to predicting the actual total. The local forecasters have called for anything from no accumulations (NBC 10) to three inches (Fox 29). Leave it to Fox to have the out there prediction. Is John Bolaris already in town?

Update: Or, ah, Sue Serio says that?

¹ Today, Dec. 5. Or as I like to call it, the Immaculate Conception.²

² I also forgot! Today is Repeal Day!

Snow Coming [Weather or Not]
Snowfall Challenge Event #2 Calls [Philadelphia Weather]

HEFY? LOL! Brrrrr….

Remember just a little bit ago when I was making the annoying “boy it sure is unseasonably warm” post? Well, now it’s time for the “boy it sure is unseasonably cold” post!

My widget says it’s only 35 degrees out; it’s supposed to just be in the mid-40s today. Reports said there could be flurries north and west of the city today; yesterday it began snowing at the Phillies game. (It was the part of the game where the Phillies were getting killed. Oh wait!)

Uhh, so… that’s it for this annoying blog post about how cold it is. It’s good to know that, while bloggers do a nice job with the “boy it sure is cold” posts, the TV news stations really can’t be topped when it comes to weather coverage:

The cold, brisk weather continues today. Meanwhile, the next several mornings could be bad for your plants. There’s a HARD FREEZE WARNING in effect in New Jersey and Delaware early Friday, Saturday and possibly Sunday. The most dangerous time period is between about midnight and 9am.

HARD FREEZE WARNING. Sounds like an action movie.

April 6th, 2007 Forecast [Phillyweather.net]
Kicked By Cold Again [6 ABC]
March 27: OMG It Might Be 80 Degrees Today!

Forecast From The Heavens

I missed this on the first readthrough, but apparently Jesus’ message wasn’t just that of tolerance and peace, but also of low pressure systems and freezing rain:

Christ said that overnight the region could get 2 to 4 inches of snow from the eastbound storm - 3 to 5 if it combined with a storm moving north off the coast from the Carolinas.

As you can see from the photo, in addition to a freezing rain headed our way, Jesus has also made an incredibly good call — phew! — by rejecting the Devil’s calls to worship him in exchange for all the kingdoms of the world. Although, ah, judging by the leaders we have now, one with a message of tolerance, love and peace might be kind of a nice break.

Winter, Round Two [Inquirer]
Temptation of Jesus [Wikipedia]

PennDOT To Be Darned To Heck

The state is set to begin hearings tomorrow on the snafu that led to hundreds of motorists being stranded for hours and hours on Interstate 78 in Pennsylvania. The state is ready to say “whoops!” and move on, but they’ve also set up an email address (stormresponse AT pasen DOT gov) for people to complain.

John Baer notes in his column today that the complaints are already rolling in, including this one from a couple in their seventies:

A husband and wife in their 70s were stuck in their car in a snow bank for six hours off Interstate 84 despite calls to 911 and PennDOT. They hope “there is a special place in purgatory for PennDOT officials.”

A special place in purgatory? (Perhaps it’s the spirit of Ash Wednesday.) You know, I like this new kinder, gentler brand of complaining. Nobody’s going to hell; they’re just going to purgatory for a while. So, you know, even though this married couple was stranded for six hours in a snow bank, they still believe PennDOT officials can achieve salvation. That’s nice.

John Baer | Will hearings on I-78 backup provide answers to the outraged victims? [Daily News]

Now All That’s Left Is Millions Of Dollars Of Our Money To Study How We Fucked Up And How We’ll Fuck Up Again

On Saturday — come on, I’m still catching up — Interstates 78, 80 and 81 were finally reopened after roughly three days of being closed due to a deadly 7-inch snowfall.

As you may remember, some motorists were stranded for up to 24 hours on the Interstate due do major screwups from pretty much everyone involved. The governor did take full responsibility, so, y’know, that’s something you don’t really get from the federal government at least. Rendell has vowed an investigation — to be funded by taxpayer dollars, of course.

And, yeah, there was a lot of snow and ice and it was kind of a weird storm. But, as the Inquirer’s Paul Nussbaum reported yesterday, other states tend to do a better job than Pennsylvania and don’t strand motorists for a full day on the road.

How do they do it? The subhead kind of sums it up: “They plan far ahead and act preemptively.”

Oh! That’s what we gotta do!

Crews unclog Penna. arteries [Inquirer]
How other states avoid highway woe [Inquirer]
[Photo via Interstate-Guide.com]

Rendell: Stranding Hundreds Of Motorists On Highways For 24 Hours Not Official Pennsylvania State Policy

Ed Rendell came out today and said that, despite the icy conditions, keeping people on stuck on Interstate 78 for up to 24 hours was not really all that, y’know, acceptable.

Here’s the backstory: On Valentine’s Day, around midday on Interstate 78, several tractor trailers jackknifed and stalled traffic. But officials (whoever they are) kept the road open despite icy conditions — a three-inch ice “crust” — and once the tractor trailer mess was cleaned up, the trucks behind them were stuck in the ice and couldn’t move. Officials didn’t close the road until 5 p.m. and didn’t notify Ed Rendell until 8 p.m. (What, was Eddie not watching the news? I knew before him!) The National Guard had to be called in to deliver food, fuel and baby supplies. The last of the stranded motorists weren’t freed until this morning.

The roads — I-78, I-80, I-81 — were then closed and workers sent to clear them fully. They’re still closed, though. And there was another accident when a truck driver was hit by falling ice from another truck hit his windshield and the truck, containing highly-flammable xylene, overturned.

So, basically, SEPTA is screwed unless it gets $100 million in state funding and the highways are screwed whenever it snows. Hooray for Pennsylvania!

Gov. calls state response to I-78 traffic fiasco unacceptable [AP/Philly.com]
Jan. 18, 2006: Apocalypse Philadelphia: The Xylene Spill
[Photo via Carnegie Mellon]