AGW Today: Record December Snowfall In Capitol

20 Dec, 2009 by William Teach

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The Washington Post changed the headline from one that mentioned record snowfall as they updated the story from yesterday to today, but, where previously the information that backed up the headline was on page 2, now, it’s the lead paragraph

A major storm that broke all records for a December snowfall buried the Washington area Saturday, forcing authorities to suspend public transportation, declare a state of emergency and plead with residents to stay home.

I’m sure it was just weather caused by the building El Nino, offsetting the effects of human caused global warming, right? Or, perhaps, it is because man is messing up the climate through release of greenhouse gasses?

Airports and malls were closed down, the Smithsonian shut all her doors at the various museums, the Metro wasn’t stopping at above ground stations, football games have been rescheduled for later start times on Sunday, the Circulator buses stopped running, and even the Postal Service stopped delivery.

At the snowstorm’s peak in the afternoon, flakes fell at the rate of two inches an hour. Some areas, particularly in Southern Maryland, experienced wind gusts up to 40 mph. The total measured snowfall at Reagan Airport at 8:58 p.m. was 16.3 inches, but it was as high as 23 inches elsewhere in the region. That would be more snow in a 24-hour period than the region typically gets in an entire winter. According to Weather Service statistics, the storm ranked among the biggest snowfalls in local history.

The original story discussed this being the biggest December storm since 1923. Over to NBC Washington

The snow total at Reagan National came in at 16.4″ making it the 6th largest snow storm on record – and the records go back to 1884. That much snow also means that we have set the record for snowiest December on record – the old record was 16.2″ in December of 1962. The other “official” sites also set records – 20.5″ at BWI and 16.0″ at Dulles.

In my old growing up grounds of New Jersey, they got anywhere from 5-24 inches. Lynchburg, Va, set their snow record. Philly.com called it the most potent storm in 100 years. Maryland struggled with record snowfall. Even West Virginia was seeing record snow for this time of year. And we do not even have all the details for areas north west of NY City as of yet.

Hey, did I mention that it is not even officially winter, yet? And that Nancy Pelosi and company had to leave Copenhagen early because of the storm? Same with President Neophyte.

Tim Blair catches the NY Times changing their story on the storm to make it sound less wintery. In another Grey Lady story, we learn

“This is one of the bigger ones,” said Kevin Witt, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in the Baltimore-Washington forecast office in Sterling, Va.

Mr. Witt said that when the gusty snow ended late Saturday night into Sunday morning it could rank among the top 10 winter snowstorms.

And it isn’t even Winter yet!

Snow has been measured in Central Park since 1869, and only two storms have produced more than two feet of snow, the most recent in February 2006. This storm was not likely to exceed a foot and a half in Central Park, but some parts of central Long Island could see up to two feet, said Jeffrey Tongue, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service based in Upton, N.Y.

Did I mention Winter doesn’t start till Monday?

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove