chescowx Posted December 21, 2019 Report Share Posted December 21, 2019 Here in Chester County we have a 1 year of every 4 or 25% chance of having snow on the ground on Christmas Day. The last 10 years are aligned with that average as we have had 3 White Christmas Days since 2009. The most recent Christmas being 2017 with 0.3" / 2012 with 2.0" and 2009 with 4.0". The greatest snow depth recorded on Christmas was the 25" of snow on the ground Christmas Night following a 21.2" Christmas Eve storm that including frequent lightning and thunder on Christmas Eve 1966 - this followed the 8.8" that fell earlier that week on the December20th 1966. The next snowiest Christmas was from a storm that began at 8am on Christmas day back in 1909 and continued into the next day ending at 6:30am on the 26th (for both of these events I have attached the coop reports for the month for both years including W.T. Gordon's note from 1909 that it was "snowing furiously and very deep snow" and the Philadelphia Electric Company COOP in Coatesville reporting that "highways in bad shape" . Of note the Christmas 1909 Blizzard represents our 2nd greatest individual snowstorm in Chester County history as 38" had accumulated by the time the storm ended on the 26th. The only greater snowstorm in our history was the 3 day Blizzard of February 12-14, 1899 when a whopping 45.3" of snow fell with temps mainly in the single digits during the storm duration. Of note temps remained below freezing the remainder of December 1909 with 39" of snow on the ground on New Years Eve. The coldest Christmas Eve and Day occurred back in 1980 when the morning lows both days were below zero with the 24th at 2 below and Christmas Day at 6 below zero. Of interest just 3 years later in 1983 we also had below zero Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with lows of 1 below and 3 below respectively. That Christmas Day in 1983 was also the coldest Christmas Day with a high of just 6 degrees above zero. By contrast the warmest Christmas Eve was just 4 years ago in 2015 when we recorded a high temp of 68.5. Christmas Day 2015 was also short sleeve weather with a high of 66.7 just off the record high for Christmas Day of 67 degrees set back in 1964. The wettest holiday was the 1.63" that fell on Christmas Eve 1986 and the 1.92" that fell on Christmas Day 1967. No matter your weather I hope all of you have a Merry Christmas!! All the best, Paul December 1966.pdf December 1909.pdf 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdtown2 Posted December 21, 2019 Report Share Posted December 21, 2019 http://www.njstrongweatherforum.com/t531-march-1958-blizzard you mentioned the whopping 45.3 inches reminded me of My mom& dad always talked about the 58 blizzard. In Union township berks county. It was before I was born but they said snow was waste deep, they lost power so they had to go to the neighbors with my brother & sister who had a fireplace. Morgantown pa. Had 50” SE berks & nw Chester was jackpot area 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdtown2 Posted December 21, 2019 Report Share Posted December 21, 2019 https://www.perspectaweather.com/blog/2015/03/12/625-pm-the-amazing-blizzard-of-march-1958-and-some-similarities-to-this-winter this one says 60” fell in the poconos wow 😯 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowwors2 Posted December 22, 2019 Report Share Posted December 22, 2019 Thanks for this.... only wish you were my neighbor so I could read the history of Buckingham PA winters!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chubbs Posted December 22, 2019 Report Share Posted December 22, 2019 Here are a couple of items from the dec 2009 storm - 18" here and roughly 6" on the ground on xmas. 12/24/66 was roughly 12" in Delco very heavy snow xmas eve evening. Another white Delco xmas: 12/25/69 snow started xmas mid-afternoon and accumulated 5-6" before changing ice in the late evening. MESOSCALE DISCUSSION 2260 NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK 0557 AM CST SAT DEC 19 2009 AREAS AFFECTED...ERN WV...NRN VA...MD...DE...SERN PA...NJ CONCERNING...HEAVY SNOW VALID 191157Z - 191800Z BANDS OF HEAVY SNOW WITH RATES OF 1-2 IN/HR WILL PERSIST MAINLY FROM ERN WV ACROSS NRN VA AND MD...DE...SERN PA AND SRN NJ. THE LONGEST DURATION OF HEAVY SNOW RATES IS LIKELY TO BE OVER ERN WV...NRN VA...AND MUCH OF MD. A LARGE SHIELD OF SNOW CURRENTLY EXTENDS FROM NEAR THE UPPER LOW CENTER OVER WV EWD N OF A DEEPENING SURFACE LOW. WARM ADVECTION COUPLED WITH DEEP LAYER FRONTOGENESIS IS RESULTING IN PERSISTENT AND MULTIPLE W-E BANDS OF HEAVY SNOW. DUE TO THE SLOW MOVEMENT OF THE TROUGH...LONG DURATIONS OF HEAVY SNOW WILL OCCUR. THROUGH 18Z...EXPECT A SLIGHT PIVOT OF THE SNOW BANDS TO A WSW-ENE ORIENTATION AS THE LOW LEVEL WINDS BACK A BIT. BROAD...PERSISTENT FRONTOGENESIS SHOULD RESULT IN FURTHER CONSOLIDATION OF THE SNOW BANDS OVER THE MCD AREA. AS THE UPPER LOW PIVOTS EWD...COOLING ALOFT MAINLY ABOVE 650 MB WILL RESULT IN A DEEPER DENDRITIC GROWTH LAYER YIELDING A MORE TEMPERATURE PROFILE FOR PARTICULARLY HEAVY SNOW FROM 12-18Z ACROSS ERN WV...NRN VA...AND CNTRL MD. SNOW RATES COULD INCREASE TO MORE THAN 2 IN/HR AT TIMES. ..JEWELL.. 12/19/2009 MESOSCALE DISCUSSION 2261 NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK 1127 AM CST SAT DEC 19 2009 AREAS AFFECTED...VA...WV...MD...DE...NJ...PA...NY...CT CONCERNING...BLIZZARD VALID 191727Z - 192330Z HEAVY SNOWFALL RATES OF 1-3 INCHES PER HOUR ARE LIKELY FROM THE D.C. I-95 CORRIDOR NNEWD TOWARDS LONG ISLAND THIS AFTERNOON. WITHIN THIS ZONE...BLIZZARD-LIKE CONDITIONS WILL LIKELY AFFECT PORTIONS OF THE MEGALOPOLIS. CENTER OF MAJOR EAST COAST CYCLONE/BOMB WILL MAKE GRADUAL NNEWD PROGRESS FROM EAST OF VA CAPES TO SOUTHEAST OF CAPE MAY NJ THROUGH EVENING WHILE UNDERGOING SUBSTANTIAL DEEPENING. STRONGEST ASCENT...AND GREATEST HOURLY SNOWFALL RATES...WILL COINCIDE WITH MOST INTENSE 850-700MB FRONTOGENESIS AND DEEPEST DENDRITE GROWTH LAYER. LATEST NCEP-SREF GUIDANCE THROUGH 00Z SHOWS THESE DYNAMIC AND THERMODYNAMIC FEATURES WILL TRANSITION ONLY SLOWLY NWD/NWWD THROUGH LATE TODAY. BROAD AND QUASI-BANDED HEAVY SNOW FIELD SHOULD GRADUALLY DECAY ON ITS SWRN FLANK...AND DEVELOP/INTENSIFY AND PIVOT COUNTERCLOCKWISE FROM NRN MD/SERN PA TO SOUTH SHORE OF LONG ISLAND THROUGH LATER THIS AFTERNOON. SREF PROBABILITY MATCHED-MEAN /PMM/ 3-HOUR SNOWFALL TOTALS WERE USED TO ARRIVE AT THE 1-2 INCH AND 2 INCH PLUS PER HOUR RATES DEPICTED IN THE MD GRAPHIC. FURTHERMORE...AS BOMBOGENESIS OCCURS OFFSHORE...THE INCREASING PRESSURE GRADIENT WILL LEAD TO STRONG WINDS AOA 35 MPH FROM DELMARVA NWD TOWARDS LONG ISLAND. THIS IS SUPPORTED BY THE 00Z NSSL 4 KM WRF SHOWING MAX 1 HOURLY WINDS BETWEEN 30-40 KTS OVER THIS CORRIDOR. THUS...CONSIDERABLE FALLING...BLOWING...AND DRIFTING SNOW WILL RESULT IN BLIZZARD CONDITIONS WITH VISIBILITIES NEAR ZERO IN THE HEAVIEST SNOW BURSTS. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chescowx Posted December 22, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2019 18 hours ago, Birdtown2 said: http://www.njstrongweatherforum.com/t531-march-1958-blizzard you mentioned the whopping 45.3 inches reminded me of My mom& dad always talked about the 58 blizzard. In Union township berks county. It was before I was born but they said snow was waste deep, they lost power so they had to go to the neighbors with my brother & sister who had a fireplace. Morgantown pa. Had 50” SE berks & nw Chester was jackpot area Coatesville only had 19.0" with that one - no doubt my current spot with 320 ft additional elevation compared to Coatesville and only 7 miles away from Morgantown would have had an eye popping total. We can always hope for another elevation event like that one.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chubbs Posted December 22, 2019 Report Share Posted December 22, 2019 memory lane - 12-19-09 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowlurker Posted December 23, 2019 Report Share Posted December 23, 2019 6 hours ago, Chubbs said: memory lane - 12-19-09 That was an amazing storm for me, personally, because it was the very first storm that I "tracked". The Sunday after the storm, we left for Florida and didn't get to enjoy walking in it, etc. By the time we arrived back home in 2010, it was all gone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chescowx Posted December 23, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2019 From another site a great poster Uncle W with some stats from Philly on White Christmases and the differences between Philly and the burbs regarding White Christmases 11 hours ago, uncle w said: since 1940 Philadelphia has nine years with at least 1" on the ground Christmas morning...another six had a trace...between 1959 and 1969 there were eight years with at least a trace on the ground with five years with at least 1" on the ground...one trace year had 1.5" during the daytime...1966 is the greatest over the last eighty or so years...maybe over 100 years... year...depth 12/25/am...comments... 1945............6"..........rain Christmas night melts all... 1948............3"..........flurries Christmas day... 1959............1"..........flurry early Christmas am... 1960............1"..........flurries Christmas eve afternoon leaves a coating... 1961............2"..........3" fall the 23rd-24th... 1962............T...........1.5" falls Christmas day... 1963............5"..........flurry Christmas am... 1966..........12"..........12.7" on the 24th-25th...snow ends early Christmas am... 1967............T...........rains Christmas night melting all... 1969............T...........4" of snow Christmas afternoon and evening turns to rain the next day... 1980............T...........flurries Christmas eve late... 1995............T...........Flurry Christmas eve am...Christmas day pm... 1998............1".......... 2002............T...........snow late Christmas eve turns to rain Christmas morning and back to snow in the afternoon... 2009............8"..........rain Christmas night and the next day melts all... Big difference just 30 miles west in the Philly burbs - as we have had 22 Christmas mornings with at least 1" of snow since 1940 and 30 White Christmases since 1894 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowwors2 Posted December 23, 2019 Report Share Posted December 23, 2019 7 hours ago, Chubbs said: memory lane - 12-19-09 Memorable storm for me as it was the last big snow my mom saw before she passed in early January 2010. She’s the reason I grew to love snow and her love for snow was handed down to her from my grandad (her father). As you’ll recall, the rest of that winter and the following winter featured tons of big snows, which I’ve always felt were in her honor! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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