To Clear Or Not To Clear (The Snow Board), That Is The Question.

[ErieWX]

So I have a question - do people really clear the board every 6 hours? I always understood that was only for airports to meet FAA regulations, and especially in this region or in my own backyard where the snow tends to be very high ratio and compacts. It’s not representative to what is actually on the ground in my opinion. I always understood it as you clear it 24 hours or when the snow stops falling for the event, whichever comes first. 

[tombo82685]

1 hour ago, ErieWX said:

So I have a question - do people really clear the board every 6 hours? I always understood that was only for airports to meet FAA regulations, and especially in this region or in my own backyard where the snow tends to be very high ratio and compacts. It’s not representative to what is actually on the ground in my opinion. I always understood it as you clear it 24 hours or when the snow stops falling for the event, whichever comes first. 

I try to whenever I can. If you want the most precise measurement you should. 

[ErieWX]

1 hour ago, tombo82685 said:

I try to whenever I can. If you want the most precise measurement you should. 

Yeah I wasn’t really sure how often is the standard or accepted way, I just follow the measurement guideline graphics that gets tweeted. Probably should attend one of the cocarahs seminars or spotter thing that the local NWS office here is doing one of these days lol.

[icicleman]

37 minutes ago, ErieWX said:

Yeah I wasn’t really sure how often is the standard or accepted way, I just follow the measurement guideline graphics that gets tweeted. Probably should attend one of the cocarahs seminars or spotter thing that the local NWS office here is doing one of these days lol.

It really depends on your location.  You can do every 6 hours or, down here in PHL, we sometimes do every 6 flakes.  Here's my snow OBS from the Feb 23 storm, you can see how precise we are down here.

[Rainshadow]

On 3/15/2023 at 5:03 PM, ErieWX said:

So I have a question - do people really clear the board every 6 hours? I always understood that was only for airports to meet FAA regulations, and especially in this region or in my own backyard where the snow tends to be very high ratio and compacts. It’s not representative to what is actually on the ground in my opinion. I always understood it as you clear it 24 hours or when the snow stops falling for the event, whichever comes first. 

It is now 24 hours, once a day. It used to be every 6 hours.

[Rainshadow]

@ErieWX  now I confused myself about clearing off boards. In the wxcoder form I use it says you could clear the board once every 6 hours.

I have to e-mail Lee about my thermometer, I will ask him again.

[Rainshadow]

I e-mailed Lee Robertson who is the Data Program Meteorologist at Mount Holly about that clearing question and when he responds I will post it.

[Rainshadow]

1 hour ago, Rainshadow said:

I e-mailed Lee Robertson who is the Data Program Meteorologist at Mount Holly about that clearing question and when he responds I will post it.

Clear the board just once a day at observation time. Take a measurement as soon as you can when the snow ends or starts changing to rain. 

[tombo82685]

3 hours ago, Rainshadow said:

Clear the board just once a day at observation time. Take a measurement as soon as you can when the snow ends or starts changing to rain. 

That does not sound precise at all. What about compaction if it’s a fluffy snow? Seems like it would default lower 

[ErieWX]

3 hours ago, tombo82685 said:

That does not sound precise at all. What about compaction if it’s a fluffy snow? Seems like it would default lower 

It’s one of those debates with 2 sides to it. In my opinion, the 24 hour puts more equal weight on weather conditions, like if wind is mangling dendrites for example. Like a windy climate might have lower totals than a non-windy climate with the same temp and qpf with 6 hour, even though both have a crippling snowstorm. One might look at totals and think “wow, that windy climate doesn’t seem too bad.” The arguments for 6 hour might be that well, the 6 hour actually represents how much snow crews like plow operators and airports have to move, which takes up more space. 

[Rainshadow]

5 hours ago, tombo82685 said:

That does not sound precise at all. What about compaction if it’s a fluffy snow? Seems like it would default lower 

The one thing is to measure it once it stops falling or changes to non-snow.  It is rare to snow continuously for 24 hours.  

[ErieWX]

16 minutes ago, Rainshadow said:

The one thing is to measure it once it stops falling or changes to non-snow.  It is rare to snow continuously for 24 hours.  

Yeah that’s from the official NWS and federal guidelines. Measure when it stops or changes over as soon as possible, but only clear the board itself every 24H. 
 

 

[Rainshadow]

1 hour ago, ErieWX said:

Yeah that’s from the official NWS and federal guidelines. Measure when it stops or changes over as soon as possible, but only clear the board itself every 24H. 
 

 

It is kind of convenient there is no settling between snow events.  I have this other "Smarch" example, it snows, it melts in the afternoon sun and then it snows again at night.  I would assume the snowfall is 4.1" in this example.

 

[rramblings]

On 3/17/2023 at 6:56 AM, Rainshadow said:

It is now 24 hours, once a day. It used to be every 6 hours.

Thank-you Tony, that is what WFO Mt Holly told me to do in late 2021