Here We Go Again!

So by now, you all know the deal. Another week, another storm, well really another 2 storms. Yes yes, I know that everyone is bitching about it, but to be honest, it hasn't been as bad as we have all made it out to be. A little ranting first before we get into the details.

With January coming to a close today (Happy Birthday Mom!), Boston checked in with 38.3 inches of snow, our 3rd snowiest January ever. The number 1 spot was 43 inches only 6 years ago in 2005. And of course we all remember the 107 inches of snow we got in 1995/1996. I don't think we break that record this year.

The reason this winter has seemed worse is the condensed timing of all the snowfall. 60 inches in just over 30 days. But what really has made this winter quite annoying is the fact that we just haven't seen any melting. Living where we do, we expect snow in the winter. But we also expect winter thaws and rain. It comes with the territory of being a coastal community. Not this year.

There is a fairly simple answer as to why we have stayed so cold and so snowy for the past month, but I am not going to get into it now. Just remember that the next time you hear someone complain about this being the worst winter ever, they are wrong. And if that same person starts talking about global warming being the cause or being proven to be not true, walk away because clearly you are dealing with a dumbass. Anyways, onto the show!!!!

- Two storms will be hitting us. The first is forming over eastern PA as we speak. It is not really connected to the main storm, but in many ways( meteorological ways of course!) it is. For your purposes though, we will just call it storm 1.

- Storm 1 starts with some light snow between 8AM-10AM. Again, snowfall will be light, but this little storm really starts to crank up by the afternoon. By late afternoon into the commute tomorrow night, snow will really be falling at a good clip. Its all gone by 8PM tomorrow night but not before giving us a good 6-10 inches of snowfall. And this should be all snowfall for Boston.

- Now, we do get a "break" in the action tomorrow night from 8pm to Midnight or so. After midnight, storm number 2 moves in and this one is a biggie. She will be fresh off her visit to OK City and Chicago where they could see 2 feet of snow! And she will still be packing a punch for us.

- This storm is VERY dynamic and will be carrying a lot of moisture. But because it is so strong and due to its irregular path across the country and more specifically across NE, Boston and areas southward are going to be very hard to give accurate snowfall totals too.

-One thing is for sure, the RT 2 area and central to northern New England are going to get SLAMMED. Expect snowfall totals upwards of 3 feet in some mountain locations.

- Around Boston though, I just can't say.It is going to be a very very thin line between snow,freezing rain and just plain rain. The Mass Pike has been being used as the seperation point, but that sort of pin point forecasting is just impossible to predict. It will just require some close oberservations on Wednesday. I don't think the icing situation will be as serious as previously thought.

- I keep hearing these massive snowfall totals reported on the news but I tell you now, be CAREFUL in how you receive these totals. They are very misleading. 10-15 inches in Boston is certainly possible but over two days, which leaves a lot of time to clean up. I also believe that this second storm, although much, much stronger, will give us the a lot of mixing in the daytime hours in the city. Wednesday may be more wet than white.

- Whatever the precipitation is, it will be going on all day on Wednesday. Northern MA and Southern NH look to get slammed with this one. Models have been very consistent on that part but there is always the chance that the jackpot area moves depending on the storm track. Wednesdays storm is very much a wait and see situation.

-Everything is over by Wednesday night and things will quiet down for 48 hours until the next storm!

My advice to people/parents/schools would be to close early tomorrow night. The drive home is going to be hell. It's another one of those timing storms. As for Wednesday, I fear a large over reaction might be coming! I can easily see thousands of schools and businesses closing only to see that it is raining or sleeting for most of the day! This is a very likely scenario but what can you do? There is just no way that anyone or any computer model can tell you how the precipitation will fall. I will have to do a post about why in the future. But for now, this post has gone on long enough! I applaud those of you who read it all!

Now, commence bitching amongst one another about how winter sucks!