Southeast Snowfall 3-1-09

Sunday, March 1st 2009 brought significant, though not record, snowfall to many areas of the southeast, including the Southern Appalachian Mountains. There were many interesting meteorological / synoptic processes observed, many still being analyzed, and I will save that comment for the experts. However, below is a series of maps and other data pertaining to what was observed.

Below is a series of Event Maps from some of the area WFO Offices. Notice how VERY different each one is. Speaking as a GIS Professional, it seems like a standard process could be developed to quickly and efficiently produce these maps, in a GIS environment. None-the-less, I like maps, so these will work.

KRNK

KRAH

KGSP

KFFC

KBMX

KJAN

NOHRSC Data for Mt. Mitchell

Remembering South Carolina's Greatest Snowstorm

The South Carolina Snowfall record for a single storm is not in the Mountains, like many may expect. In fact, it is far from the mountains, on the edge of the Piedmont and Coastal Plain. Rimini, SC received 24" of snow in 24 hours from this storm, which effected a large portion of central Georgia and the Carolinas.

For a full case study: http://raleighwx.easternuswx.com/Feb1973.html

Lake Effect Snow in South-Central SC?

Here is something interesting. I guess I did not realize that such a small body of water, relatively speaking, could produce lake effect snow. It has happened twice this season near Charleston off of Lake Moultrie:

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/chs/images/Jan09SnowAmounts.jpg

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/chs/images/LakeBand3.jpg

Southern Snow 1-20-09

Here are some Google Earth Images I created of the snow event in NC on 1-18-09 to 1-20-09. The first two are MODIS images, acquired on 1/21/09, one collected at 10am, the other at 2pm. Notice the apparent melting between the two times. Click the images for a larger view:

The same images, zoomed to WNC:

These images are NOHRSC 3D data embedded in Google Earth, same event:




A few event maps of the storm:

Jan. 16-17, 2008 Event Maps

Jan. 2-3, 2008 Event Maps