Poochie’s Weather

8:10 PM SUNDAY 4.25.10

Current base reflectively radar.  A line of severe thunderstorms is bisecting Central Maryland. The thunderstorms are currently training, which means they are following each other’s path. This has set up the criteria for flash flood warnings across Frederick and Carroll counties. Severe thunderstorm warnings are also in place in Frederick, Montgomery, Howard, Carroll, and Baltimore and Harford Counties, and Baltimore City until 8:45 PM. These warnings are mainly for large hail up to the size of ping pong balls, although frequent cloud to ground lightning will also be a threat. Hail as large as nickels have already been reported in Carroll County. These storms will persist throughout the night as the storms will continue to develop along the warm front.  Check for updates throughout the night monitoring this volatile situation.

Sorry for the massive tardiness.

I will see you all in school tomorrow as about a half an inch of snow will be dropped tonight.

Then another 2-4″ Thursday evening, maybe a delay Friday. Stay tuned

We got dryslotted folks.

Upper level low allowed a dry slot to dominate the area, causing snow to end a lot earlier than expected.

Sorry bout that! Hope you didn’t get ya hopes up for snow…

You asked, you got it!

Some snow totals for our region after this Super Kahuna Winter Storm:

Sykesville: 28″

Elkridge: 38″

Columbia: 33.8″

Laurel: 28″

BWI: 26″

Annapolis: 17.6″

This storm has set the single storm record  for snowfall in BWI. Although in 2003 28 inches were recorded over 4 days, the snowfall was said to occur over two storm systems. This was a storm of epic proportions setting many records across the Mid-Atlantic.

Hey guys. Huge snow. 30+ inches. No school rest of the week hopefully. Another snow Tuesday Night/Wednesday.

On facebook check out footsforecast page I have put up several updates throughout the night. Pretty crazy conditions.

Well this is certainly a Super Kahuna storm. Glad we got that early dismissal already locked, now we just gotta wait for the closing. We may not be back in school until Wednesday if things shape up. Below is an excerpt of what I posted on footsforecast.org about the storm.

Winter storm warnings have just been put into affect for all of Central Maryland. Winter storm warning calls for 16-24 inches, with the heaviest snowfall occuring Friday night and early Saturday morning. This means you will wake up with an excess of a foot of snow on Saturday morning. Friday night’s conditions will be extremely trecherous. As winds pick up in combination with heavy snow, near blizzard conditions are possible. Moderate/heavy snow will continue throughout Saturday, ending during the evening. End accumulations look to be 18-26 inches by Saturday evening.    

Timing of the storm:

This storm is shaping up to be a 24hr+ storm. Precipitation will begin in central Maryland around noon, varying as you move north or south throughout the region. Snow will stop accumulating in the evening hours of Saturday. 

Decisions:

The storm arrival looks to be a dangerous one for all school systems. With an early dismissal buses are still running around just after 1 o’clock, just in time for the snow to begin. A closing of school systems would avoid any possible travel conflicts with the snow. 

Preparations:

It is highly advised to stock up on the food necessities, water, batteries, etc. as soon as possible. Grocery stores will be a complete mad house tonight and tomorrow morning. This storm has the potential to take out power for and snow us in for a couple days. So take preparations immediately.

After-Effects:

As already mentioned, this heavy wet snow could take down trees, leading to down power lines. This amount of snow will also be very heavy and hard to plow  and may cause some plows to break. Any snow that is not plowed will re-freeze as temperatures will dip into the lower teens. School systems will most definitely be affected next week. 

The difference between this storm and the December Blizzard is that the snow during this storm will be heavier and possibly greater in accumulation. Heavier snow always causes more problems than the light fluffy stuff we got earlier in December.

After getting 7 or so inches of snow, you’d think we could benefit from it. Well thats definitely possible. Let me fill you in on what I saw as I did my afternoon/night drive.

Liberty/Century HS- Lots completely plowed with a couple patches of snow/ice.

Eldersburg ES- Plowed, with several large pathes of snow.

Lots of side streets have some slush and ice on it but mostly clear. However, I did run into a couple roads that had some sections that were completely covered in snow.

With this in mind I think there is definitely a possibility of a delay. But do your homework.

The models once had a huge snow storm for our area…. however now it seems if any snow were to come in our area, accumulations would be light. This would be some where around 1-3 inches, and thats being generous I think.

<>Unfortunately the storm will arrive on Saturday not having any impact on schools, unless a huge change were to occur (unlikely) and we were to get a big kahuna type storm, then schools would be affected early next week.

You can see how my forecast differs from our collaborated forecast on footsforecast.

Sorry everybody… I was wrong. First time in a while prediction didn’t verify.

What happened… Sleet tranisitioned over to freezing rain/rain early, and never transitioned back. I was under the impression that freezing rain, would switch back over to sleet. The reason for this is mainly due to the temperatures around 5000 feet not being cold eneough to freeze the precip. All night is was hovering around or below 32, so any sleet that fell would have stuck. Last night I had major concerns about this, and realized it was too late to inform anybody.

<>It may start snow/sleeting later on today, which may cause some issues but Carroll County mainly bases their determination for delay/closing on observations. This means that the weather/road conditions must be bad now, for them to make any decisions.

<>Well once again sorry for the misinformation! Let’s hope this is my only bust of the year!

<>Pooch apologizes as well.

Alright so the snowstorm for this Friday is not looking like the monster that it could have been.

Clipper system looks to swiftly come through and possibly dropping a couple inches.

So Friday there is a possibility of some school delays/closings, I will update with latest.

Finally some really exciting news. I am now a new member the Foots Forecast team. I will be helping them with forecasting for the central MD area. I will still be doing poochieweather updates so no worries.

But check out Footsforecast.org