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March 5, 2010

Both February storms were blizzards at BWI

Okay, so we don't want to think about snow anymore this season. But just to tie a ribbon on the season ...

James E. Lee, meteorologist-in-charge out at the National Weather Service forecast office in Sterling, Va., says both big storms that struck the region in February will go down in the weather history books, at least preliminarily, as blizzards.

Whiteout in BaltimoreThe weather service announced soon after the Feb. 5-6 storm that blizzard conditions were recorded at BWI-Marshall Airport from approximately midnight on Feb. 6 until 5 a.m., with winds gusting to 37 mph and visibilities reduced to one-eighth of a mile in heavy snow.

Blizzard conditions occur when falling or blowing snow reduce visibilities below a quarter mile for three hours - not necessarily consecutive hours.

Today, Lee confirmed that blizzard conditions were also reported at BWI-Marshall during the Feb. 10-11 storm, at 10 a.m., 2, 3, 4 and 6 p.m.

We already know this was the snowiest winter, the snowiest February and [February was] the snowiest month on record for Baltimore. Here are a few other winter weather trivia from this meteorological winter just ended, just published in the NWS Monthly Climate Report for BWI-Marshall in February:

1. Baltimore recorded two separate, two-day, double-digit snowfalls in the same month (Feb. 5-6 and Feb. 9-10) for the first time since record-keeping for snow totals began in the 1880s.Deep snow Baltimore

2. The two big February storms dropped a combined 44.5 inches of snow at BWI in just six days. It was the most snow ever to fall for any 7-day period on record for Baltimore. The previous record weekly snowfall was 32.6 inches, in Jan. 6-12, 1996.

3. The daily 7 a.m. "climatological snow depth" - the snow measured on the ground at BWI - on Feb. 11 was 34 inches, setting a new record. The old snow-depth record was 30 inches, recorded on Jan. 18, 1957. 

4. The average snow depth for Baltimore in February was 11 inches, the highest average monthly snow depth ever recorded for the city. The previous record was 7 inches, in January 1996.

5. There was at least an inch of snow on the ground at BWI on 22 dates in February. That's the third-highest number of February days with an inch of snow or more on the ground for Baltimore. The highest number is 27 days in 1934, followed by 25 days in 1905.

6. The maximum daily temperature at BWI failed to reach 50 degrees for the entire month. That's the first time that's happened in any month since January 1977, and only the 10th time on record. Even so, February 2010 ranked as only the 22nd coldest February on record here. 

(SUN PHOTOS: TOP: Karl Merton Ferron/BOTTOM: Kenneth K. Lam)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 5:02 PM | | Comments (2)
Categories: By the numbers
        

Comments

See the video clip of the Blizzard of '77 on my website www.whitedeath.com and then count your blessings.

Frank, any idea what the problem is with Foot's Forecast? Budget cuts?

FR: Apparently they are making some server changes. The site looks OK to me now. If you're having trouble getting there, try: http://www.footsforecast.blogspot.com/

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About Frank Roylance
Frank Roylance is a reporter for The Baltimore Sun. He came to Baltimore from New Bedford, Mass. in 1980 to join the old Evening Sun. He moved to the morning Sun when the papers merged in 1992, and has spent most of his time since covering science, including astronomy and the weather. One of The Baltimore Sun's first online Web logs, the Weather Blog debuted in October 2004. In June 2006 Frank also began writing comments on local weather and stargazing for The Baltimore Sun's print Weather Page. Frank also answers readers’ weather queries for the newspaper and the blog. Frank Roylance retired in October 2011. Maryland Weather is now being updated by members of The Baltimore Sun staff
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