The Forgotten Blizzard of Are our climate records better today? Tim Morrin Jeffrey Tongue NWS New York, NY
Gilda January 9, 1886
March 13, 1888 ??
NCDC High 25 Low 15 Pcpn 0.30” Snow ??? Check of The Applied Climate Information System (ACIS), NOAA Regional Climate Centers. SAME RESULT. Record of 4.3” in 1974
NWS Web Page
Records Dr. Daniel Draper Director of the New York Meteorological Observatory Records are in the Library of Congress
Where??
What Did Dr. Draper Report??
5”
How?? The Draper self- recording pluviometer.
U.S. Signal Service: Daily Journal ” Hg (972 mb) Anemometer Cups Blown Away. 44 miles in velocity. Street and RR Travel almost entirely suspended. Many Marine Disasters Reported. TOTAL SNOWFALL: 11.90”
Today
ASOS ZOO
Central Park Zoo
Measuring snow The correct way to measure snow Sometimes not a “no- brainer”!
You will need two SNOW BOARDS. Approx. 3 ft X 3 ft and painted white. One board never gets swept (this one is for continuous snow depth) The other board gets swept during snow event every 6 hours. Wiggle room here!! The total snowfall for event is the Summation of all 6 hourly measurements
First order climate locations At airports—MANY challenges Poor siting-NWS has no say where they are. Too many obstructions Too few acceptable locations to measure. CENTRAL PARK BETTER—open sky, natural terrain, 24/7 coverage, yearly training. Doing it here since winter of
QUESTIONS ?????