Snow, Sleet, and Rain Today Feb 20th

max_weisenfeld said:


justal said:
Ah, science teacher throwing them a trick question lol. Thx! 
 I will stop being such a pendant. 

 It would be the most ironic thing ever to correct this. But I can't stop myself.


mammabear said:


Formerlyjerseyjack said:
State law mandates 180 days of school per year. The district, not the union, decides how this will be scheduled. The only input the union has is the annual convention. Those dates are set by state law.
 The union dictates quite a few things. They set parameters on teacher conference half days, the actual start date of school, etc. The district has to work around these things. We have 3 half days for teacher conferences next week.

 The winter conferences were negotiated between the union and the district.  As I recall, it was the district that wanted them.


Two words: Playground yurts.


Thank you for these reports, Max. They’re very informative and always much more accurate than anything else I come across. 


Radar shows that the virga has overspread the area but nothing is hitting the ground yet, which is a good sign.  Short range models also point to a near miss, with the heavier snow gping just south of us this afternoon.

Also, no one called me out for putting an * by virga in the previous post and not defining it.  Thank  you for your thoughtfulness!

Virga is snow that evaporates before it hits the ground.  It is more common than you might think, and often accounts for the sort of low indistinct sky we have right now.  It occurs when warm moist air overruns cold dry air.  The warm air rises and cools but the colder air is between it and the ground.  As the warm air passes the dew point and also drops below freezing, snow forms.  But the snow has to saturate the lower airmass (or overwhelm it) before it can reach the ground.


Hitting the ground here, about three blocks west of your location.


mrincredible said:


max_weisenfeld said:

I will stop being such a pendant. 
 It would be the most ironic thing ever to correct this. But I can't stop myself.

I was expecting a dangling modifier.


Hitting the ground over the mountain in Madison.


Aw, fork.  Now look what I did.


A friend who lives near Lancaster PA said it has been snowing steady since 9 by him.


EricBurbank said:
A friend who lives near Lancaster PA said it has been snowing steady since 9 by him.

 They're under a  winter storm warning.  Forecast was 6 - 8 inches iirc


max_weisenfeld said:


EricBurbank said:
A friend who lives near Lancaster PA said it has been snowing steady since 9 by him.
 They're under a  winter storm warning.  Forecast was 6 - 8 inches iirc

 Yes, that is what he said.  And all this time I thought you just focused on Maplewood, now I see you cover a wide range of territory. 


Today's early dismissal gets the Mr Incredible Seal of Approval(tm). I picked up my daughter about 40 minutes ago. Some slippery roads. There was a minor accident on North Wyoming (car slid into a pole) and we slipped a little coming to a stop at the bottom of Redmond at Ridgewood.

I imagine it will be worse at the usual pick up time.


Max, will the early start mean more snow, or an early exit? 


believe me. 


The last thing teachers look forward to, are the conferences. since they are set around marking periods, the teachers have little input on conference schedules.


When I was on the union negotiating team, conference schedules never came up.


Streets in Manhattan all clear. It looks like it stopped here for now.  


Picking up again.  I just got back from doing my first pass.  Areas I cleared were filling in again.  May try again about 4 - 5 pm when things may quiet down once more.


EricBurbank said:
Max, will the early start mean more snow, or an early exit? 

 Only started about 1/2 hour early, and the first thump was not too heavy, so unless we get a serious band of heavy snow I am sticking with my forecast.  I would plan to stay off the roads between 5 and 9, though, unless you like driving on ice.


Thanks very much, Max.  Is the rain expected to wash away the snow by morning, or should we shovel to avoid having thick ice in the morning?  Sending warm wishes to all!


Any thoughts on driving into NYC tonight? No, I'm not insane; I have a dress rehearsal in Brooklyn that isn't being cancelled.


tom said:
Any thoughts on driving into NYC tonight? No, I'm not insane; I have a dress rehearsal in Brooklyn that isn't being cancelled.

 Better in the city than out here, but if any rain falls between now and about 9 or 10, assume ice is forming on the roads.


tararagone said:
Thanks very much, Max.  Is the rain expected to wash away the snow by morning, or should we shovel to avoid having thick ice in the morning?  Sending warm wishes to all!

 Temps are going to rise all night, passing freezing by midnight or even earlier and hitting 52f tomorrow.  I expect to have to do a courtesy cleaning of the sidewalk in the morning but I am hoping the driveway will take care of itself.


max_weisenfeld said:


tararagone said:
Thanks very much, Max.  Is the rain expected to wash away the snow by morning, or should we shovel to avoid having thick ice in the morning?  Sending warm wishes to all!
 Temps are going to rise all night, passing freezing by midnight or even earlier and hitting 52f tomorrow.  I expect to have to do a courtesy cleaning of the sidewalk in the morning but I am hoping the driveway will take care of itself.

 "courtesy cleaning" . . . I like that. 


2:30 AM: already 32F in Maplewood (and 39F in Tinton Falls).  Looking outside, even the sidewalk courtesy cleaning should not be necessary.

As I suspected, another non-event.

8:30 AM:  correction:  Basic precip does not need cleaning, but where the plows threw up a lot of slush, I did need to clean some.  Took abt 3 min.


max_weisenfeld said:


tom said:
Any thoughts on driving into NYC tonight? No, I'm not insane; I have a dress rehearsal in Brooklyn that isn't being cancelled.
 Better in the city than out here, but if any rain falls between now and about 9 or 10, assume ice is forming on the roads.

It turned out to be pretty easy. The main roads had been well-salted, and all the non-insane people stayed off the roads there was no traffic. 


Meanwhile, my friend from VT sent me a text asking if I was OK because on her VT news they were reporting a lot of car accidents in NJ due to the weather. 


I didn't go out yesterday so I have no idea how bad the roads were.  For those of you who had to drive yesterday, what did you think of the road conditions?


Maybe it depends where you were. My friend in New Brunswick left her car (2wd) in a parking lot after almost sliding into the car in front of her on the road shortly after noon yesterday.


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