Farmer’s Almanac: Winter 2010-11

Farmer's Almanac - Winter 2010-11

I’m not a big fan nor do I buy into long range forecasting, but I know some of you do.

When I saw this earlier this morning, I knew it was going to be my blog post for the day.

Please don’t take this as gospel.  It’s way too early to make a forecast for winter.  You might be able to make generalities about the entire season, but that’s about it.  Your best bet is to just take the winter month by month as it goes by.  There’s no changing the weather.

Here’s some of what the Farmer’s Almanac has to say of the coming winter.

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Elevation Matters: Splitting Counties

New zones set to take effect Mid-November

Our area is full of so much varied terrain and every once in a while, it makes sense to change some of the boundaries to make better use of the watches and warnings system.  That’s what the National Weather Service has done.

Starting in November, Westmoreland and Fayette Counties will each be split into two separate regions.  The western region will still go by the county name.  The eastern part of each county will add ‘ridges’ to the name.  So, eastern Westmoreland County will now become Westmoreland Ridges.  The same goes for Fayette Ridges.  Take a look at the graphic to the right to see what I mean.

So, why the change?  Well, the area is vastly different if you go just a short distance.  By separating these regions, it’ll make forecasting and issuing warnings for those areas easier for the folks doing the issuing and easier to understand for everybody in the region.  Now, we won’t have ALL of Westmoreland County under a blizzard warning when it only needs to be the higher elevations.

There’s more after the break, so click in to read the entire post. (Read More)

Mid-Winter Checkup

Here’s a look at how much snow we’ve picked up so far, compared to the seasonal average:

Twitter Soundoff: Winter Blues

Sunday night on Twitter, I posed the following question:

How do you keep the ‘winter blues’ away with weather like we’ve had?

I put the question up because this is the first time since I’ve been in Johnstown that I feel like I’m getting a case of those winter blahs.  The mix of the cold, snow, and my holiday schedule have me feeling pretty tired lately.  The way I deal with the cold… a remote start for my car and some hockey!

Now, it’s your turn.  Here’s what you had to say via Twitter (@wjac_weather).

(Click more for your answers!)

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December 2009: Snowiest Ever!

A friend on Twitter (@wxbradd) today made reference to an article on WattsUpWithThat.com (@wattsupwiththat). The article tells of the second snowiest December ever in the northern hemisphere. (edit: I found more data that makes this even more exciting, see below.)

That’s a pretty impressive fact.

Take a look at the article for more information.

[...]

Wintercast 2009-10

It’s hard to believe that it’s time for Wintercast already, but it’s here!

Just click into the post to be walking in a winter wonderland.

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Let’s Just Cancel the Snow

You know how they say you get smarter by reading things?  Well, I definitely learned something today on the weather blog of our sister station, WTOV-9 in Steubenville.  I learned that Moscow, Russia is going to stop the major snows for the year.

Moscow Is Trying To Prevent This!

Moscow Is Trying To Prevent This!

Come again?

Yes… they’re going to cancel this year’s major snows.  Get more details below…

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NOAA Issues Winter Outlook

NOAA has posted it’s winter outlook and the results are… well… ummm… sorta inconclusive.

The good news is that they’re not predicting a wet winter for us. The bad news is that they’re not necessarily predicting a dry winter, either.

They are predicting that this winter has a 33% chance of being colder than [...]

Winter Weather Preps In Centre County

Our Centre County mobile newsroom got this video of the winter weather preps in Centre County.

Take a look…

Click Here!

The Woolly Bear Caterpillar… Next Phil?

Everybody knows about Punxsutawney Phil and his spring-predicting ways. Is the woolly bear caterpillar the winter equivalent of Phil?

The pyrrharctia isabella, better known as the woolly bear caterpillar (pictured below), is sometimes charged with the impossible task of predicting how harsh of a winter it’s going to be.

According to [...]

Snow Prediction Final Scores (Hopefully!)

With temperatures in the 80s, I hope it’s safe to put this competition to bed.  We’ve waited all year to figure out who the big winners were going to be in the snow prediction competition.  The results are in:

Here are the numbers that we used for the final totals in the Alleghenies…

Johnstown:  67.8″
Altoona:  28.7″
State College:  20.7″
DuBois:  56.6″

Total:  173.8″

So, who was the big winner?  Click into the post to find out…

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And More Rain

Rainfall amounts were a bit lower than forecast across the area today, especially south of route 322. Here’s a look at what we got:

Our next rain event will be much more robust, with a stronger area of low pressure and more moisture. We’ll see a Gulf connection with this one, and [...]

What a Day!

Sunshine, blue skies, birds chirping and people outside without heavy coats! Doesn’t get much better this time of year. While we didn’t break records today, two were tied!

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High Winds Cometh (Again)

We’ve seen our fair share of gusty winds this season, and we have another round right in front of us. A cold front will cross the area tomorrow morning, accompanied by a line of thundershowers. Along the front and for several hours behind it, west winds will gust as high as 50 mph. With [...]

Spring Fever!

What a great end to the week! After starting off with lows around zero Monday morning and wind chills as low as 20 below zero, we really turned things around. Look at the highs on Friday:

temps3-61

It looks like we’ll do just about the same over the weekend, although not everyone will see pristine blue skies the whole time. The best chance of clouds and showers is along and north of I-80 where a frontal boundary will become stalled out. South of there, it’s May with at least partial sunshine and temps pushing 70 in some locations! But for the Northern Alleghenies, while it will be mild, some rain and 50s will be the rule. Again, not bad compared to how we started this week!

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Weekend Storm – Update #1

There’s not much change tonight unfortunately, but there are a few items of note. One is that most of the models want to take the first part of this storm fairly well to our south and east. This would imply light snow for Saturday night and Sunday. There’s still a few computer models that [...]

Weekend Storm?

Here we go again….another winter storm to watch over the next few days! In model land tonight, we have some consensus, but not enough just yet. There’s going to be a storm, but the question remains – where will it go? The Canadian and European take a storm right up the I-95 corridor, while [...]

Warmer Weather Coming!

Even though we didn’t set any records today, morning lows were 10 to 15 degrees below average! Temperatures ranged from 4 in DuBois, 8 in Johnstown to 12 in State College and Altoona. After another cold start Wednesday morning, we’ll almost triple our starting temperatures. Many of us will start out between 12 and [...]

Lake Effect Snow

We’ve had our bouts of lake effect and lake enhanced snow this season, and last night was another hefty round for some of us. Narrow bands of perfectly channeled moisture and wind allowed bands to form off of Lake Michigan (yes, Michigan), and push their way into the Laurel Highlands. Some moisture was added [...]

Winter Weather Awareness Week

I was checking the National Weather Service website and found a pretty cool link.  The link states that this week, November 17th through November 21st, is Winter Weather Awareness Week.  Pretty good timing, right?

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