Winter Blues « WJAC-TV Weather Blog

The Winter Blues

By Tim Tender on March 7th, 2011 at 1:03 PM

Nice Day... But Still Chilly!

It’s amazing how a little sunshine can make things a little better (or sometimes a lot better). Today is a prime example of that and hopefully there are more days like this in the pipe (only a little warmer, or maybe a lot warmer). Either way, we need days like these to keep the winter blues at bay.

Yes, that’s right… I said ‘The Winter Blues.’

There really is such a thing but they go by a different name. On their Weather Whys website, Texas A&M notes that the technical name is ‘seasonal affective disorder,’ or SAD, and it stems from long winter months and a distinct lack of sunlight.

They continue to explain that each year there are between 2 and 5 million cases of ‘The Winter Blues’ in North America. I have got to wonder how many cases there are in an area like Russia! The article does mention that the number of SAD cases in Canada is twice the number that we see in the United States. That leads me to believe that Russia’s number is probably off the charts… or they’re just plain used to it. (Read More)

How Many Snowflakes?

By Tim Tender on February 15th, 2011 at 11:06 AM

How Many Of These?

I was working on my last blog post about no two snowflakes being alike when I found myself thinking… “How many snowflakes are there?”

It’s one of those questions that you really cannot answer on your own, unless you are a cloud physicist. That’s why Cindy Stauffer of the lancasteronline.com went to find one. She didn’t have to go far to get her answer. After starting at Millersville University and talking to a meteorologist, she was referred to the cloud physicist at Penn State University.

After doing lots of mathematical formulas, they determined that there are 5.2 quintillion snowflakes in a 5-inch snow over 2,000 square miles.

Break that down to 1.04 quintillion snowflakes in one inch of snow over 2,000 square miles.

Break it down further to 5.2 x 10^14 snowflakes in one inch of snow over one square mile.

That’s all well and good but think about our snow in Johnstown so far this winter… 83.0 inches. Let’s assume that’s the average for Cambria County, which is about 20 miles wide by 35 miles north and south (700 square miles).

With those assumptions, Cambria County has seen… (Read More)

Storm Wrap-Up: January 26, 2011

By Tim Tender on January 27th, 2011 at 10:07 AM

The clothesline is drooping. This was a wet, heavy snow.

Another storm is in the books for the region and this one packed a punch in a place that doesn’t normally get a lot of snow… our southeast portion of the viewing area. Areas like Bedford and Fulton Counties picked up a boatload of snow and now the clean-up begins. Again, we’re lucky because this could have been a lot worse with a shift a little farther to the west.

Take a look at this picture on the right side of the post. It shows you how this snow was different than most of the other snows we’ve seen this season. Notice the clothesline is being weighed down by the snow? This snow wasn’t the fluffy, blowing snow. It was more of a wet, heavy snow. This kind of snow seems to cause more problems on the roads because it is slushy and grimy. If you like to build snowmen or throw snowballs, this is the perfect snow for that. If you watched the 6 PM news, you saw that in my live shot.

The snow tapered off early in the evening and left some impressive totals across the southeastern portion of the viewing area. Here’s a list of some of those totals, including our reports and those of the National Weather Service. (Read More)

Twitter Soundoff: Winter Blues

By Tim Tender on January 10th, 2010 at 10:50 PM

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!)

(Read More)