May 8, 2021

May 8(Sat)

Cloudy, some early a.m snow, intervals of showers, ice pellets with the cold unstable air mass.

Bittinger 2nw Valley

near Bittinger 2nw morning

Garrett College

Canaan Heights/Davis 3SE

precip .39 7am

year to date total precip 19.72 7am

snowfall .4″

snowfall season to date 120.8″

Comments and data by Dave Lesher at:

http://data.canaanmtnsnow.com/

photo by Dave Lesher

Climate Reference Network Canaan

Cabin Mt at Bald Knob

Bald Knob morning

Cabin Mt-Western Sods

Spruce Knob

Canaan Valley Refuge

Petersburg Grant County Airport

Dy007-Canaan Valley Refuge 3150′, Dy002-Cabin Mt at Bald Knob 4350′, Dy003-Cabin Mt-Western Sods 4035′, Dy004-Spruce Knob 4820′,Cvpw2-Climate Reference Network Canaan 3479′, KW99-Petersburg Grant County Airport 961′

The Valley vs Cabin Mt

Canaan area temps

High Ground Comparison

Up High and Down Low

Up High, High Valley, Low Valley

RTMA

Radar

https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/GIS/apps/rview/warnings.phtml?autopilot=0&osite=RLX&tzoff=0&layers%5B%5D=nexrad&layers%5B%5D=warnings&layers%5B%5D=cwas&layers%5B%5D=uscounties&layers%5B%5D=watches&layers%5B%5D=blank&site=RLX&tz=EST&archive=yes&year=2021&month=5&day=8&hour=23&minute=55&warngeo=both&zoom=250&imgsize=1280×1024&loop=1&frames=100&interval=15&filter=0&cu=0&sortcol=fcster&sortdir=0&lsrlook=%2B&lsrwindow=0

Satellite

Flow

Surface features and 500mb Height anomalies and flow

a.m temps…covering temps with precip burst in Garrett

Roadway temps

https://youtube.com/shorts/6Nd2fk_wYbU?feature=share video is May 8th, not May 9th as the person said in the video.

This occured at 10:30am. A late overreaction to the early frozen precip that precip rate overcame roadway temps. Roadways have been absorbing high solar energy and mild weather for some time. They do not magically fall below freezing with air temps remaining above. My Facebook post caught flack from those unaware of reality of the situation. One- some unaware of actual setup of the cause. 2- some upset because their family works for SHA. Thats understandable buy doesn’t change the reality of the situation. It was a precip rate that briefly overcame roadway temps and air temps to briefly cause slick conditions. Not a freezing roadway situation which REQUIRES a set of conditions that was not present. 1 main one is below freezing temps. Matt Gourley who said hes been plowing 10 years, said the roadway can be below freezing due to wind and elevation

If this is the summary of the thinking at the highway garages, it totally explains dumping salt on at 40° yesterday at 10:30am in May. Refer to pavement temps above from 10:30 until noon. It clearly illustrates how ridiculous and wasteful it was and a total lack of understanding conditions. May solar energy on a already mild pavement would not allow for freezing and would take a heavy ice pellet squall to again briefly cover in which the salt would not aid much as the roadway temps would rapidly melt what if anything fell.