October 26, 2024

Forest Service Cam offline since 6/24/21

Bittinger 2NW Valley

Dyacon Data Below

Garrett County Airport

Top of Wisp

Canaan Heights/Davis 3SE

Climate Reference Network Canaan

Cabin Mt at Bald Knob

Cabin Mt-Western Sods

Spruce Knob

Canaan Valley Refuge

Mt.Davis

temp data down due to bear attack on station

Snowshoe

Petersburg Grant County Airport

Elkins Airport

• Site Comparison

Dy007-Canaan Valley Refuge 3150′, Dy008-Bittinger 2nw Valley 2600′, Dy002-Cabin Mt at Bald Knob 4350′, Dy003-Cabin Mt-Western Sods 4035′, Dy004-Spruce Knob 4820′, Cvpw2-Climate Reference Network Canaan 3380′, KW99-Petersburg Grant County Airport 961, K2G4 Garrett County Airport 2933′, KCBE Cumberland Airport 774′, KEKN Elkins Airport 1985′, KMGW Morgantown Airport 1227′, PMN16-Mt.Davis 3038′, KDCA-Reagan National 15′, G1472 Snowshoe 4500′, F0183 Burkes Garden 3050′

The Valley vs Cabin Mt

Bittinger 2NW Valley vs Garrett County Airport

Canaan area temps

High Ground Comparison

Up High and Down Low

Up High,High Valley, Low Valley

The Valleys

Wv High Ground Cold Spots vs DCA

RTMA

Radar

void

Satellite

Flow

Current Surface Features and 500mb Height Anomalies and Flow

A quick look at Snowshoe COOP data. Which has issues. NWS is looking in to it.

Lets look at the data

• At first glance, you notice a lot of duplicate mins. That’s often normal with a.m reporting coops. One cold min will frequently be the coldest number 5am to 5am at the Snowshoe coop. That’s not the issue here.
• Issue 1- these mins are much colder vs reality. The air masses have not supported mins this cold at 4800′

A quick comparison to the close by CWOP G1472 at 4540′ at Snowshoe.

Look at those mins. They also run similar to Spruce Knob mins

To further back this up. Let’s look at the modeled 850s the last few mornings

850 temps are a great way to predict the Wv high ground temperatures.

24 hour min at 5am 10/22 and 5am cwop temp. Coop 24 hr min was 37, Cwop 56 at 5am with a min of 51

24 min temp reported on 10/23 at 5am. 33 at the coop. This did not occur at 4800′ and the 5am temp at the CWOP 53, min was 49

24 hr min at the coop on 10/24 is shown as 46. But it’s using the wrong min of 33 yesterday morning. Which is was not 33 at 5am, but it’s duplicating it for the 24th min despite a 5am report of 46. Now this morning was windy. At 5am, windy, near 4800′, it should be running colder than the 4540′ cwop. This is making me wonder if the station was moved to a lower elevation.

on the 25th the 24hr min showing as 27! You know where it got cold at on Friday morning. The valleys. Most valleys were 20s Friday morning, the 25th

but at 5am look what the 24 hour min shows at the coop

Now go back up and look at those 850 temps which are modeled very well and a great indication of high ground temps. They support near 40 Thursday a.m, near 50 Friday a.m. At no point 20s or even mid 30s over the high ridges.

as we jump to this morning

there that 5am temp with cloud cover and wind is colder again at 4540 vs 4800. Now it’s showing the 24 hour min of 48, but it wrong again carried over the 27 from Friday which was also wrong unless the sensor is off or the station was moved to a lower elevation site.

Now look at snowfall data. Only .1 recorded with no snow cover ever reported this month. You know where that would have occured that way. The valley

on top the 15th

on top the 16th

on top the 17th

on top the 18th

on top the 19th

it’s either

Observer temp reporting errors

Sensor has gone astray

The station site has moved.

The data is not accurate and the last few years Snowshoe has had many data obs issues