Current Surface Features and 500mb Height Anomalies and Flow
Grantsville
north end Amish Rd
west of Grantsville
Grantsville morning
Penn Alps morning
Grocery Store-Cassleman
Meadow Mt
East to Savage Mt
Savage Mountain
mid morning
THE WIND
As I parked at the top of Savage Mt at Rt 40, I got out and experienced some of the strongest winds I can recall being out in. It took some effort walking in to the wind. I contacted Erick Kirchner of Weatherfix and let him know and he came and recorded a 74mph gust
Valley site at 2600′ with surrounding ridges 2750-3000′
DECEMBER
4 days failing to fall below freezing
1 day failing to fall below 40
11 maxes at or below freezing
4 maxes at or above 50
JANUARY
5 days failing to fall below freezing
3 days failing to fall below 40
7 maxes at freezing or below
3 days maxes above 50
FEBRUARY
4 days failing to fall below freezing
0 days failing to fall below 40
3 maxes at freezing or below
10 days reaching 50 or above
Dec-Feb Meteorlogical Winter
Avg Min 22.7 Avg Max 40.2 Mean 31.4 Avg 31.1
Snowfall 29.8″
Precip 9.76
Mt.Davis
Elevated site at 3038′
DECEMBER
6 days with mins failing to fall below freezing
3 days failing to fall below 40
12 days with maxes below freezing
5 days with maxes at 50 or above
JANUARY
8 days failing to fall below freezing
3 days mins failing to fall below 40
8 days maxes at or below freezing
3 days maxes at or above 50
FEBRUARY
7 days failing to fall below freezing
3 days failing to fall below 40
3 maxes at or below freezing
10 days at or above 50
3 month Meteorlogical Winter Period
Avg Min 24.8 Avg Max 39.2 Mean 32.0 Avg 31.5
Canaan Valley Refuge
Wide open valley site at 3150′. I would suspect the dead brown ground coverage with limited days of snowcover aided in max temps on high solar days.
DECEMBER
4 days failing to fall below freezing
1 day failing to fall below 40
9 days with maxes at or below freezing
8 days with maxes at or above 50
JANUARY
6 days failing to fall below freezing
2 days failing to fall below 40
4 maxes remaining at or below freezing
7 maxes at or above 50
FEBRUARY
6 days failing to fall below freezing
4 days failing to fall below 40
2 days remaining at or below freezing
12 days with maxes at or above 50
3 month Meteorlogical Winter Period
Avg Min 20.0 Avg Max 43.0 Mean 31.5 Avg 32.0
Cabin Mt-Western Sods
Elevated open ridge at 4050′
DECEMBER
6 days failing to fall below freezing
3 days failing to fall below 40
11 days with maxes at or below freezing
4 days with maxes at 50 or above
JANUARY
9 days failing to fall below freezing
3 days failing to fall below 40
8 days remaining at or below freezing
4 days with maxes at or above 50
FEBRUARY
9 days failing to fall below freezing
4 days failing to fall below 40
4 days with maxes at or below freezing
11 days with maxes at or above 50
3 month Meteorlogical Winter Period
Avg Min 24.5 Avg Max 39.2 Mean 31.8 Avg 31.2
Cabin Mt at Bald Knob
DECEMBER
7 days failing to fall below freezing
2 days failing to fall below 40
10 days with maxes at or below freezing
4 days with maxes at or above 50
JANUARY
9 days failing to fall below freezing
3 days failing to fall below 40
9 days with maxes at or below freezing
4 days with maxes at or above 50
FEBRUARY
7 days failing to fall below freezing
4 days failing to fall below 40
4 days with maxes at or below freezing
9 days with maxes at or above 50
3 month Meteorlogical Winter Period
Avg Min 24.0 Avg Max 38.7 Mean 31.3 Avg 30.8
Climate Reference Network Canaan
DECEMBER
7 days failing to fall below freezing
3 days failing to fall below 40
9 days with maxes at or below freezing
6 days with maxes at or above 50
JANUARY
11 days failing to fall below freezing
3 days failing to fall below 40
5 days maxes at or below freezing
6 days with maxes at or above 50
FEBRUARY
10 days failing to fall below freezing
5 days failing to fall below 40
3 days with maxes at or below freezing
12 days with maxes at or above 50
3 Month Meteorlogical Winter Period
Avg Min 26.1 Avg Max 41.8 Mean 34.0 Avg 33.5
Precip 10.35
Spruce Knob
elevated small open knoll 4820′
DECEMBER
5 days failing to fall below freezing
2 days failing to fall below 40
12 days with maxes at or below freezing
2 days at or above 50
JANUARY
7 days failing to fall below freezing
2 days failing to fall below 40
11 days with maxes at or below freezing
2 days with maxes at or above 50
FEBRUARY
8 days failing to fall below freezing
3 days failing to fall below 40
6 days with maxes at or below freezing
6 days with maxes at or above 50
3 Month Meteorlogical Winter Period
Avg Min 23.0 Avg Max 36.8 Mean 29.9 Avg 29.4
-Graph Comparison of these sites
Avg Min
Avg Max
Overall Avg. This is not the mean temp. This is not Max+Min÷2. This is the sum of all the recording through the day divided by the number of recordings. In general, it generally comes in close to the mean of the Max+Min÷2, but often has some variances and gives a greater sampling for the site. For example. If a Valley holds below freezing 12 hours in one night and a high location briefly touches freezing before rebounding to 40 all night. That high location may hold 45 the next day and the Valley hits 50. That Valley actually carried a lower temp average for the day, while the mean would have been higher.
Mins remaining at or above freezing
Mins remaining at or above 40
Max temps at or below freezing
Maxes at or above 50
Now to The Good, Bad, Ugly
-The Good
The best part of the 3 month period came right prior to Christmas. Now for some this was not a good time with frozen pipes and water damage. However for those wanting winter to do what winter can do as far as kill off invasive insects such as the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid, this cold blast offered some hope for the that. Temps generally in the -10 range +/- with strong gusting winds should have provided some significant die back of adeglid.
This occurred with stong gusty winds producing windchills of -40 to near -60 across the Wv High Ground.
-The Bad
Outside of the cold shot, notable winter weather was few and far between. Low snow amounts. Minimal substantial wintry systems. The few that occurred were over running events in which the Wv High Ground lacks
-The Ugly
The dominance of the holding pattern. Western trough, a southeast ridge that rapidly restrengthened each time it took of glancing blow. All troughs that got in to the east rapidly lifted out within a day.
Heavy rain in areas last night. Little lingering rain this a.m. OTherwise mainly cloudy with some breaks at times. Strong winds overnight in to today died some as the day wore on
Bittinger 2nw Valley
MRD-Max Recorded Depth. I tried to capture that at what time in the day it occurred.
T, Trace without 100 feet of recording site. I-T, Isolated trace outside of 100 feet but within 1000 feet of recording site.
The + symbol under precip. That symbolizes precip occurred after 5pm but precip did occur on the date. If it follows a tally it simply means more occurred beyond 5pm. It also was used at time when precip was occurring at 5pm and I needed to do a melt but waited until the system was finished. On rare occasions I was not there at 5pm to record and plugged it in the following day. All precip was recorded
The down arrow by the max represents a midnight max temp. Which occurred frequently.
Temp recording time is midnight to midnight
Precip recording time 5pm to 5pm
Snowfall- boards sweeps occur at 7am and 5pm. Max daily snowfall is still captured when it occurred and not only measured at 7am and 5pm
Some snowdrops up late month, few daffodils starting to push up in sunny areas.
Bittinger 2nw Valley morning
Bittinger 2nw Valley morning
Bittinger 2nw Valley morning
Bittinger 2nw Valley morning
Bittinger 2nw Valley morning
Bittinger 2nw Valley morning-no ice traces found. Leaf, organic duff was still frozen a bit.
“This month’s total snowfall of 3.9 inches is the least February total since snowfall records commenced here in 2001. See Table 3.1 below. In reviewing snowfall data for the Canaan Valley weather station where records commenced in 1944, this was the least February snowfall total from then to now with the exception of Feb 1959 when 3.0 inches was recorded” ~ Dave Lesher
Climate Reference Network Canaan
Atop Canaan Ski area
Cabin Mt at Bald Knob
Cabin Mt-Western Sods
Spruce Knob
Canaan Valley Refuge
Mt.Davis
Snowshoe
Petersburg Grant County Airport
Elkins 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 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′
Allegheny Mountains Weather 