First Alert Weather In-Depth: Where is the snow this season?
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ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Today we are talking about all things that have to do with snowfall. And at first you may be wondering: Where is all the snow this season? I can tell you that the “white stuff” has been located out west.
The latest map of the United States shows a great disparity for snowfall depth at any one location. But let’s just highlight one amazing measurement at a California ski resort. At Mammoth Mountain, they are now at 25 feet of snow on the ground. That was at 7:00 a.m. Wednesday. We here in Rochester also have snow, but that measurement was only four inches this morning and it melted pretty quickly.
You may have heard there is a little more snow on the way and as a result, the News 10NBC First Alert weather team has continued a yellow alert for later Friday and Friday night. The latest computer models show a wide variety of solutions to this storm. Some modeling indicates only just three inches of accumulation, while others are pushing almost 10 inches. This really illustrates the prognostication of the models has been very inconsistent and really increases the challenge for the meteorologist.
The following is a brief rundown of our current thinking with this winter storm for Friday evening. Arrival time is likely around 4:00 or 5:00 p.m. and that should begin to have an impact on the evening commute. This is not going to be a localized snowfall, but a widespread snow event. In addition, the snow may mix with sleet at times and that could have an impact on the final snow totals. Also, no matter what we get for the actual type of precipitation, travel will become difficult as we go through Friday night.
One other point: In past winter events this season, the snow has melted in less than a few days. However, that does not appear to be the case this time around. Once we get the colder temperatures this weekend any melting snow and ice is going to be minimal. As a result, it is likely that the snow will probably stick around for a quite a while.