[John H K]

Before people have a cow, ALL National Weather Service products are in all caps, a relic of when they had ancient equipment that literally didn't have lower case. Also they use a ton of abbreviations that again are a relic of 300 baud data transmission and no storage space.

Also, this is an "Area Forecast Discussion" which is readable by the public, but really isn't intended for the public, hence the technical terminology.

In case you're wondering, computer models really don't output a snow amount, they output an amount of liquid water equivalent.

It's very tricky to convert that back into a snow depth, since it's very sensitive to temperature, etc. The MINIMUM baseline for a wet snow is about 10 to 1...10 inches of snow to 1 inch of rain. It's often 15 to 1 to 20 to 1.

Thus the ETA's 2.00" for DC is actually something like 20 to 40 inches of snow.

ETA can sometimes inflate precip amounts, though.

[Miss Marple]

Is there a war protest planned for this weekend in DC? If so, I think they won't have many attendees. HA!

[RoseofTexas]

How relieable is this forcast? Are they usually on the money? What about NY, what is the forcast there for tomorrow??

[ErnBatavia]

a relic of when they had ancient equipment that literally didn't have lower case. Also they use a ton of abbreviations that again are a relic of 300 baud data transmission and no storage space.

I met a quite old guy the other day with a heavy European accent. While shooting the breeze, he said he had no computer, but had "worked on them 50 years ago when they were the size of a large room"....

It was cute when he said, "They only had 40K, but...OHHHHHH!!!! The math and everything they could squeeze out of that 40K!!"

[RoughDobermann]

Couldn't talk you into shipping some of that moisture to Colorado, could we?

[dirtboy]

I saw this sucker off the California coast a few days ago and figured it was gonna whump us. Any time a storm that strong goes in that far south on the coast, it usually digs into the souther jet pretty good and pulls together the ingredients for a big storm as it moves across the country. I hope I'm wrong...

[this_ol_patriot]

We got ripped (York Pa) I'm on vacation and was ready for a big 3 day snow, sit back and relax in front of the fireplace, put on some classical, open the curtains on the big bay window and enjoy, now it looks the snow here won't be enough to cover the old dirty snow from before. Bah, we'll probably get a blizzard when I go back to work.

[dirtboy]

It's very tricky to convert that back into a snow depth, since it's very sensitive to temperature, etc. The MINIMUM baseline for a wet snow is about 10 to 1...10 inches of snow to 1 inch of rain. It's often 15 to 1 to 20 to 1.

There's enough cold air in place to make sure this is an all-snow event. I remember the big dump in 1996 that they are talking about, it put down 30 inches in the Philly area - and the temps were down in the teens. This air mass isn't much warmer, and since it's February instead of early January, there will be more energy to the south for this storm to tap into.

[dakine]

Damn, I worked on 300 Baud papertape many moons ago, could read it by sight....Next, they going to bring back Hollerith code?

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Milk, bread, booze, videos. The run has no doubt started.

[SarahW]

Richmond VA is ALWAY on the rain snow line. We could get buckets of rain, sleet or snow. No way to tell until its all over. :)

[Cicero]

Only the usual amount of snow here in Vermont, but it was 20 below last night, and supposed to be the same again tonight. Our neighbors have cancelled a barbecue they were planning for Saturday night. The cold water pipe to my bathtub has frozen up again, but luckily the plumber designed it so it doesn't burst when it thaws . . . so far at least. Who knows when it will thaw this time?

[don-o]

Predictions for East Tennessee have been for major rain today - 2 inches.

We may have gotten one half inch.

ISTM that the more data the weathermen have to work with, the less accurate forecasts have become.

[Textide]

Calling for a foot or so here in Leesburg, VA (30mi NW of DC). The combination of terror threat and winter storm has left only caviar and wine on the grocery shelves, but I'll manage....somehow.

OK I'm exaggerating (about the grocery store)

[backhoe]

Some places to go for weather, maps, etc.:

http://weather.iwon.com/index_static.html

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/

http://hurricane.terrapin.com/

http://www.weather.com/

[Adder]

Its a challenge to read the forecast discussions but also very enlightening because you get more of a sense of the meteorologists's thinking and not the weather babes with their perky pointing.
In any event, looks like DC-NY will get pretty well hammered. Stay warm, drink lots of buttered rum and be careful!
Wish we were getting some snow...we are just getting that stupid ice. Watta mess.