This photo was taken by Ric Werme in Marlboro, Ma. in the Blizzard of 1978, (February 6-7)
Can you find the car in the picture? It's there!

FINDING SNOWFALL TOTALS IN MASSACHUSETTS

After a big snowstorm, it is often the task of snowplow operators, condominium owners, and many others to determine how much snow fell in their specific town... OR you may be just curious! This is a really difficult situation because there are several different ways to measure snow, as I will explain below. In addition, there are many different networks of observers who attempt to do this. The only truly official National Weather Service locations are not even located where you think they are. That is, Logan Airport is NOT an official National Weather Service measuring site, since the NWS moved from there years ago. That is why sometimes the Logan totals appear to be a little (or not so little) off. The NWS personnel themselves are well trained and measure snow extremely accurately in : Taunton, Hartford, and Providence, with also a related site at Blue Hill where measurements are extremely reliable and professionally done. The rest of the observations, including Boston and even Worcester are to be considered in the context of surrounding towns and how the numbers fare compared to "neighboring" reports. 

What is the issue? There are many, but here is just one of them: Snow, it turns out, needs to be "cleared" every 6 hours or so during a storm, NWS standard. The reason is because snow settles onto itself. Here is a snowplow paradox to help illustrate this.

Say a snowplow operator plows a driveway 2 times in a 12 hour period. Each time there was 10" of snow that he measured right before he plowed it. How much snow fell during the storm? The correct answer, is of course 20". 

However, on the neighbor's driveway that was NOT plowed during the storm at all, there is only 17" of snow on the driveway, if that! What happened to the missing 3"??? Did it melt ? Possibly, but not necessarily! The answer is that the snow settled as it fell on itself. Just like taking a fluffy feather pillow, 10" wide, and dropping another feather pillow 10" wide of top of the first one. Yeah, they were two 20" pillows.. but when the 2nd falls on the first one, it crushed the first feather pillow down just a tad, so the two pillows stacked together are now more like 17", right?

Finding the snow in your town can be therefore tricky. The National Weather Service cooperative observers are getting pretty good at it, but don't always follow through to the end of a storm, and there is a mixture of good ones and bad observations. In addition, they don't report amounts under 2". An example of a bad observation is on 11/13/04, Bolton, Ma. reported 3.3" of snow on the National Weather Service site, while I know from a site visit to Bolton that 5.3" actually fell.  Also, as mentioned, observers only start reporting when snowfall exceeds 2". 

However, for most people, this ever growing list may suffice: You can find the list if you go to the this Natlonal Weather Service website:

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE - TAUNTON, Ma.

(And click on the left under RECENT CONDITIONS, "Storm totals - Info")

As we indicated, this should suffice for most folks. However, if, for your clients, you need a running total of snow amounts for your specific town(s) on a regular basis in a more formal, documented format (after each storm)  I can provide that data. I use several observer networks, and go through the data to ensure accuracy, comparing town to town observations. If you are interested in that private service that I offer, just leave me a message on my voice mail at 617 312-9574.

- Todd Gross

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