Iovino, Dean L.

Eastern Region technical attachment (National Weather Service (U.S.)) ; no. 1996-09A

"On 4 February 1995, a significant snowstorm aftected a large part of the northeastern United States. One of the resulting snowfall maxima extended across parts of central Bucks County in southeastern Pennsylvania, and extreme southern Hunterdon County and northern Mercer County in west central New Jersey (Figure 1). The greatest totals reported were 16 inches at Princeton, New Jersey (Mercer County), and 15 inches at Doylestown, Pennsylvania (Bucks County). Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) received 8.8 inches of snow. The effects of the event were lessened by the fact that the heaviest of the precipitation occurred late on a Friday night into the early part the weekend. However, like many snowstorms that influence the northeastern megalopolis, it had a significant financial impact and created a great deal of inconvenience for area residents (Maglaras et al. 1995). Computer model forecasts and the conditions prior to, and during, the storm will be reviewed. An examination of the model forecasts will focus on the 1200 UTC February 3, 1995 (hereafter referred to as 03/1200) aviation run of the global spectral model (AVN). This will be followed by an investigation of the evolution of the surface and upper air features, and the development of the heavy snow event. Finally, mesoscale and terrain effects in the study area will be considered in the hope of arriving at an explanation for the location of the snowfall maximum. In this paper the term 'study area' will refer to the lower part of the Delaware River valley around the cities of Trenton, New Jersey (TTN) and Philadelphia (PHL)"--Introduction.

Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR)
National Weather Service (NWS)

Delaware River Valley (N.Y.-Del. and N.J.)