Fears of major flooding in snowbound Buffalo ease

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By CAROLYN THOMPSON and DAVID KLEPPER

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Fears of disastrous flooding from a rapid meltdown of the Buffalo area's 7 feet of snow eased on Monday, but high winds became a menace, threatening to knock down trees and power lines.

Forecasters, meanwhile, defended the National Weather Service following criticism from Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who accused the agency of failing to anticipate how bad Buffalo's epic snowstorm would be.

Cuomo, in the region for a sixth straight day, said state-deployed pumps and sandbags were in place as rain and temperatures over 60 rapidly melted the snow. Residents shoveled snow in T-shirts against the backdrop of white drifts.

By late morning, minor to moderate flooding was reported in several creeks, but nearby homes were largely spared, and the sewers in Buffalo and elsewhere were handling the runoff.

FULL story at link.



New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo greets Charlie Kelly III while surveying the aftermath of last week's lake-effect snowstorms on Monday, Nov. 24, 2014, in West Seneca, N.Y. Also pictured are is Charlie's mother Jodi Kelly and neighbors Kendyl Williams and Jen McNaughton. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20141124/us--wintry_weather-a21c085354.html

[ffr]

1. Was 7' reported by a small male driving an oversized pickup?

Because that's a far cry from 7' I'm seeing pictured.

[ffr]

2. Oh, rain and temperatures over 60 rapidly melted the snow n/t

[happyslug]

3. Actually this was a "Cold" Snow, very fluffy. only 4-7% water content.

Most people in the East are use to heavy "wet" snow, snow that land when it is around 32 degrees. Wet Snow is almost melting by the time it hits the ground, in most cases they are more water then snow. Wet Snow does NOT compress that much but can freeze to ice.

A "Cold" Snow contain NO moisture other then the snow crystal itself. Thus is light and fluffy compared to the almost solid nature of Wet Snow.

Buffalo was hit by a Cold Front that pull up moisture from the Great Lakes and then dumped it along the Lake Shore. This is typical of a Cold Snow.

Wikipedia calls "Wet Snow" "Packing Snow". IT can contain up to 50% water.

What I was raised to call a 'Cold Snow' Wikipedia calls "Powder", it has only 4-7% water content and thus compacts quickly if to much falls.

A further complication is how snow fall is measured. Snow fall is measured over time with each measurement of what snow that had fallen wiped cleaned after each measurement. This avoids the issue of packing. With a Wet Snow, packing is NOT that much of a problem, the snow is very heavy when it lands and thus does not contain much air within the snow crystal.

A Cold/Powder snow is light and fluffy and thus has a huge amount of air, that can be pushed out when the snow compacts. Thus with a Cold/Powder snow you get massive reduction in height do to compression of the snow by its own weight.

Thus it is easy for Seven foot of snow fall to fall to three feet in depth, do to the compression of the snow by its own weight.