How to find out how much snow we got
March 4, 2023 7:44 AM Subscribe
We had a big snowstorm in Ann Arbor last night, and I'd like to know how much snow fell, but I'm not finding that information anywhere. I'm really looking for a weather website so I can look this up for myself in the future. Assume I have googled and looked at every site I could find, so please don't just type in "Weather Underground." It is OK to not answer this question!
On the National Weather Service website, I went to this page, which gives me only year to date. Three-day history gives me this, which even if I added up all the numbers, does not look right. (Forecast was for eight inches. I had to drive through this at 7:30, which was quite awful, and we got a message from the city at 10:00 telling us not to drive because most roads were impassable or probably would be soon.) And I'd really prefer not to have to add up a bunch of numbers. It's possible I'm missing something really obvious. Please enlighten me if I am.
Sometimes newspapers will give total snowfall, but I'd like to be able to find the information myself. And they are getting the info somewhere. Where?
On the National Weather Service website, I went to this page, which gives me only year to date. Three-day history gives me this, which even if I added up all the numbers, does not look right. (Forecast was for eight inches. I had to drive through this at 7:30, which was quite awful, and we got a message from the city at 10:00 telling us not to drive because most roads were impassable or probably would be soon.) And I'd really prefer not to have to add up a bunch of numbers. It's possible I'm missing something really obvious. Please enlighten me if I am.
Sometimes newspapers will give total snowfall, but I'd like to be able to find the information myself. And they are getting the info somewhere. Where?
Response by poster: Thanks SaltySalticid. Definitely better than what I've found, but unless I'm misreading, it looks like it's going by strips and not cities. So it doesn't change any if I'm moving from Ann Arbor to Jackson, which makes me wonder how accurate it is. Or maybe I just don't know enough about how snowfall works.
posted by FencingGal at 8:08 AM on March 4, 2023
posted by FencingGal at 8:08 AM on March 4, 2023
they are getting the info somewhere. Where?
I don't know if this is what you're looking for or not, but maybe it's closer?
Windy.com gives toggles to show new snow and snow depth in map format, and it goes back a few hours. They use ECMWF as their default forecast model (bottom right of map). Here's the page for ECMWF forecasts, which links to public datasets. It looks like the other forecast model they use for new snow and snow depth is ICON. Here's the link I found that pointed me to the direct link, also with open data.
posted by aniola at 8:37 AM on March 4, 2023
I don't know if this is what you're looking for or not, but maybe it's closer?
Windy.com gives toggles to show new snow and snow depth in map format, and it goes back a few hours. They use ECMWF as their default forecast model (bottom right of map). Here's the page for ECMWF forecasts, which links to public datasets. It looks like the other forecast model they use for new snow and snow depth is ICON. Here's the link I found that pointed me to the direct link, also with open data.
posted by aniola at 8:37 AM on March 4, 2023
Best answer: This is the NWS Detroit office snow report. It’s also available in plain text somewhere on that site.
posted by bowbeacon at 8:46 AM on March 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by bowbeacon at 8:46 AM on March 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
bowbeacon beat me to it. The plain text version is usually given in the headlines of the local NWS office. There's not one on the Detroit NWS page at the moment but perhaps they will post it later. The storm totals are from various human observers and automated stations. The map that SaltySalticid linked to essentially just "fills in the blanks" between those point observations.
posted by plastic_animals at 8:57 AM on March 4, 2023
posted by plastic_animals at 8:57 AM on March 4, 2023
Best answer: Here's some tabular data for Ann Arbor from NOAA.
As for accuracy/resolution, it's my understanding that snow accumulation is inherently very difficult, and so these data are compiled/integrated from a wide range of observation techniques and then smoothed for mapping purposes. The tabular data above will tell you what was observed at each specific station, but then you have a lot of inherent variability.
posted by SaltySalticid at 8:57 AM on March 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
As for accuracy/resolution, it's my understanding that snow accumulation is inherently very difficult, and so these data are compiled/integrated from a wide range of observation techniques and then smoothed for mapping purposes. The tabular data above will tell you what was observed at each specific station, but then you have a lot of inherent variability.
posted by SaltySalticid at 8:57 AM on March 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
Accuweather's "wintercast" has a time-lapse map showing snowfall over the last 24 hours,
posted by Cheese Monster at 9:37 AM on March 4, 2023
posted by Cheese Monster at 9:37 AM on March 4, 2023
I see you posted this in the morning. I live in a smaller town and it can often take us a few hours to get a report registered on NOAA or any of the other official places. There just aren't as many trained people to measure hanging around, I think.
posted by soelo at 8:10 PM on March 4, 2023
posted by soelo at 8:10 PM on March 4, 2023
Here is a NOAA page summarizing snowfall & snow depth records for stations across the U.S.
It looks like it takes a while to collect the data etc - the most recent day I can get to work there is March 1st.
Also this from the Natl Weather Service, which currently seems to be saying 8 inches for the Ann Arbor area.
posted by flug at 11:58 PM on March 4, 2023
It looks like it takes a while to collect the data etc - the most recent day I can get to work there is March 1st.
Also this from the Natl Weather Service, which currently seems to be saying 8 inches for the Ann Arbor area.
posted by flug at 11:58 PM on March 4, 2023
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Obviously this will not work tomorrow but seems good enough for now?
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:53 AM on March 4, 2023