Snow: The wet stuff
From Center City on south, forecast was all (or mostly) wet.
One look at the trees this morning -- and we can't recall a January that was as generous with aesthetically pleasing winter storms -- indictated that the overnight snow was a bit soggier than expected.
As we posted yesterday, those 2 to 4 and 3 to 5 estimates were contingent on the snow-liquid ratios coming in at about 12- or 15-to-1. That would be 1.2 to 1.5 inches of snow for each 0.10 inch of precipitation.
The liquid amounts were reasonably close to the 0.25 forecast of yesterday afternoon, but the snow amounts from east and south of Center City didn't work out.
In Mount Holly, for example, a total of 0.20 inches of precipitation was measured, but only 1.1 inches of snow. The liquid total at Philadelphia International Airport was 0.16; the snow total, only 0.6 inches. Some mixing obviously kept down those totals.
The forecasts fared far better north and west of Center City, with totals in Bucks, Chester and Montgomery Counties in the 3- and 4-inch range.
Even there, however, the ratios evidently weren't quite as robust as anticipated. Pottstown measured 0.27 inches of liquid and 3 inches of snow. That's a ratio closer to 10-to-1. Had it been 15-to-1, the total might bump up to 4.
The temperatures stayed much closer to freezing than forecast, instead of tumbling into the 20s, which would have made for fluffier snow.
The wet stuff has one advantage over the powder. It is more likely to attach itself to trees and to all those uncanny places whose existences may have otherwise escaped our attention.