Pattern January Thread - The Final Chapter

[Stormlover]

 

[dsaur]

It sounds like that's the case, but I think he still would love it otherwise. To him there seems to be something wonderfully magical and perfectly wintry about it. From it not at all being shy by announcing its presence via loud sounds to it bouncing when it hits to knowing it has staying power and will likely be around for awhile, to him sleet is the King of precip. I'm confident that would still be the case if he didn't have a sled.

The great ATL winter storm of 2/17-8/1979 was quite a turning point in my life. After seeing the beautiful flakes change to little pellets within an hour of the start, I became depressed. It was supposed to snow for a longer period. Also, I figured the sleet would hardly accumulate. Boy was I to be proven wrong.

As time went along and the sleet continued to fall the rest of the evening, it started accumulating noticeably. There was actually a white sleetcover! It kind of looked like snowcover. Also, I was starting to really enjoy the sounds of sleet. I was actually starting to take a liking to the sleet. Whereas I earlier was hoping for a change back to snow, I now was content and rooting for the sleet to continue. I was not the same person I was just a few hours earlier. I had trouble going to sleep during all of this excitement. I wanted to keep watching it accumulate and hear it hit the ground. Up to 1". Up to 1.5". Atlanta was being taken over by the sleet monster and it gave me butterflies. I finally went to sleep but then woke up to a peasant surprise: it was still sleeting and with much more of it potentially falling. Up to 2.5". 3". 3.5". And yes, a whopping 4" of beautiful sleet!!!! Moreover, the sleet had staying power unlike any snow I had ever seen. After this great experience, I never again rooted against sleet and became an official sleetlover though I was and still am also a snowlover.

Well, that's my sleet story and I'm sticking to it. I'm sure many folks have a good sleet story or two.

That was beautiful, Larry. I was crying for my lost youth The one in the late 50's was the one that spawned my sleet love (I've narrowed it down to 58 or 59 because I was doing the school patrol thing when I was out in it), but that night you describe so wonderfully was the best one of them all for it's power. Sleet is the Led Zeppelin of winter weather. It's a Beautiful Day is the snow. They are both great, saw them both, and waking up to It's a Beautiful Day at the Festival of Light is still one of the high lights of my life, but sometimes you just need to cook. Saw Led Zep at the Atlanta Pop festival in 69, and they still make a great sound track for ear buds and a steep road....Dazed and Confused and loving it, lol....all these years later. And when I can't get down on the sled anymore, I'll still love sleet because of that magical 50's storm, when the clouds came down to the ground and dropped inches of sleet all at once with a loud whoosh. Have never seen the like, or heard that sound since, but I was convinced, and still am, that I saw Old Man winter up close....and he's way cooler than we can know!

 

[dsaur]

Good stuff Larry. I choose not to air my dirty sleet story on here


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I've got one of those!! Boy, oh boy....it was then next big one in Atl. 82 wasn't it Larry? Poured rain, inches of rain all night from a Gom low, then the sleet started late in the night, inches of it. That's the clean version, lol. But it was another great sleet storm. Sleet storms are bringers of happiness...if you let them. T

 

[GaWx]

That was beautiful, Larry. I was crying for my lost youth The one in the late 50's was the one that spawned my sleet love (I've narrowed it down to 58 or 59 because I was doing the school patrol thing when I was out in it), but that night you describe so wonderfully was the best one of them all for it's power. Sleet is the Led Zeppelin of winter weather. It's a Beautiful Day is the snow. They are both great, saw them both, and waking up to It's a Beautiful Day at the Festival of Light is still one of the high lights of my life, but sometimes you just need to cook. Saw Led Zep at the Atlanta Pop festival in 69, and they still make a great sound track for ear buds and a steep road....Dazed and Confused and loving it, lol....all these years later. And when I can't get down on the sled anymore, I'll still love sleet because of that magical 50's storm, when the clouds came down to the ground and dropped inches of sleet all at once with a loud whoosh. Have never seen the like, or heard that sound since, but I was convinced, and still am, that I saw Old Man winter up close....and he's way cooler than we can know!

Wow, this is some beautiful stuff that almost brought a tear to me eye. That last line immediately reminded me of the last line of the old "High Flight" video that used to be played just before TV stations signed off for the night back in the day:



It almost sounds like you touched the face of Old Man winter. By the way, the next really big (mullti-inch) ATL sleetstorm after Feb. 179 was in January of 1988.

 

[dsaur]

Lol, that's pretty apropos, Larry. I always enjoyed listening to that poem. Yep, if a face had appeared out of that cloud along with the whoosh, I couldn't have been more surprised, or amazed. Standing out by the car, waiting for mother to come out and take the neighbors and me to school, and watching the clouds coming down to the roof tops, not knowing there was any moisture on the way, or how cold it was. I'd only seen that before going over Mt. Eagle on the way to Nashville. Not sure we had a tv yet, or if we did, if they did weather. But I made sure I knew about the weather after that, lol. The airport did weather around 7 am, and I got my weather from that for years. More involved, and sensible weather reporting than from the broadcast weather. T

 

[GaWx]

45 and rain at Orlando. 43 and rain at Daytona Beach. It isn't often that a miserable cold rain like this is seen down in those locations.

Edit: How about it having gone down to 44 and rain way down at Melbourne? How about rain and 48 at Punta Gorda?! 52 at Homestead.

 

[SoutheastRidge]

Atlanta finished +8.7 for JAN. Anyone know where that ranks among the warmest JAN's ?

 

[GaWx]

Atlanta finished +8.7 for JAN. Anyone know where that ranks among the warmest JAN's ?

JAN 2017 ranks as tied for 5th warmest at KATL since records began in 1879. It was the warmest since 1974! It is one of only two of the warmest 6 not formally classified as La Nina.

Regarding the other 5, the subsequent Feb. was warmer than normal twice, near normal once, and colder than normal twice. The five Febs averaged near normal. Feb was colder than Jan all five times (by at least 2.8 degrees).

March was warmer than normal twice, near normal once, and colder than normal twice. Mar was colder than Jan twice.

Feb and March were colder than normal during the only one of the five that wasn't La Nina, 1937. Mar was colder than Jan that year.

Rank Year Jan Feb Mar ENSO
1st 1950 55.5 50.8 50.2 MLN
2nd 1880 54.4 51.6 55.2 MLN
3rd 1974 53.2 45.8 57.8 SLN
4th 1937 53.0 44.4 50.5 NP
5th tie 1907 52.0 44.1 61.6 WLN
5th tie 2017 52.0 ? ? NN

 

[SoutheastRidge]

Thanks Larry. It surprises me that most of the warm January's were so long ago. I figured there would be at least 2 or 3 years in the last 20 years to make the list.

 

[GaWx]

Thanks Larry. It surprises me that most of the warm January's were so long ago. I figured there would be at least 2 or 3 years in the last 20 years to make the list.

YW. Yeah. What's especially interesting is the one from 137 years ago having been 3.7 warmer than Jan. 2017 and that having been in the colder city vs the current warm bubble of the airport to the south of town. You could probably add 1-1.5 degrees to that 1880 reading to make it comparable. So, it might have been more like 55.5 back in Jan. 1880 had the airport and its station existed way back then vs the 52.0 of Jan 2017!