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Wintry Winter Storm Dec 7-10

My educated guess is that this (8-10") is a top 10 snow storm and quite possibly top 5 for Marietta and much of the NW burbs of ATL going back to 1879 based strictly on total accumulation. Those locations got over 3 winters' worth of snow! From center city ATL eastward to Decatur and a bit east of there, where near 4" appears to be a reasonable estimate (my sis got ~5" but she's a little north of this strip), I'm thinking top 25 and possibly top 20 for storms dominated there by snow. Now, the airport got 3.1". Had the airport been there back to 1879, my guess would be that's top 30-35 for snow dominated storms in that location.
 
GaWx said:
My educated guess is that this (8-10") is a top 10 snow storm and quite possibly top 5 for Marietta and much of the NW burbs of ATL going back to 1879 based strictly on total accumulation. Those locations got over 3 winters' worth of snow! From center city ATL eastward to Decatur and a bit east of there, where near 4" appears to be a reasonable estimate (my sis got ~5" but she's a little north of this strip), I'm thinking top 25 and possibly top 20 for storms dominated there by snow. Now, the airport got 3.1". Had the airport been there back to 1879, my guess would be that's top 30-35 for snow dominated storms in that location.
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This storm ranks on top of the 2011 storm for me, and was the best one I have ever seen, which means it likely won't be topped soon unless we get something extreme in the next month or so. I expect there to be some snow all the way through the end of the week in shaded areas.
 
ForsythSnow said:
This storm ranks on top of the 2011 storm for me, and was the best one I have ever seen, which means it likely won't be topped soon unless we get something extreme in the next month or so. I expect there to be some snow all the way through the end of the week in shaded areas.
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My educated guess is that for Forsyth County overall that this was at least a top 15 of all-time (back to 1879) and quite possibly top 10 strictly in terms of accumulation of snow
 
ForsythSnow said:
This storm ranks on top of the 2011 storm for me, and was the best one I have ever seen, which means it likely won't be topped soon unless we get something extreme in the next month or so. I expect there to be some snow all the way through the end of the week in shaded areas.
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It will probably be at least 20 years or so before we can top this one.
 
SoutheastRidge said:
It will probably be at least 20 years or so before we can top this one.
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I'm educatedly guessing that Carrolton/you with about 8" got a top 5 snow accum going back to 1879! You picked the right winter to move back there!
Congrats to the biggest of big winners like Forsyth, MBell, arcc, and yourself (I'm sure I left off other huge winners) who got like 8-11"! Also congrats to the many still big winners like accu, Storm5, as well as others in Birm and ATL area and in between that didn't quite get into that category but still got a big, beautiful, and very long duration snow! Congrats to those who got much less but still got rare snow like in FL Panhandle! Those that missed will get theirs another time. This was amazing to follow.
 
In a normal year a 1-2" snow event would be something I would get excited about, but after this storm im not sure i will get as excited if we have a 1-2" snow later in the winter. Any snow we may have will pale in comparison to this one.
 
SoutheastRidge said:
In a normal year a 1-2" snow event would be something I would get excited about, but after this storm im not sure i will get as excited if we have a 1-2" snow later in the winter. Any snow we may have will pale in comparison to this one.
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Ohh you know is as much about the chase as it is the totals
 
A snowstorm of this magnitude & spatial extent in early December in the deep south likely hasn't occurred in at least 131 years. In early December 1886, a broad area of low pressure and attendant upper level trough dropped more than 6-12 inches of snow parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina with accumulating snows occurring as far south as the Florida panhandle. Of course, ironically 1886-87 was a La Nina winter which came in the wake of a multi-year warm ENSO event that lasted from 1884 to 1886 (although there's some argument that it could have already been prevalent as early as 1883).

Here's a few snowfall totals from available stations in the southeast. I'm sure the totals in places like Atlanta, Birmingham, & Huntsville (where little-no data currently exists) were incredible, likely about 1-2 feet or so...

December 4-6 1886

Knoxville, TN: 22.6"
Chatanooga, TN: 14.9”
Montgomery, AL: 11.0”
Kingston, TN: 10.0”
Charlotte, NC: 7.2”
Nashville, TN: 2.4”
Penscola, FL: 0.5"
Augusta, GA: T
Wilmington, NC: T

6z December 5 1886 700 hPa Specific Humidity Wind and 850-1000 thickness.jpg

1886120512.gif
Screen Shot 2017-12-09 at 10.01.59 PM.png
Screen Shot 2017-12-09 at 9.03.34 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-09 at 9.02.56 PM.png

The daily weather data that I took a screenshot of above is available here, just find your local NWS office.
http://sercc.com/nowdata.html
 
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