The heaviest band came through shortly after 10 this morning and was over in about 10 to 15 minutes. During the this time, I was outside enjoying the snow and amazed at the rate it was falling. It started to turn grassy surfaces white and if this would have kept up for a few hours, we would have had some healthy snow accumulations (if the ground was also cool enough too so the snow would stick around awhile). Anyway, the snow was mixed with graupel/ice pellets at first and with a stiff north wind, the precipitation stung. It eventually changed over to all snow. I got some video and those links are below as well as the NWS State College Special Weather Statement on this band of snow
After the band moved through, I headed back to my home. I then decided to take a time lapse of the snow coming down, albeit not as great of a rate of snowfall as earlier, but still falling (in October!). That was fun just standing there watching the snow fall. There were several other little squalls that moved through State College through the afternoon. Around 4:15PM, we had a graupel storm that lasted about 5 minutes. It came down at a decent rate, but melted within a short time of coming in contact with the ground.
Otherwise, looks to be a fairly quiet week in PA as high pressure builds in from the central Plains tomorrow. A weak cold front may pass through on Saturday, but then Canadian high pressure returns for the start of next week. Overall, looks fairly dry.
SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STATE COLLEGE PA
929 AM EDT WED OCT 29 2008
PAZ017>019-027-291500-
CLEARFIELD PA-MIFFLIN PA-NORTHERN CENTRE PA-SOUTHERN CENTRE PA-
929 AM EDT WED OCT 29 2008
...A DANGEROUS SNOW SQUALL WILL AFFECT CENTRE...NORTHEASTERN MIFFLIN
AND CENTRAL AND NORTHERN CLEARFIELD COUNTIES THROUGH 11 AM EDT...
AT 918 AM EDT...THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF A DANGEROUS SNOW SQUALL WITH
NEAR ZERO VISIBILITY IN HEAVY SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW WAS LOCATED
ALONG A LINE FROM NEAR DUBOIS AND CLEARFIELD...TO WALLACETON...
BELLEFONTE AND MILLHEIM...MOVING SOUTHEAST AT 10 MPH.
A QUICK INCH OF SNOW WITH NEAR ZERO VISIBILITY AND WIND GUSTS TO 30
ARE LIKELY WITH THIS DANGEROUS SNOW SQUALL.
THIS DANGEROUS SNOW SQUALL WILL BE NEAR WOODLAND AROUND 940 AM...
GRAMPIAN AROUND 1010 AM...PHILIPSBURG AROUND 1020 AM...POTTERS MILLS
AROUND 1030 AM...STATE COLLEGE AROUND 1040 AM AND SEVEN MOUNTAINS
AROUND 1050 AM.
THIS WILL IMPACT THE FOLLOWING CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA INTERSTATES...
I-80 BETWEEN MILE MARKERS 97 AND 167...I-99 NEAR MILE MARKER 65.
THIS WILL ALSO IMPACT THE FOLLOWING MAJOR ROADS...ROUTE 119...ROUTE
219...ROUTE 220...ALTERNATE ROUTE 220...ROUTE 322...STATE ROAD 26...
STATE ROAD 45...STATE ROAD 153...STATE ROAD 255...STATE ROAD 350.
USE EXTREME CAUTION IF YOU MUST TRAVEL INTO OR THROUGH THIS
POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS SNOW SQUALL. CONSIDER DELAYING TRAVEL UNTIL THE
SQUALL PASSES YOUR LOCATION.
$$
FORECASTER: LAMBERT
