Descriptions of 20 Major Snowstorms

Abstract

In this chapter, patterns of snowfall, sea level pressure, surface wind, temperature, and other parameters are examined for the ensemble of 20 cases. These patterns were derived from a survey of climatological data and surface charts developed from National Meteorological Center (NMC) analyses available on microfilm from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in Asheville, North Carolina. The goals of this study are to identify the meteorological patterns that characterize major snow events, to determine what case-to-case variability might make generalizations difficult to apply, and to describe the dynamical and physical processes associated with these patterns. A description of upper-level meteorological fields will be presented in the next chapter.