The snow-measuring device at Reagan National Airport where official snow totals for the nation’s capital are recorded was buried in the blizzard, leaving weather observers unable to record the true amount of snowfall.
The device, called a snow board, is supposed to be placed on the ground where it will not be affected by high winds or drifting snow, then wiped clean and replaced every six hours.
According to the Washington Post, 17.8 inches of snow had fallen at the airport as of 8 p.m. Saturday. Although snow continued falling for at least another four hours, that 17.8-inch number was the final measurement submitted to the National Weather Service.
The mix-up, according to the Post, may have kept the blizzard of 2016 from breaking into the region’s top three snowstorms on record.
A massive snowstorm in 1922 dumped 28 inches of snow on D.C., while the Blizzard of 1899, which dropped 20.5 inches, was the capital’s second ranked snowstorm.
Considering that Baltimore, Maryland, 43 miles to the northeast, received 29.2 inches of snow, and that Dulles Airport, just 29 miles to the west, received 29.3 inches of snow, and that many surrounding areas recorded more than 30 inches of snow, I think the odds are good that if it had been recorded correctly, this storm would have knocked the Blizzard of 1899 completely out of second place. By far.
In fact, it might even have moved into first place.
Oh well. It’s interesting, how such mistakes can be made in a world devoted to the man-made global-warming mantra.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/01/25/measuring-mix-up-leaves-dc-with-underreported-snow-total.html
Thanks to Argiris Diamantis for this link
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