Is their winter catagories like hurricane scales

[boca]

Will their be a winter scale like the Hurricane hollow site of Tropical low,depression,tropical storm, and cat1 ect?

[The Big Dog]

Hmm... Cool Breeze, Cold Rain, Freezing Rain, Snow Flurries, Blizzard, Noreaster?

[Josephine96]

I know last year they did it during the winter season.. I wish they keep the hurricanes though.. I like them better

[Miss Mary]

The Big Dog - I was going to suggest looking over a smattering of member names here!!! Heck, I was almost "Hail Mary" but I went with "Miss Mary" instead.

The one tricky word in there is Blizzard. A few years ago a local Met and/or station spoke too quickly and declared a major snowstorm a blizzard. Ah, but it wasn't. Winds weren't strong enough to truly qualify to be a blizzard by definition. Another local station that stands behind it's warnings/watches/forecasts is very-very careful to only use that B word when it truly is a Blizzard!

Mary

[Dave C]

I beleive Paul Kocin mentioned something about a scale last winter. It was based on how wide an area was affected by the storm and duration of the heavy snow and intensity of the winds, tidal flooding etc. I'll see if I can find any data about it(vacation time coming up!)

[chadtm80]

Yes boca.. We change the ranks for the winter season

[boca]

does tropical depression = light snow

[wxguy25]

Boca, There is a scale which is theoretically similar to Saffir-Simpson and Fujita--Known as the NESIS scale which ranks Major east coast snowstorms on a scale of 1-5 according to three factors:

1. Snowfall totals greater then 10"
2. Areal extent of the Snowfall
3. Population density.

This scale was developed by Paul Kocin, who most know from TWC and Louis Uccellini from NCEP and presented at the 19th conference on Weather analysis and forecasting.

http://ams.confex.com/ams/SLS_WAF_NWP/1 ... rogram.htm

here is a Link to the abstract:

http://ams.confex.com/ams/SLS_WAF_NWP/1 ... /47837.htm

the higher the NESIS (Northeast Snowstorm Impact Scale) rating is, the higher the category will be. Just like the stronger the wind speed and lower the SLP is with a Hurricane, the higher the category is going to be. Only in this case were talking about the relationship between the amount of snow, extent of the snowfall coverage, and the population affected by it.

Below is the Scale:

CAT NESIS DESCRIPTION
1 1 - 2.499 "Notable"
2 2.5 - 3.99 "Significant"
3 4 - 5.99 "Major"
4 6 - 9.99 "Crippling"
5 10.0+ "Extreme"

And a Listing of Storms:

RANK DATE NESIS CAT
1 Mar 12-14 1993 12.52 5
2 Jan 6-8 1996 11.54 5
3 Feb 15-18 2003 8.91 4
4 Mar 11-14 1888 8.34 4
5 Feb 11-14 1899 8.11 4
6 Mar 2-5 1960 7.63 4
7 Feb 10-12 1983 6.28 4
8 Feb 5-7 1978 6.25 4
9 Feb 2-5 1961 6.24 4
10 Feb 14-17 1958 5.98 3
11 Jan 19-21 1978 5.9 3
12 Jan 11-14 1964 5.74 3
13 Dec 25-28 1969 5.19 3
14 Jan 29-31 1966 5.05 3
15 Jan 21-23 1987 4.93 3
16 Jan 7-8 1988 4.85 3
17 Feb 8-12 1994 4.81 3
18 Dec 11-13 1960 4.47 3
19 Jan 22-23 1966 4.45 3
20 Feb 17-19 1979 4.42 3
21 Dec 24-25 2002 4.42 3
22 Feb 18-20 1972 4.19 3
23 Feb 14-15 1960 4.17 3
24 Jan 16-18 1978 4.1 3
25 Feb 22-28 1969 4.01 3
26 Mar 18-21 1958 3.92 2
27 Feb 5-7 1967 3.82 2
28 Dec 23-25 1966 3.79 2
29 Apr 6-7 1982 3.75 2
30 Mar 3-5 1971 3.73 2
31 Mar 12-13 1959 3.64 2
32 Jan 27-29 1922 3.63 2
33 Mar 3-5 2001 3.53 2
34 Feb 2-4 1995 3.51 2
35 Dec 26-27 1947 3.5 2
36 Jan 18-21 1961 3.47 2
37 Mar 2-4 1994 3.46 2
38 Feb 8-10 1969 3.34 2
39 Dec 19-20 1995 3.32 2
40 Dec 22-23 1963 3.17 2
41 Jan 24-26 2000 3.14 2
42 Dec 10-12 1992 3.1 2
43 Jan 13-15 1982 3.08 2
44 Mar 16-17 1956 2.93 2
45 Jan 3-5 1994 2.87 2
46 Mar 6-7 1962 2.76 2
47 Jan 3-4 2003 2.65 2
48 Dec 30-31 2000 2.48 1
49 Feb 19-20 1964 2.39 1
50 Mar 31-Apr 1 1997 2.37 1
51 Nov 25-27 1971 2.33 1
52 Jan 1-2 1987 2.26 1
53 Mar 18-19 1956 2.23 1
54 Mar 14-15 1999 2.2 1
55 Feb 16-17 1952 2.17 1
56 Dec 31-Jan 1 1970-1 2.1 1
57 Feb 2-4 1996 2.03 1
58 Dec 4-5 2002 1.99 1
59 Jan 16-17 1965 1.95 1
60 Mar 28-29 1984 1.86 1
61 Jan 25-26 1987 1.7 1
62 Feb 16-17 1996 1.65 1
63 Feb 14-15 1962 1.59 1
64 Dec 26-27 1990 1.56 1
65 Feb 22-23 1987 1.46 1
66 Dec 23-25 1961 1.37 1
67 Dec 3-5 1957 1.32 1
68 Mar 8-9 1984 1.29 1
69 Mar 21-22 1967 1.2 1
70 Feb 6-7 2003 1.18 1