FEBRUARY 16, 2003 Fifth Largest Snowstorm in 23-Years   (4  Day Storm)
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Obs. Num. Time of Observation February
16  -   2003		 Total Frozen Precip. Inches Total Melted Precip. Inches Temp. °F Remarks for the Time Period
   0      0230 hrs.    0.0   0.00   18.0   Snow started at 0000
   1      0500 hrs.    3.9   0.21   15.2   Very Heavy Snow--- 3.9 inches in 2.5 hours. Melted total is off some as snow is falling faster than it is being melted.
   2      0600 hrs.    4.4   0.36   15.0   Snow intensity now moderate! This past hour had a decrease in snow intensity. Snow pellets around 0520-0530 also the snow shows heavy riming. This generally means convection aloft. Temperature also very low for this snow intensity!
   3      0700 hrs.    5.1   0.57   14.6   0.7 inches in the last hour -- Moderate snow -- Stellar crystals still show moderate riming. Many irregular particles and broken crystals.
   4      0800 hrs.    5.5   0.60   14.5   0.4 inches in the last hour -- Light to moderate snow -- There are many smaller needles and broken particles but the larger particles are moderate to heavily rimed planar crystals about 0.1 inches in size.
   5      0900 hrs.    5.9   0.69   14.7   0.4 inches in the last hour -- Light to moderate snow -- Radar shows the heaviest precipitation now over Georgia now. Barometer reading at 30.52 and the pressure has just begun to fall
   6      1000 hrs.    6.3   0.77   14.6   Total snow on the ground now old and new snow is 9.9 inches with the 6.3 inches of new snow that fell since midnight. Light intensity snowfall now. Snow is mostly needles and a few broken particles and very fine the larger particles of snow are only about two milimeters in size.
   7      1100 hrs.    6.7   .84   15.0   0.4 inches in the last hour -- Light to moderate snowfall rate that has been pretty constant this morning. Snow is mostly needles and a few broken particles and very fine the larger particles of snow are only about two milimeters in size and are like small snow pellets.
   8      1200 hrs.    7.5   .90   14.5   0.8 inches in the last hour -- Moderate snowfall rate that has increased over the last hour.
   9      1300 hrs.    7.9   .99   15.0   0.4 inches in the last hour -- Moderate to light snowfall rate. There should be some heavy snow during the next hour however as the radar shows a convection area moving our way from Madison county,Virginia. The barometric pressure is starting to fall now at -0.02 per hour.
  10    1400 hrs.    8.3   1.08   14.9   0.4 inches in the last hour -- Moderate to light snowfall rate now. The heavier snow referred to last hour is just arriving.
  11    1500 hrs.    9.2   1.19   14.5   0.9 inches in the last hour -- Heavy snowfall rate now. Melted total is off some as snow is falling faster than it is being melted.
  12    1600 hrs.    10.2   1.29   14.3   1.0 inches in the last hour -- Heavy snowfall rate now. Melted total is off some as snow is falling faster than it is being melted.
  13    1700 hrs.    10.6   1.39   14.3   0.4 inches in the last hour -- Heavy snowfall rate now. Melted total is still off some as snow is falling faster than it was being melted during the past hour! Another heavy band of snow is coming towards Annandale near the end of the next hour!
  14    1800 hrs.    11.2   1.46   14.2   0.6 inches in the last hour -- Moderate snowfall rate now. Melted total is off as snow melting isn't keeping up with the snow fall rate. This is a heavy snow (lot of riming on snow particles) as we have more than 1.50 inches of water in the snowfall so far or a snow to water ratio of 7.5 to 1.0 .
  15    1900 hrs.    11.8   1.58   14.3   0.6 inches in the last hour -- Heavy snowfall rate duing the last hour but now moderate snow mixed with sleet. The BIG news is that we now have sleet that will cause packing of the snow and reduce totals! The heaviest snow totals are to the north of Annandale in Montgomery and Howard Counties, MD.
  16    2000 hrs.    12.2   1.74   15.1   0.4 inches in the last hour--- Remember these are todays totals since 0230 after talking with the weather service at Sterling last hour they said they are adding yesterday total with todays totals. Thus add 1.3 inches to all of these totals above for comparison to other area reports. Thus our storm total here is now 13.5 inches. In the past hour sleet is mixing in with the snow.
  17    2100 hrs.    12.2   1.86   15.5   This is already the 6th deepest stormstorm total ever recorded here in the last 23 years!! The precipitation is now all sleet. The weight of the sleet is packing the snow thus no added accumulation this past hour. Our storm total is now 13.5 inches.
  18    2200 hrs.    12.6   1.97   16.2   The precipitation is mostly sleet of heavy intensity with some snow mixed in. Our storm total is now 13.9 inches.
  19    2300 hrs.    12.9   2.09   17.0   The precipitation is mostly sleet now. Our storm total is now 14.2 inches.
  20    2400 hrs.    13.0   2.22   18.1   Very light sleet falling now. Our storm total is now 14.3 inches. Did a liquid water equivalent check and corrected the amount given by the heated tripping bucket gauge that was about 0.10 inches less than the correct value.
Snowfall Map Click the snowflake button to see the snowfall amounts for February 14-18, 2003 over Northern Virginia.