The Winter of 2009-2010
Snowstorms of This Winter-Click here					Snowstorms of Past Winters-Click here
Obs. Num.	Time of Observation December 18-19   2009	Total Frozen Precip. Inches	Total Melted Precip. Inches	Temp. °F	Remarks for the Time Period
0	1630 hrs.	Trace	0.00	33.8	First flakes seen at 1622 but intermittent until about 1630.
1	1730 hrs.	0.8	0.04	30.7	Moderate snow rate this past hour. Snow is now made up of fluffy aggregate crystals trapping air and containing little moisture.
2	1830 hrs.	2.1	0.15	30.2	Heavy snow during the past hour and just before the 1830 observations we had a period of snow pellets. This can be seen on the snow camera.
3	1930 hrs.	3.1	0.24	29.5	Heavy snow rate during the past hour and flakes are now small aggregates of irregular and broken snow crystals.
4	2030 hrs.	5.0	0.35	28.5	Very heavy snow rate during the past hour and flakes are now small and mostly broken or poorly formed snow crystals and few aggregates but a few well formed crystals.
5	2130 hrs.	6.5	0.45	28.0	Heavy snow rate again during the past hour. But snow pellets now and some snow crystals show light riming. Many are broken and irregular indicating some warmer air aloft now.
6	2230 hrs.	7.1	0.55	27.9	The water content was checked at 2030 with a standing 8 inch WS gauge and the water content was .37 inches. This is a snow to water ratio of 13.5 to 1 so the first five inches was a dry snow. The snow particles are very small now and are broken needles and irregular snow crystals .
7	2330 hrs.	8.3	0.73	27.6	Heavy snow continues and the temperature is still falling. Almost no aggregates this past hour. The flakes are now mostly irregular and broken snow crystals. Also no riming of crystals now as we saw at 2130 and the wind is increasing with a max. gust of 16 mph at 2255. Also noted lightning is being observed off the southern coast of NC.
8	19th   0000 hrs.	8.7	0.82	27.6	Heavy snow continues and the wind is increasing and the barometer is falling rapidly.
9	0100 hrs.	9.8	0.95	27.7	Had to move the camera higher as it was becoming buried in the snow. The maximum wind since midnight is 16 mph at 0003. Heavy snow rate during the past hour and flakes are now clustered into aggregates again.
10	0200 hrs.	10.4	1.01	28.3	The snow was falling mostly as aggregates for almost all of this past hour except for the last 15 minutes. There were also some snow pellets during the past hour. The band of freezing precipitation has moved a lot closer to Glen Allen - Springfield Park area and the temperature has increased in the past hour.
11	0300 hrs.	11.0	1.17	28.4	Sleet started to mix in with the snow around 0215 and then sleet and very large aggregates or fluffy assemblages of many crystals now leaves an uneven snow surface and more air spaces. At 0240 the aggregate flakes were very large about an inch in diameter. Then about 0250 the precipitation became all sleet. The sleet has stopped the drifting but has increased settling of the snow but still 11.0 inches of new snow.
12	0400 hrs.	11.5	1.33	29.9	I failed to state that during the past hour the sleet fell hard that the heater didn't melt all the sleet in the gauge. The liquid amount was a little more than what was recorded here but the auxiliary heat source was put on and will catch up by 0400. It started snowing hard again around 0320 and then tappered off to a moderate to light snow around 0335. Then towards the end of the hour sleet and snow pellets were mixed.
13	0500 hrs.	11.8	1.43	30.7	At 0411 we have been on the snow and sleet interface as shown on the radar for over an hour now and the temperature has warmed up several degrees. The precipitation has been more sleet mixed with a light fine snow during the first half of this hour and the weight of the sleet has caused some compacting of the snow and thus little accumulation.
14	0600 hrs.	11.8	1.50	31.0	The first quarter of the hour was mainly a mix of sleet light snow and a very little freezing drizzle. The second quarter of the hour was mainly a mix of very light fine snow and a little freezing drizzle. We had a wind gust to 24 mph at 0512 but the sleet & freezing drizzle is now preventing drifting. The last 30 minutes has mainly been some very light sleet giving no additional accumulation. This will be the last report unless we get another round of snow.
15	1000 hrs.	11.9	1.73	28.9	There has been around 0.20 inches of precipitation since the last observation but only a little additional accumulation due to the settling of snow. Also most of the precipitation was sleet for an hour or so but in the past hour we have added just a little to the accumulation.
16	2030 hrs.	12.9	1.86	27.1	We had periods of sleet and flurries today but with the snow this evening we picked up another inch of accumulation.