Snow in June?

[Robert Dewey]

I heard on the radio earlier today that 4 inches of snow fell in NJ yesterday (15th). Stunned -- and thinking it was some sort of joke -- I looked it up and found this: http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-272451

My guess is that it was an accumulation of hail. If I recall, Lansing Michigan received 3-4 inches of hail (pea sized) out of a supercell here not too long ago.

Any thoughts, other than the radio announcers need to check the facts first? LOL

 

[Jason Boggs]

Yes. it was hail. I saw video of it on our local news today.

 

[Chip Redmond]

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't this an occasional somewhat common occurance in the plains with severe storms? The only reason this is getting so much publicity is because it was in a very populated area and effected more people other than just a few cows. Kind of frustrating at the lack of media outlets being willing to expand beyond the small reach of their "area".


Chip

 

[Jason Boggs]

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't this an occasional somewhat common occurance in the plains with severe storms? The only reason this is getting so much publicity is because it was in a very populated area and effected more people other than just a few cows. Kind of frustrating at the lack of media outlets being willing to expand beyond the small reach of their "area".


Chip

Yes, hail piling up from storms is fairly common here in the TX panhandle and other areas of the plains.

 

[Mike Krzywonski]

http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=21121

 

[Josh Murfield]

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't this an occasional somewhat common occurance in the plains with severe storms? The only reason this is getting so much publicity is because it was in a very populated area and effected more people other than just a few cows. Kind of frustrating at the lack of media outlets being willing to expand beyond the small reach of their "area".


Chip

Yes, and it's frustrating that news organizations are not checking their facts before reporting on this "snowfall". I heard this from several outlets yesterday, even though it was obvious that it was too warm there for snow, and that other outlets who did more than 5 seconds of homework knew that it was a hailstorm, not a snowstorm.
As mentioned it is annoying that this type of thing happens here in the plains a fair amount and never gets coverage- but oh no, when anywhere within a few miles of NYC gets it and the whole world needs to hear about how wacky and unique this weather event is!

 

[Chris Nuttall]

Although, hail is officially recorded as "snowfall" in the climate database because of it being frozen precip. I agree, it seems ridiculous. I think this is a holdover from the 1800s when sleet and hail were categorized together.

 

[Chris Carter]

I guess some folks in Nevada never got the memo that explains the difference between sleet and hail. I remember being im Las Vegas in Dec 2004, it was snowing in the valleys and sleet was falling at Nellis (where i was stationed) a few folks ran inside yelling it was hailing outside, i go out there and realize its sleet, try to explain to them it wasnt hail, but sleet. They asked me how did i know the difference. I gave them a simple response, that im from Nebraska, you have to know the difference when you live in the Great Plains.

 

[Paul Knightley]

This is nothing new - we have reports every year here in the UK of "midsummer snow", "snow in June", etc etc, when it's simply piled up hail. Of course, it can be spectacular too. For example, from last year (October in this case): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7699112.stm

 

[Kenny Drake]

I think the problem with sleet vs hail is by itself the definition. Anyone with even a half-decent amount of weather knowledge could easily distinguish between sleet and hail but once you try to define it concisely the situation becomes quite difficult. Sleet = frozen precip in near or below freezing temps? That doesn't necessarily work. I'm sure there has been convection in situations like this that has produced hail (mountainous regions!). How about frozen precip that was once suspended in the atmosphere? That doesn't work either because stratiform winter precip can stay suspended for lengthy amounts of time. Heck, it happens quite often where there is convection in a winter weather environment. Anyone in the southern plains can probably remember a cold winters night with temps around 30F with lightning overhead along with freezing rain mixed with sleet. Or is that hail?

I think the most important distinction between the NWS' definition of sleet and hail is within that of hail: "falling from a cumulonimbus cloud." In which case, any frozen precip known to have come from convection (cb) is hail, regardless of the surface conditions. In practice, that isn't so easy especially in winter weather environments with frozen stratiform precip in the background.

 

[Paul Knightley]

Another problem is the definition of sleet! In the UK, we define sleet as a "mixture of rain and snow"!