Winter Storm

5 Most Impressive Things About Winter Storm Jonas

Winter Storm Jonas was a powerful and dangerous winter storm, one that smashed records and crippled the Northeast urban corridor, impacting tens of millions of people.

Here are five things we found most impressive about Winter Storm Jonas.

1) Snowfall Rates to 1 to 3 inches Per Hour for 14+ Hours

In major snowstorms, snowfall rates of more than an inch per hour are typical in some areas. During Jonas, those extreme rates were widespread from the mid-Atlantic, including Washington D.C. to New York City.

Even more impressive is how many hours those intense snowfall rates lasted in some locations. For example, Harrisburg International Airport saw continuous snowfall rates of 1 to 3 inches per hour from 3 a.m. Saturday until 7 p.m. Saturday, a span of 16 hours. Likewise, New York’s LaGuardia airport had 14 hours of 1 to 3 inch per hour snowfall rates from 6 a.m. Saturday until 8 p.m. Saturday.

2) 30+ Inches of Snow in One Day

Cars buried by snow in Brooklyn, New York.
(Marc Sewtz / Twitter)

Incredibly, New York's JFK airport piled up 30.3 inches of snow in one calendar day on Saturday. To give an idea of how much precipitation that is, melted down it equals out to 2.90 inches of rain. Allentown, Pennsylvania, was not far behind with 30.2 inches on Saturday.

Prior to Winter Storm Jonas, neither of those locations had ever recorded 30 inches of snow from a single snowstorm, let alone in one day.

3) Sharp Snowfall Gradient

A NASA satellite image showing the snow cover from space on Sunday morning, depicting the sharp gradient between massive snow amounts and nothing at all.
(NASA)

This distance between more than two feet of snow and bare ground was less than 100 miles in southeast New York. While parts of the New York City area saw up to 30 inches, Poughkeepsie, New York, about an 85 mile drive north saw no accumulations.

In the third smallest U.S. state of Connecticut, Litchfield County had areas with no snow, while parts of adjacent New Haven County reported more than a foot. That's a distance of less than 40 miles.

4) Jonas Dropped Snow in 31 States, Including Florida

While the snowstorm was best known for hammering parts of the eastern U.S., snowfall from the early stages of Jonas can be traced back to the Plains and Midwest.

From South Dakota to Massachusetts and southward to each of the Gulf Coast states, Winter Storm Jonas affected a large portion of the country. A few flurries were even reported as far south as the Florida Panhandle and Mobile, Alabama on Friday evening. Snow flurries were spotted as far south as Gainesville, Florida, and the South Carolina coast on Saturday.

While 31 states saw snow from Winter Storm Jonas, a total of 14 states received at least a foot of snow. Six states even reported 30 inches or more of snow.

5) Lead Time in the Forecast for Jonas Was Long

For meteorologists, one of the factors that was most impressive was the way computer forecast models handled this storm so well.

The preceding weekend, Jan. 16-17, 2016, forecast models where showing the potential for a significant storm in the East. Meteorologists at weather.com published on Jan. 17 their first article highlighting the potential for a winter storm in the East late in the following week, though caveating that uncertainties remained given it was still many days away.

Although the models showed varying tracks, strengths and timings of the storm in those long-range forecasts, they all painted a similar picture that we could see a major snowstorm in the East during the time between Jan. 22-24. The models then remained locked in from there on, mostly agreeing that a major storm would develop. Confidence was high enough that by Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016, The Weather Channel named the storm Jonas well in advance of its peak impacts.

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