Daily Weather Pattern Discussion...Winter Storm Wrap-Up And Sniffing Out Spring!

Hello this is Junior Meteorologist Kyle Elliott with our daily weather pattern discussion...and I'll begin this evening by doing a quick wrap-up on the winter storm that has just exited the region over the last few hours. Just as I had expected, 2-4 inches was recorded anywhere across York, Lancaster, and Adams Counties as heavy snow fell in those areas overnight last night into very early this morning before things changed over to a brief period of sleet and freezing rain. By the time the snow changed over, 2.25 inches of snow had fallen on my back porch as an official measurement for my area. That 2.25 inches has now been topped off by a glaze of ice which is less than a tenth of an inch...so if anybody has to drive tonight, please...and I mean PLEASE...be VERY CAREFUL as roadways are still covered with a light coating of snow and ice. As temperatures fall into the lower to middle 20s tonight, any water on roadways will freeze up and cause hazardous driving conditions by morning, so be careful driving everybody! As far as other areas are concerned for this winter storm, my forecast of 4-6 inches came very true to a tee for the Allentown and Easton areas as I saw most reports come in between 4 and 6 inches. While most reports were between 4 and 5 inches, I did see one report near Easton that recorded 6 inches of snow. My colleague measured 5.75 inches on his back porch in Tatamy, PA, (a few miles from Easton) but then again, he is up in elevation from the valley floor at Easton...therefore, slightly higher amounts could be expected at his house. For the rest of the forecast area I predicted accumulations for last night, most of my forecasts came to fruition today as I hit the nail on the head for many locations while not being more than 1 or 2 inches off for other forecasted areas. So all in all, I am quite pleased with my forecasts for this storm as a few surprises came about but overall things went as predicted last night. Currently, pockets of sleet and freezing rain are running around central and western Pennsylvania, but look for no more than a tenth of an inch of snow, sleet, and/or freezing rain in any given location for the remainder of the night. For tomorrow, light snow flurries or pockets of freezing drizzle will be common across Pennsylvania...but nothing should be heavy enough to cause anything other than very minor travel headaches. So after about noon tomorrow, we all can kiss this storm goodbye as precipitation will come to an end with only cloudy skies left over. So anyways, now that I've thoroughly covered the winter storm and the remaining precipitation types/amounts that can be expected tonight, I think it's time I announce to everybody that I am officially DONE SNIFFING OUT SNOWSTORMS NOW!!! As I said about a week ago in one of my videos, I was planning on stopping my HYPE on winter storms somwhere around February 20th or 21st...but I decided to hang on for a few days longer as this winter storm was quite a major issue for many across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast areas. But as of tomorrow at noon, I am officially discontinuing my HYPE and long-range outlooks for winter storms. In essence, this means I will be going into "spring mode" where I being sniffing out warm spells and possible thunderstorm outbreaks across the area. Now of course, if a sudden winter storm becomes imminent, I will go to full coverage of it...I'm just saying though that I'm not going for frozen precipitation forecasts until there 3 days and in from now on. Unlike my discussions from late November until now, I will no longer be discussing long-range snowfall possibilities...instead, I will be alerting ya'll to the warmer solutions for storms and possible severe weather outbreaks. So just thought I'd give ya'll that "heads-up" so to speak as I am changing my mode from that of wintertime forecasting to now more of a spring twist. So as of now in this discussion, I will not post anything about upcoming chances for warmth and thunderstorms...but by discussion tomorrow, you will notice a totally different change in what I'm looking for and sniffing out in regards to longer-range forecasting. So now that I've alerted ya'll to my shift in forecasting, that's about all I have for now; so hope ya'll have a great rest of your evening and I'll talk to ya'll tomorrow! This has been Junior Meteorologist (Storm Tracker) Kyle Elliott reporting for the AKStormtracker Forecasting Center!