Storm of the Century of the Century: The Llamas Are Alright Update

"Snowmaggedon?"

It's a very white world in the Mid-Atlantic today, where the historic blizzard of 2010 has buried residents under a record-breaking two to three feet of snow. The storm, which President Obama referred to as "Snowmageddon" in a speech before the Democratic National Committee winter meeting, set the all-time record for heaviest snowfall in Delaware history, thanks to the 26.5" that fell in Wilmington (old state record: 25" in the President's Day storm of 2003). "Snowmageddon" dumped the second heaviest at Philadelphia 28.5"), second heaviest at Atlantic City (18.2"), third heaviest at Baltimore (24.8"), and the 4th heaviest at Washington D.C. (17.8"). Several locations in Maryland have seen over three feet of snow, with the northern Washington D.C. suburb of Colesville receiving 40", and the southern Baltimore suburb of Elkridge receiving 38.3". While the blizzard was not an exceptionally strong storm--the central pressure was a rather unimpressive 986 mb at the height of the blizzard, at 9am EST Saturday--it was an exceptionally wet storm. The melted equivalent precipitation for the blizzard exceeded three inches along its core snow belt. That's an phenomenal amount of moisture for a winter storm. The blizzard formed a very unstable region aloft where thunderstorms were able to build, and there were many reports of thundersnow during the height of the storm. These embedded thunderstorms were able to generate very heavy snow bursts of 2 - 3 inches per hour.

Well that was fun! Power went out around midnight Friday night and did not come back on until last evening. Saturday was a very. long. day. However, no furniture was destroyed and no felines were consumed in our efforts to tough it out.

I measured 22 inches at the near end of the Orgle Manor driveway this morning. After bashing at it for a bit, I realized that I would be all day clearing it and would probably put myself in traction as well. As a result, I finally relented and agreed to Mrs. Robbo's suggestion that we hire somebody to come in and plow us out.

Guess what's in the forecast for Tuesday night and Wednesday? (Hint: It's not a record-breaking heat spell.)