Another HECS that was a miss for me. Big storm came out of the gulf and moved up the coast. Late friday night, the 5th, the main low transferred its energy to the secondary low which was forming in NC. The secondary low began to bomb out, prompting a tornado watch for eastern NC. Heavy snow spreaded a swath of 18+ from Virginia through Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and finally NJ. But the cutoff of the storm was insane. My end total was about 8-10 inches, it was tough to measure because of all the drifitng snow. Only 15 miles to me north they got 2-3 inches, while 15 miles to my south they got 14-20 inches. The cutoff affected many of the people that got dryslotted from the Blizzard on the 19th. Anyways. The snow, here, started around 10 pm, and picked up around midnight. By 2 am we already had about 4 inches on the ground. But the models were consistent on the banding not coming as far north as me. They went as far as 10 miles to my south. Figures right! The banding just sat over the bucks county, mercer county, camden and philadelphia areas all night. Hence why they got totals ranging from 18-30 inches of snow. Some places in Maryland almost got 40 inches! Thats crazy.

I watched the radar the whole night, Those bands just refused to sit over me. By morning one snow band managed its way up here. Whiteout condition ensued. Winds picked up to around 20-25 mph and snow was probably around 2-3" per hour. But it didnt last too long, and the band moved back south again. By eigth am, the snow began tapering off to light snow. Winds picked up a bit, and my quest for the pictures began. The roads were horribles. Most of the roads were covered in atleast 2 inches of snow, and thats just the main roads. The back roads were worse. I drove down to the Milford Bridge and walked across it taking pictures. Also i slipped on the bridge. That hurt. I mus have looked like a moron walking across a bridge in the snow. The walkway on the bridge was covered in about 4 inches of snow and a nice sheet of ice at the bottom. The snow up river was pretty intense because the visibility was only .25-.5 miles. Flock after flock off geese flew to the river. Guess they knew the worst of the storm was over and they made there way down. In all, it took me over fifthteen minutes to cross the bridge. Probably 3-4 times longer then it would take normally.

Then the journey southward into frenchtown started, after some breakfast. That took a while since most roads were still not plowed. Covered in snow. But thankfully there was few if any drivers out on the roads, so stopping in the middle of the road, getting out and taking pictures was easy and safe. By the time we got to frenchtown, we noticed more cars about. Which wasnt a bother since i pretty much got all the pictures i wanted. I walked towards the bridge to get a close up on it, Frenchtown Bridge. Misjudging my step i fell right into a nice drift, which allowed quite alot of snow to go down my boot. But i couldnt let that bother me and i got the pictures i wanted.

 

Finally we made it back to the farm and i got some more pictures. Not many though. There were many geese in the field and they got spooked and flew away. So did the deer i saw. Trying to get pictures of those snow tornadoes with the wind picks up and starts drifting is almost impossible. I saw the best one, but i did not have my camera ready, Once i was ready, ofcourse, the wind died down. That was how the storm went down in Frenchtown, hopefully wednesday storm brings much more promise.

Bryan Lauber

Bryan Lauber

Bryan Lauber

One of the backroads

Bryan Lauber

Milford Bridge

Bryan Lauber

Bryan Lauber

Bryan Lauber

Bryan Lauber

Bryan Lauber

Bryan Lauber

Bryan Lauber

Bryan Lauber

Bryan Lauber

Bryan Lauber

Bryan Lauber

Bryan Lauber