"snow" reported during Wilma

[phantom power]

The large 65 mile diameter eye brought up to an hour of calm to locations along its path, and passed directly over West Palm Beach. Winds there never fell below 23 mph, though, so the "calm" was only relative. Sustained winds at the West Palm Beach airport reached 82 mph, with gusts to 101 mph, at 9:10 am. The automated weather station reported snow at this time, but this was not really the case!

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=209&tstamp=200510

Probably this was just a malfuction. But it got me thinking. What if it isn't? I have a buddy who likes to go on about how storms may become "more stratospheric", by which he means to involve exchanges between stratospheric air and surface air. I think he got this notion from that Streiber book (which was also the inspiration for those super-storms in Day After Tomorrow).

What if this has something to do with how Wilma continued to strengthen even in the presence of wind-shear that would normally disrupt a hurricane? Or the size of it's eye?

Lots of speculation from a probable malfunction, but I couldn't resist.

[oregonindy]

1. theres actually been alot of talk about how cold it was down in the keys

[tridim]

2. What about the wind chill factor?

Lots of wind available to plug into the formula. :P

[NorCalDem]

3. Wind Chill wouldn't contribute to snow, only air temp does that :) n/t

[tridim]

5. psst..

:sarcasm: :D

[ThoughtCriminal]

4. How do automatic stations detect snow?

Been in the desert for too many years. How does a "snow detector" work?

We once had a winter hail storm east of Phoenix and the TV news helicopter that filmed the white covered area reported it as unusually "heavy snow".
:rofl:

[wishlist]

6. Wilma is going to cause snow in Northeast according to ABC news

ABC just covered the projected track of Wilma which is going to combine with Alpha forming into a nasty storm for Northeast including snow for some areas in New England.

[phantom power]

7. That snow will be from moisture "donated" by Wilma to a nor-easter.

[bananas]

8. Superstorm Of 2005

This looks scary.

http://headlines.accuweather.com/news-story.asp?partner=accuweather&myadc=0&traveler=0&article=0

Superstorm Of 2005
Monday, October 24, 2005 8:09 PM EDT



A superstorm will come together off the East Coast Tuesday. The ingredients for this storm are Wilma, energy from Alpha and a rogue storm forming along the mid-Atlantic coast. These system will likely remain distinct, trackable features rather than combining into one storm. However, the combined energy from these storms will create a superstorm effect along the northeastern coast Tuesday. The rogue storm will strip moisture from Wilma and direct heavy rain toward the coast. Farther inland, the moist air will be lifted up over a cold dome of air and the first major snowstorm in the Northeast will get underway late Monday night into Tuesday night. In addition to the precipitation, gale force winds will hammer the area. Winds 60 mph to 70 mph will hit the coast of New England with gust of 40 mph to 50 mph farther inland.