<p>I don’t think that planes will have problems tomorrow afternoon but cancellations already in play might affect schedules. I don’t have the granularity on my forecasts on 1:00 PM but a few hours later should be fine. I’m driving into Boston from NH Friday evening and back and expect zero problems.</p>
<p>Like alot of people, S2, in DC, had work cancelled yesterday. Coming from CT, he finds the reaction in DC to any snow to be ridiculous, but I guess he didn’t mind the midweek day off.</p>
<p>[Boston</a> issued 2,400 tickets for not shoveling, dumping snow in street, after Feb. blizzard - Boston.com](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2013/03/06/boston-issued-tickets-for-not-shoveling-dumping-snow-street-after-feb-blizzard/NXiTncSYyooRPltsnCi3rO/story.html]Boston”>http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2013/03/06/boston-issued-tickets-for-not-shoveling-dumping-snow-street-after-feb-blizzard/NXiTncSYyooRPltsnCi3rO/story.html)</p>
<p>Link to the articles on the ticketing.</p>
<p>I heard on the news that the European model for this storm had it right: a rain event in DC. The US model had it all wrong. Obviously we need to improve our storm models.</p>
<p>Our forecasts for the last two snow events (in the Midwest) were totally wrong. The first was that we’d get a major storm–so schools closed–and we got nothing. Then we were told that there would be a big storm to the south of us and we would only get a dusting. They were completely wrong. The storm tracked 100 miles to the north and we got pounded with lots of heavy, wet snow that nobody was prepared for.</p>
<p>I now take forecasts with a huge grain of salt. Or maybe I’ll try to find the European model!</p>
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<p>This is the near-universal initial reaction of Northerners to the DC approach to snow (Help! The sky is falling!)</p>
<p>Then, after you’ve been in the DC area for a while, you realize that most of the people sharing the roads with you have no idea of how to drive in snow – not even an inch of it. They simply don’t have the experience you do with winter driving. So they’re likely to hit you. That’s when you get scared.</p>
<p>I also heard that the European models have been more accurate in predicting several winter storms this year, as well as hurricane Sandy. The US has lagged behind the European model for several years. It all seems to come down to funding which is lacking. Without much needed improvements, we will continue to have unreliable forecasts.</p>
<p>Well surely with the Internet, any of us can seek those European models. I look out of my window in the morning. If its snowing…I know it’s snowing. If I depended on the forecasts, I would make wrong plans many times.</p>
<p>And for the record, my window forecasting is for my neighborhood only!</p>
<p>My approach is to take weather forecasts with a large grain of salt and then watch closely as they arrive. I look for temperatures during the storm and after the storm, timing (rush hour or not), the type of snow (wet vs dry) when it arrives. I then make my plans on what I’m going to do. It’s pretty rare that I change my plans due to snow in the forecast. Freezing rain is a different story - I will cancel plans for that.</p>
<p>I heard that the European model has more data input than the American model which is making it more accurate at predicting these severe storms. Considering the economic impacts of these forecasts, you’d think we’d work at predicting them better.</p>
<p>Report from NW CT. It is very pretty. It started to snow at 5:00 as predicted (I looked out my window just to make sure 
The trees already have a pretty powder sugar like coating. The weather moguls claim we are going to get up to four inches by tomorrow morning. I’ll get up in the morning and look out my window to see if they are right.</p>
<p>Thumper, so will I, but I think after seeing 3 feet not too long ago, maybe it wont seem as bad.</p>
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<p>If the agencies we have doing the modelling are incompetent, we should probably give them less funding! I would guess that the models are actually pretty good, given the relative lack of reliable historic data to plug into the models.</p>
<p>I tried to get some information about this latest storm looking into the " european model " but all I found was information on past storms…pretty said when we have to look outside of our own country’s resources to get accurate info</p>
<p>interesteddad,</p>
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<p>I don’t think it’s fair to say that the agencies are incompetent.</p>
<p>BCEagle,</p>
<p>“It’s pretty rare that I change my plans due to snow in the forecast.”</p>
<p>We’ve done it on several occasions and I’m glad that we did. A few years ago, we were supposed to drive 6 hours to one of D’s sporting events. They were forecasting at least 2 feet of snow, so we decided not to go. It would just be too dangerous, especially driving through the mountains. The parents who decided to go were stuck there for 5 days before they could drive back home. Some didn’t even make it there. They had to turn around and come back home when the road got really bad.</p>
<p>Most of the stuff that we do is within about 90 minutes and I’ve been doing the driving in the snow, storm, blizzard thing for 35 years.</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t want to be one of those unfortunate people stuck in my car in the snow all night long. As you may recall, this happened to a couple of hundred people on the Long Island Expressway during the blizzard a few weeks ago. Remember two years ago when 1500 motorists were stranded on Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive during a blizzard for over 12 hours?</p>
<p>I’ve never been stuck and I’ve driven through a lot of blizzards.</p>
<p>Perhaps Boston and the surrounding areas are just better at snow removal than those other cities.</p>
<p>“If the agencies we have doing the modelling are incompetent, we should probably give them less funding!”</p>
<p>Lack of funding is why our model isn’t as accurate as the Euro model. Sadly, we just do not invest for the future anymore for anything. </p>
<p>The Euro model has been consistently outperforming the NAM for several years now. It was very evident during Sandy when the Euro predicted Sandy’s eventual path when it was still in the Caribbean while the NAM was forecasting it to go out to sea.</p>
<p>All you have to do is exercise common sense. Those folks on the LI Expressway did NOT leave work early enough. They should have departed NYC a lot earlier. </p>
<p>I’ve also lived in Blizzard country. The key to not being stranded is to get off of the roads BEFORE the storm really brews up.</p>
<p>And as BC says…some places just manage snow removal better than others.</p>
<p>" And as BC says…some places just manage snow removal better than others. " </p>
<p>Yes…I grew up in New England and moved further south to the mid-atlantic area where driving in the snow is an ordeal since the roads are generally not cared for in the same way as places more used to dealing with the snow…and people in general aren’t taught how to drive in adverse conditions</p>
<p>Yet, in the blizzard of '78 , motorists were stranded on many mayo highways in the bay state…common sense and driving restrictions is a goos combo</p>