Tuesday, December 22, 2009

December Rainfall Update

As a result of this weekend's snowstorm, Richmond International Airport's liquid precipitation tally rose into the top three wettest Decembers on record. With Friday's approaching storm, it is feasible we could jump into the top two spots for rainfall. This could mean we have two months in a row for record rainfall. We just had the wettest November on record, and we may end up with the wettest December on record before the month ends.

Officially at RIC, 6.0" of snow fell on the 18th, which melted into 0.5" of liquid equivalent, with a snow to rain ratio of 12:1. It was definitely a fluffy snow! Saturday the 19th's 1.4" of sleet and snow had 0.47" of liquid equivalent, with a snow to rain ratio of 3:1. This is such a low ratio because of the sleet that fell for an extended period of time Saturday morning. At CBS 6, we measured about an inch of sleet on top of the fluffy snow that fell Friday night. Once we transitioned back over to all snow later Saturday morning, an additional few inches of snow fell in the Metro.