East Coast Snow in perspective

My good buddy "Sat Truck Troy" from the morning crew suggested I talk about this... trying to put the snowstorms in the mid-Atlantic region in perspective for a West Michigan audience.

So, let's compare the snowfall there to local averages and see what it would mean to see the same kind of snowfall around here in Grand Rapids.

All these numbers are 1971-2000 normals and snowfall data for Feb. 1-9 (not counting Wednesday's additional big snowfall):

Location                Feb. MTD 2010   Feb. Avg. Snow   % of Normal   Annual Avg. Snow   % of Normal
DC-Reagan Airport       24.8"           5.2"             477%            15.2"             163%
DC-Dulles Airport         38.6"           6.2"             623%            21.2"             182%
Baltimore                    33.7"           6.4"             527%            18.2"             185%
Philadelphia                35.2"           6.6"             533%            19.3"              182%
Average                    33.1"            6.1"             543%            18.5"             179%

The average February snowfall for Grand Rapids is 12.2", and the yearly average is 72.2".  Muskegon's averages are 18.3" for February and 105.5" for the year. 

So, if you calculate based on the totals for those four East Coast sites, it's the equivalent of Grand Rapids getting about 129" of snow (that's 10 feet, nine inches) in nine days, and about 189" (15 feet, nine inches) for Muskegon.  Yikes!!!!

Once the numbers are in from the storm that's currently hitting those same areas, I'll update these figures in a new post.