First snow of 2009-2010 winter season

Although the temperature outside is still 37F, snow is falling in Annapolis! Coastal cyclogenesis off the Carolina/Virginia coast - forced by a strong upper-level shortwave trough and associated cold air advection - has resulted in sufficient vertical velocities to cool & saturate the column of air above us to give us snow, even if the sfc temps are above freezing. Dulles Airport has been reporting moderate snow for the past few hours, BWI changed over about 1.5 hrs ago, and now KNAK has light snow/rain mix (the changeover here started about 30 mins ago). It's beautiful, albeit not very "contrasted", so the photo below didn't turn out very well. But take my word for it, fat snowflakes are falling in Annapolis.

The NWS-Sterling has posted climatological information relating snow in our CWA with sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean (ENSO), and moderately-strong ENSO events (like the current 2009 version) are positively correlated with snow totals here. So we'll have to see how much snow we end up getting this winter. I'll post updates as warranted.