Winter '24 / '25 - 24th Annual 'Season-total' Snowfall Forecast Contest: Call for Forecasts!

NEWxSFC/s
Director of Season-total Snowfall Forecasting

NEWxSFC runs the longest continuously held snowfall forecasting contests on the World Wide Web.

Our 24th annual ‘season-total' snowfall forecast contest is a great opportunity to demonstrate your long-range forecasting acumen ... and if you get lucky ... win some books about meteorology ... too.

And it/s really easy.
All you have to do is predict the 'season-total' snowfall at 25 stations across the mid-Atlantic and New England regions from Raleigh ... NC (RDU) to Caribou ... ME (CAR).

If you're new to season-total snowfall forecasting ... start off with climatology and go from there.

Visit the Contest's website to enter your forecast.

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Forecast element:
season-total snowfall @ each station

Forecast period:
01-DEC-24 through 31-MAR-25
(be sure to include any snowfall observed between 01-DEC and 10-DEC entry deadline)

Error statistic: total absolute error
[Σ abs(forecast - observed)]

Low. Score. Wins.

Verification:
NWS climate reports (CLM or CF6)

Deadline for entries: TUE ... 10-DEC-24 @ 11:59 PM EST (11-DEC-24 @ 4:59 UTC)

Update your forecast as often as you want prior to the deadline.
Only the last entry gets verified.

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1st place prize (delivered post-paid right to your front door):
... choice of a book from NEWxSFC library
... the august and coveted title 'Chief Season-total Snowfall Forecaster' for Winter '25 / '26 and
... a well-deserved place of high esteem and honor with past winners.

2nd place prize (delivered post-paid right to your front door):
... choice of a book from NEWxSFC library
... a well-deserved place honor with past winners.

3rd place prize (delivered post-paid right to your front door):
... choice of a book from NEWxSFC library
... a well-deserved place honor with past winners.

Honorable Mention: a well-deserved place of honor with past winners.

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The reigning NE.Wx ‘Season-Total’ Snowfall Forecasting Champ-een is Senior Forecaster WXCHEMIST.

Last winter's 'Season-total' forecast summary ... verification ... and final results here.

Contest Status

PHL - Broad and Chestnut
early 1930s

Winter '24 / '25
NE.Wx Snowfall Forecast Contests

 
26th Annual 'Snow Storm' Snowfall Forecast Contest

UPDATE:  9 PM ET - FRI ... 18-OCT-24

 

Snow Storm #1
Synoptiscope in VCP32

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Deadline for entries:  10 PM ET.  Typically ~24 hours before the leading edge of a contest-worthy snow storm is predicted to enter the forecast area.

 

Enter your forecast here.

 

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24th Annual 'Season-total' Snowfall Forecast Contest 

UPDATE:  4 PM ET - FRI ... 01-NOV-24

Call for Forecasts:  FRI ... 01-NOV-24
Deadline for entries:  11:59 PM ET - TUE ... 10-DEC-24
Details here

Enter your forecast here.

Monthly snowfall totals

DEC here

JAN here
FEB here

MAR here

 
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Winter '23 / '24 - Snowfall Forecast Contests

25th Annual 'Snow Storm' Snowfall Forecast Contest

FINAL results here

23rd Annual 'Season-total' Snowfall Forecast Contest
FINAL results here

Winter '23 / '24 - 25th Annual 'Regular Season' Snowfall Forecast Contest: FINAL Results

BWI - Christmastime in Highlandtown (1950s)

After THREE contest-worthy snow storms ... under the ‘two-thirds’ rule … forecasters who entered at least TWO forecasts are included in this season/s FINAL standings.

Full table with all other error statistics at the Contest/s web site here (direct link).

Individual forecaster/s storm statistics here (direct link).

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FINAL Standings

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Read more »

Winter '23 / '24 - 23rd Annual 'Season-total' Snowfall Forecast Contest: FINAL Results

BWI - Park Avenue (1948)

Congratulations to Senior Forecaster WXCHEMIST for issuing the best 'season-total' snowfall forecast for Winter '23 / '24.  WXCHEMIST also issued the best 'season-total' snowfall forecast for Winter '13 / '14.

Complete forecaster verification table at the Contest/s web site.

Forecasters ranked ascending by their Total Absolute Error (TAE).

BLUE ==> 1st Quartile
WHITE / GREY ==>  Interquartile range
RED ==> 4th Quartile
ORANGE:  Winter '22 / '23 Chief 'Season-total' Forecaster (winner of  '21 / '22 contest)

The '%MPRV over PORN' metric indicates how much the forecast was better or worse than the Period-Of-Record-Normal (P-O-R-N).  Skillful forecasts beat P-O-R-N.

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Winter '23 / '24 - 'Season-total' Snowfall Forecast Contest: MAR Snowfall Totals

BOS - Adams Square
(14-FEB-40)

MAR-24 snowfall summary by forecast station.

Rank ordered descending by percent of monthly period-of-record-normal.

Green ==> 4th quartile
White ==> less than 4th and greater than 1st quartile (inter-quartile range)
Red ==> 1st quartile

'Obs' reporting '0.05' denote 'Trace' amounts (observed but not measurable)

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Read more »

Winter '23 / '24 - Snow Storm #3: FINAL Results and Storm Summary

BOS - Fenway Park
(01-APR-97)

Complete forecaster verification table and the FINAL Results / Storm Summary
available at NEWxSFC/s home page.

SUMSQ:  sum of square error (")
SUMSQ Z:  Z-score
STP:  storm total precipitation error (")
TAE:  total absolute error (")
AAE:  average absolute error (")
(#):  category rank

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Forecast by Observed Snowfall Scatterplots for Top 4 Forecasts

Forecast/s dotted blue line below (above) the Observed snowfall/s solid red line ==> under (over) forecast bias.

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Comparison of Top 4 Forecasts and Observed Snowfall by Station

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Forecaster Skill Score (measured against NWS ER WFOs)

Skill: positive values indicate the forecast/s percentage improvement over NWS forecasts.

Bias:  the arithmetic difference between the average Forecast snowfall and the average Observed snowfall (avgForecast - avgObserved).

Winter '23 / '24 - Snow Storm #3: STP Verification - Preliminary

VT - Marshfield cemetery (1953)

Preliminary verification of storm-total snowfalls for WED though FRI based on reporting from CDUS41 (CLI) ... CXUS51 (CF6) ... METARs ... and PNS bulletins issued by NWS.

Excellent coverage and reporting.

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Snow-to-liquid ratios (SLR) less than 8:1 are not reported for stations with measurable snowfall b/c significant liquid and / or freezing precipitation also occurred during the verification period.

The 'TOT SLR' field is the quantity-weighted average of those forecast stations with at least an 8:1 SLR.

Read more »

Winter '23 / '24 - Snow Storm #3: The Forecasts!

Rookie      -
Intern      -
Journey      -
Senior      9
GOVT      1
PWSP      -
TOT      10 

Forecaster table ranked ascending by the forecast storm-total precipitation (STP)

BLUE ==> 1st quartile
RED ==> 4th quartile
WHITE and GREY STP cells range between the 1st and 4th quartile

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Heaviest snowfall (+6") consensus along and to the right of BGR - PWM - CON - BGR.  Lollypop expected at CON.

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Teleconnections

Everyone/s station-by-station forecast at the Contest/s web site.
Direct link to the forecast table.

Winter '23 / '24 - Snow Storm #3: RAW Forecasts

Click through on Read more >> to see forecasts.

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Winter '23 / '24 - Snow Storm #3: Call for Forecasts!

RDU - 300-block East Martin St.
03-APR-1915

A rare contest-worthy snow storm in APR expected over northern portions of the forecast area.

The last time this happened was 13 years ago in 2011 and only three times prior in the Contest/s 25-year history.

- Enter your forecast at the NEWxSFC/s home page at http://www.newx-forecasts.com/

- Follow the top-of-page link from 'Enter Snow Storm Forecast'

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Forecast element: each station/s storm-total snowfall

Deadline for entries:  10 PM EDT TUE ... 02-APR-24
Verification period BEGINS:  12:01 AM EDT WED ... 03-APR-24
Verification period ENDS:  11:59 PM EDT the day snow stops accumulating

By entering ... you also get the chance to see how well your forecast stacks up against NWS Eastern Region's Weather Forecast Offices. Turns out they/ve been easy to beat!

Who Can Enter
Amateur and professional forecasters; broadcasters with or without trained Seals; any and all other weather-biz types and / or wanna-bees; wish-casters ... astrologers ... along with any other universally recognized class of dreamers; Pollyannas or Cassandras ... registered Nostradamuses ... non-violent megalomaniacs ... woolly-bear caterpillars or their Agents ... pest detectives ... ne.wx news group survivors; riders on the StormVista ... refugees from AmericanWx and/or USWeather free agents ... including self-imposed exiles from Eastern Wx ... and of course ... meteorologists.

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