patrickbrusil said:
This seems early for 34 inches fo snow - anyone know if that is a large amount of snow in october?
Yup, it's a record-breaking amount, according to the AP report:
[start quote]Mount Washington beats two snow records
October 18, 2005
MOUNT WASHINGTON, N.H. --While most of New Hampshire continues to enjoy a warm fall, it's like the dead of winter on Mount Washington.
A weekend snowstorm on the highest peak in the Northeast set two records for October.
The 6,288-foot summit got 34 inches of snow between Saturday and Monday, beating the record for the most snowfall from a single storm in October. It also beat the record for the most snow in 24 hours in October, with 25.5 inches falling between noon Sunday and noon Monday.
"Basically, we've had white-out conditions for the last three days," weather observer David Balfrey said Tuesday morning.
He said it looks like January or February, with 12-foot drifts and tons of ice that has to be chipped off their instruments. That means climbing weather towers and smashing the ice with crowbars, hammers, "anything heavy and blunt," Balfrey said. "It's not the most scientific end of our job."
Balfrey said he and his fellow observers are confident they will beat the record for October snowfall. They are only 5 1/2 inches short of the record of 39.8 inches set in 1969 and more snow was on the way.
"We are pretty sure we'll get another four or five inches before the end of month," he said. And he is keeping his fingers crossed for a lot more.
"We definitely enjoy this kind of weather," he said. "That's what we sign up for." [end quote]
There's a nice story
here about cdx during the storm. As Mr Lareau notes, it means absolutely nothing (predictive) about the rest of the winter.