* 52% is the percent of the lower 48 states covered by snow or ice this morning. (51.6 to be exact) That is an estimate based on snow surveys and satellite photography by the National Weather Service. You can draw a line across Northern New Mexico, North Texas, SE Missouri to Central Indiana and everything north of that line has a snow pack which extends all the way across the North Pole.
* 16% was the coverage last month at this time.
* 100% of Canada is covered.
* 100% of Alaska is covered, except the extreme Western Aleutians.
* 179 inches was the snow depth at Jackwhacker Gulch, Colorado at an elevation of almost 11,000 feet.
* 268 inches is the snow depth at some other remote high altitude locations in the Rocky Mountain West.
* 266 inches reported at Bear Mountain, Idaho. Remember, these locations with extremely heavy amounts are very remote unpopulated areas.
* 12 inches of snow at Jay Peak, Vermont was one of the heaviest amounts in the last 24 hours.
* 300 miles was the distance that news reports indicated this morning that I-10 across South Texas was icy.
* 27 below zero was the temperature on Mt. Washington, New Hampshire this morning.
* 96 mph was the wind gust out of the NW.
* 74 below zero was the wind chill on Mt. Washington.
* 18 below was the temperature in Saranac Lake, New York this morning. The northeast is very cold.
* 25 below was the low in Craig, Colorado–one of the coldest spots in the nation.
* 24 at Vinemont in North Cullman County was one of the coldest in Alabama this morning.
* 137 mph was the peak wind gust near Boulder, Colorado on this date in 1982 during a major Chinook wind event. (Got that item from Bill Murray’s weather notebook feature.)
