A snow record is officially on the books in New Jersey ... 30 years later
New Jersey climatologist David Robinson says blame him for the delay.
NOAA announced this week that a New Jersey weather station set a state record for seasonal snowfall.
It just took awhile to confirm. The season in question was the eventful winter of 1995-96.
What took so long?
“There’s nothing nefarious about it,” said David Robinson, the longtime state climatologist. “You can blame me.”
Robinson, a Rutgers University professor and snow expert, said he was aware at the time of the 122-inch total measured at High Point in North Jersey during the eventful winter of 1995-96.
The High Point total finally was confirmed in March 2022 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s State Climate Extremes Committee, of which Robinson is a member and whose mission it is to validate records, a sometimes complicated process.
The findings, released Tuesday, were published in a 60-page memorandum authored by Chris Stachelski, an official with the National Weather Service’s Eastern Regional Headquarters.
The report included several pages of images and discussion of the 1995-96 winter during which Philadelphia experienced its biggest snow in its 140-year period of record.
As state climatologist, Robinson said he long had intended to vet the 122-inch figure.
He said he was well familiar with the observer who was measuring all that snow and that he is “someone who is meticulous.”
Robinson said one might ask why he didn’t seek to verify the record sooner.
“I didn’t. It was too far on the back burner for far too long.”
Robinson said the impetus was a national effort a few years back to assemble snowfall records for every state, and that prompted him to look again at the High Point record.
He said the weather service ultimately took the lead in the investigation, and after a meeting with Stachelski, the committee decided 10 feet of snow truly fell upon High Point that winter.