Article information provided by William Cook

From the article on AIR Worldwide Corporation's website:  http://www.air-worldwide.com/_public/html/air_currentsitem.asp?ID=1097#

"Editor's note: The U.S. winter storm season has been one of extremes this year, thanks to El Niño conditions over the tropical Pacific and the position of the jet stream (which has remained further to the north than is typical for this time of year). While the Northeast has been enjoying what could almost be described as balmy weather, the Pacific Northwest was hit in mid-December by the worst storm in a decade, and Colorado has been buried under a series of snowstorms that have resulted drifts nearly 15 feet high in some parts of the state.

This year's winter weather highlights the three components that make up the AIR U.S. Winter Storm Model: temperature, wind and precipitation. This season, however, only the Pacific Northwest winter storm has resulted in any significant insured losses. That storm brought high winds and heavy precipitation to much of Washington and Oregon over a two-day period from December 14-15. In its ALERT posting following the storm, AIR estimated that insured losses could reach as high as $500 million. Preliminary analyses of client claims data and PCS estimates for Washington and Oregon suggest that the AIR model performed quite well in real time.

While snow accumulations in Denver have been considerable, property damage thus far has not. The reason goes to the question of which is more important: snow depth or snow weight. AIR Director of Atmospheric Science Pete Dailey addresses this below in the second installment of our series on climate research."

Covered in the article:

• What's More Important: Depth or Weight?
• Why is Snow Load (Weight) Important?
• How is Snow Load Modeled?