The Northeast snowfall impact scale ( NESIS ) was created to measure snowstorms in the U.S. Northeast in much the same way the Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale records hurricane intensity and the enhanced Fujita scale with tornadoes . This scale takes into account the very high population of the Northeast, and thus snowfall amounts are often smaller compared to what other areas of the USA would consider significant snowfall amounts.
7-534: NESIS was created by Paul Kocin of The Weather Channel and Louis Uccellini of the National Weather Service , classifies storms in one of five ways that range from notable (the weakest designation) to significant , major , crippling , and extreme . This helps to measure storms have on the economy and transportation throughout the major cities in the Northeastern United States as well as
14-561: A contractor then was hired by the US National Weather Service at the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center in 1989. Kocin worked as an on-air personality with The Weather Channel from 1998 to 2006. He returned to NOAA afterward, first as a surface weather analyst and then to the medium range desk, forecasting weather for Alaska up to eight days in advance. Along with Louis Uccellini, Kocin developed
21-778: The Century , the North American blizzard of 1996 , and the January 2016 United States blizzard —are in the Category 5, with a NESIS value higher than 10. The northeast is the first region in the U.S. to use a system that measures the impact of snowfall because it is so densely populated. The scale also allows for meteorologists to predict how long airport delays caused snowstorms will last and when things will become normal afterward. According to Uccellini, NESIS will be used to reevaluate recent snowstorms and measure their impact and not as forecasts such as
28-544: The country as a whole. The variables measured on the scale include area, amount of snowfall , and the number of people living in the path of the storm. These numbers are calculated into a raw data number ranging from "1" for an insignificant fall to over "10" for a massive snowstorm. Based on these raw numbers, the storm is placed into one of the five categories. The largest NESIS values result from storms producing heavy snowfall over large areas that include major metropolitan areas. Only three historical storms—the 1993 Storm of
35-490: The entire population of the affected area. This makes it unusable when trying to describe local conditions caused by a storm. Paul Kocin Paul Kocin (born May 6, 1955) is an American meteorologist and winter weather expert. He grew up on Long Island , New York and received his B.S. from Cornell University , followed by his M.Sc. from Pennsylvania State University . After graduation, he briefly worked for NASA as
42-430: The ones that are created for hurricanes. By using an example of the area from Washington D.C. to Boston, a notable, or category 1, snowfall would drop 4–10 inches of snow. A category 2 would affect same area but more people with more than 10 inches of snow on Mid-Atlantic seaboard. A category 3 would bring about 10–20 inches of snow and affect millions of people in the process. NESIS only takes into account
49-408: The raw snow totals and impacted population. It does not account for any of the following hazards associated with winter storms: A theoretical blizzard may only impact enough people with enough snow to rate a category 2 on NESIS, but bring winds of over 70 MPH, paralyzing the region for days as 5–10 foot drifts and windblown debris are removed. Also, NESIS specifically provides for the storm's impact to
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