Northeast Snowfall Impact Scale - Gaps in Effectivity

Gaps in Effectivity

NESIS only takes into account the raw snow totals and impacted population. It does not account for any of the following hazards associated with winter storms.

• Blizzard conditions, blowing snow, and reduced visibility in general.
• Gale-force, storm-force, or even hurricane-force winds and accompanying dangerously low windchill temperatures, causing wind damage and frostbite
• Freezing rain up to and including Ice Storm conditions
• Sleet, which behaves like a thin layer of quicksand on the road. Cars sink in it or drive across the surface and then slide over the slick individual pellets when attempting to brake. Sleet is very difficult to remove from roads. Due to its self-distributive properties and high weight relative to snow, most snow removal equipment is not suited to the task of removing sleet. Sleet has been referred to as "winter's sand" because when walking across it, kicking it, or picking it up and letting it drop or slide through your fingers, it feels and behaves like sand.
• Thundersnow, which, as shown by Chicago's Groundhog Day Blizzard of 2011, can produce small hail and/or combine with destructive blizzard winds to meet the criteria for Severe thunderstorms (however, due to public confusion issues related to the connotation of the term "severe thunderstorm", typically associated with heavy rain, very few of these actually prompt a Severe thunderstorm warning from the U.S. National Weather Service)
• Storm Surge caused by the aforementioned winds on lakes and on the coast and accompanying wave action

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 the entire population of the affected area. This makes it unusable when trying to describe your local conditions caused by a storm.