Talk:December 2017 North American winter storm

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Bruxton talk 14:35, 21 December 2023 (UTC)

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• Article history

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• ... that a winter storm in December 2017 cancelled an attempt at the world's largest snowball fight at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey? Source: https://nj1015.com/nj-snow-storm-quickly-makes-impact-and-cancels-snowball-fight-at-six-flags/
  • Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/The Lit. Bar

Created by Tails Wx (talk). Self-nominated at 02:28, 28 November 2023 (UTC). Post-promotion hook changes for this nom will be logged at Template talk:Did you know nominations/December 2017 North American winter storm; consider watching this nomination, if it is successful, until the hook appears on the Main Page.

• Article appears to meet DYK requirements (was nominated on time and adequate length). I didn't detect any close paraphrasing, and the hook is cited inline, interesting to a non-specialist audience, and is verified in the source. QPQ has been done. Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 11:19, 16 December 2023 (UTC)

I see the hook represented and cited in the first sentence of the Mid-Atlantic section. Bruxton (talk) 14:34, 21 December 2023 (UTC)

New York

I don’t like how this article cuts out any NYC impact, and the way it’s written, a paragraph has to be written for it to survive in its current layout. NYC and NYS info should be added in. 69.116.96.128 (talk) 19:52, 28 November 2023 (UTC)

I've added some information on the winter storm's impacts on New York and New York City. Feel free to add additional information on the winter storm's impacts on the state, but do note that the Snow Bowl (2017) had nothing to do with the winter storm, per the The Weather Channel's recap of the winter storm. Tails Wx 02:15, 30 November 2023 (UTC)

Secondary source that shows WP:LASTING impact

https://www.ksat.com/weather/2022/12/07/the-improbable-snowfall-of-december-7-2017/ But I’m not sure where to put it. 72.80.108.242 (talk) 18:18, 29 December 2023 (UTC)

Not just that, but in Texas alone: Spectrum News, FOX San Antonio, KAGS-TV, this, and more. There's also this for Alabama, I imagine more secondary sources than these and other states. ~ Tails Wx 19:34, 29 December 2023 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:December 2017 North American winter storm/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: Tails Wx (talk · contribs)

Reviewer: Pickersgill-Cunliffe (talk · contribs) 18:23, 23 March 2024 (UTC)

Will take a look at this shortly. Pickersgill-Cunliffe (talk) 18:23, 23 March 2024 (UTC)

Prelim

• Mid-Atlantic (United States) and Northeastern United States are duplicated links in the lede
• Framingham, Massachusetts is a duplicated link in the final paragraph
• Article is stable
• Images are correctly licensed. There are a lot of them, I might consider removing one or two.
• Earwig reports copyvio unlikely

Gone ahead and addressed all your comments here! Looking forward to your full review! :) ~ Tails Wx (🐾, me!) 21:11, 25 March 2024 (UTC)

Lede and infobox

• "Winter Storm Benji" is a redirect to this page and should be bolded rather than italicised
• The sentence cited to ref. #2 does not seem like one that should necessitate a citation in the lede. Surely this broad information is also provided in the main text?
• The regional snowfall index number is not cited in the infobox but does not seem to appear anywhere in main text
• By my count the cost of the damage does not add up to $1.6 million, but 1.06 million?
• Similarly I'm counting 699,660 power outages
• Lede is a little short for the size of the article. Suggest adding more on the impacts at least.
• The article mentions more than one low-pressure area. Should this be titled "storm" or "storms"?

Meteorological synopsis

• "On December 7" Obvious, but suggest adding the year here as this is the first date in main text
• "southwesterly flow" technical term needs explaining or linking, I don't know what a flow is
• "frontal boundary" as above
• Ibid "A zone of intense frontogenic forcing" (frontogenic should also be linked)
• Do we have any background for the storm? Was it expected, and/or do we have any more details on the conditions that caused the cold front etc to form?
• "surface front" per above, the average reader won't have a clue what this means
• This is the "North American" winter storm. You mention that the storm headed over to Canada but end the narrative there. Did anything happen in Canada? When did the storm dissipate?

Preparations and impact

• "Icy conditions led to..." considering this is a multiple day event a date here would be useful
• Suggest swapping "pileup" for "collision"
• "second measurable snowfall there" i'm assuming this means second ever, but could be emphasized
• "which was also the second-earliest snowfall"
• "first December snowfall since 1948" word missing here, awkward
• Link hypothermia
• Link wind chills
• "for central portions of the state" I know it's in the heading, but explicitly name the state for the start of this (and every other state-based) section
• ", respectively" comma unnecessary
• "third-highest snow total recorded there" to avoid "snow" being our word of the day!
• "prompting emergency department visits" this is very vague, what exactly is an emergency department visit...and what are they visiting?!
• I don't know whether this is accessible detail, but what is actually causing the power outages?
• "portions of Interstate 10," should this be a full stop?
• "preparation for the winter storm"
• "and there was $820,000 of property damage"
• "where 15 inches (38 cm) was recorded, which was recorded as the seventh-highest" again just trying to avoid too much repetition of "snow fall", "snow fell", "snow", etc
• "I-65" you don't use this shortened road name anywhere else, so suggest using the full here as well
• "Since then,As of December 2023, Birmingham has not since seen more than 1 inch (2.5 cm) of snowfall"
• "As winter storm warnings and advisories were in effect for numerous counties in Georgia" this wording suggests that the winter storm warnings caused the snow fall, which I don't think is what you intend!
• "A seven-vehicle crash closed all lanes" on which date? interspersing the article as a whole with some more dates would be useful
• "In preparation for the winter storm"
• "A state championship game" which sport?
• The aforementioned sentence is very awkward and could be reworded. E.g. "Two [sport] state championship games were delayed; one between Wake Forest High School and Mallard Creek High School, and the other between Scotland High School and Harding University High School"
• Worth noting in main text that the Mount Mitchell snow was the heaviest snowfall of all
• I don't think it was the "icy conditions" themselves that killed a person on Route 29
• "near the bridge as well"
• "Temperatures reached a high" do you mean high or low? Doesn't make much sense to be discussing high temperatures in a snow storm surely?
• "A level 2/slight risk warning was issued"?
• What's a "funnel cloud"?
• "where 9 inches (23 cm) was reported"
• "Across Maryland, athletic events in Baltimore" it isn't "across Maryland" if you're only discussing Baltimore
• "consisting with more than 18,000 tons of salt across Baltimore County" this does not make sense. Do you mean something like "spreading 18,000 tons of salt across the county"?
• What's the difference between a winter storm advisory and a winter storm warning? Do they require people to do/not do different things?
• "A speed restriction was also implemented"
• "300 equipment pieces also were"
• "A parking ban was issued..." this sentence needs to be split up, it's far too convoluted. Try not to use so many commas!
• "228 motorist assists" what?
• "incidents of vehicles sliding off roads"
• "including in Bangor and Auburn"
• Is there any aftermath for this? Any rebuilding, changes in storm preparation, etc?
• The image caption "Snowfall in Hiram, which resulted in felled trees across the city" needs a citation; tree felling is not mentioned in main text

References

• References look good. Two uses of Twitter which should be replaced if possible but aren't egregious.

@Tails Wx: Hi, that's all I have for now. I will await your responses. Please ping me when you are ready for another look. Pickersgill-Cunliffe (talk) 13:37, 29 March 2024 (UTC)

Hey Pickersgill-Cunliffe, thanks for the GA review! I've addressed most of your comments above, with a few comments:

• I don't think it should be titled "December 2017 North American winter storms", given that it was basically a complex winter storm and not really two separate winter storms.

• I'm in no way an expert in weather of any type, but just wanted to check on the terminology.

• Is there a specific Manual of Style policy as to why Winter Storm Benji should be bolded rather than italicized? If I were to be consistent with other winter weather-related articles, then italicizing the unofficial winter storm name given by The Weather Channel would be best. Otherwise, is there a MoS for bolding it, or a different explanation?

• Per MOS:BOLD: "Boldface is often applied to the first occurrence of the article's title word or phrase in the lead. This is also done at the first occurrence of a term (commonly a synonym in the lead) that redirects to the article or one of its subsections". Winter Storm Benji redirects to December 2017 North American winter storm, and as such boldface would be appropriate.

• I added the background to the winter storm, or the precursor to the cold front which set up the winter storm, and re-wrote it a bit here.
• I can't find anything about Canada as a result of this winter storm, but rather stuff from a different winter storm unrelated to this one (an Alberta clipper).
• It isn't a level 2/slight risk warning, it's basically a risk from an outlook published by the Storm Prediction Center. I did clarify it a bit here for what the outlook was about.
• Linked funnel cloud.
• Basically, a winter weather advisory's a hazard statement put out by the National Weather Service, but a less significant bulletin than a winter storm warning. Travel can be affected during a winter weather advisory; while impacts to daily life and impacts can be severely impacted during a winter storm warning, preparations can be taken more often in a warning rather than an advisory.
• Nothing in the storm's aftermath from what I found.

~ Tails Wx (🐾, me!) 21:35, 30 March 2024 (UTC)

@Tails Wx: I've responded above, plus some more remarks here:

• The Regional Snowfall Index differs between infobox and main text. I would also suggest moving the cited information into the main text as well, so as not so have it only in the lede and remove the necessity of having another lede citation
• Can you definitely say in main text when the storm ended? Right now the narrative ends with it moving over Canada. While I understand you say there's no mention of anything happening in Canada with the storm, the article is currently very open-ended with what happens, or doesn't happen, after this point.

Both  Done, I did find a couple sources out there that likely connect the winter storm with a European storm, so the Meteorological Synopsis section was expanded further to account for that and a section for impacts in Germany and Switzerland was added. Feel free to go over the section to see if there's any fixes to be made with it; preferably grammar. Thanks! (Courtesy ping Pickersgill-Cunliffe!) :) ~ Tails Wx (🐾, me!) 18:21, 31 March 2024 (UTC)

Passing this as satisfying the GA criteria. I note you don't need to bold the names within main text when they're already bolded in the lede. Pickersgill-Cunliffe (talk) 20:56, 31 March 2024 (UTC)

Units

Metric should display first on a scientific article. John (talk) 20:03, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

I fixed up units and made a few copyedits. John (talk) 12:21, 20 October 2024 (UTC)