Hey rockstars,

To everyone affected by this latest snowstorm: I hope you’re staying safe and warm.

Yesterday I went to my friend Cait’s wedding in Philly! Cait was one of my best friends when we both went to Drexel for our first year of law school. I ended up leaving to move to DC but I would not have gotten through 1L without her. During 1L we would go “boy scouting” in the Penn campus across the street (aka searching for cute boys but never talking to them). Even after I left, she is the kind of person who never hesitated to make time fo rme — proposing coffee dates or lunch plans, or walks in Rittenhouse Square. I had been excited for our wedding for MONTHS.

Living in total ignorance of the forecast, I didn’t even realize a storm was coming until I tried to make Sunday brunch plans. My friend told me we were expecting 10 inches of snow. Without school closings to look forward to, I just hadn’t been paying attention.

The worry only sank in when I remembered “wait I’m supposed to drive to Philly this weekend.” All week, the forecast looked dicey, because the snow was supposed to start in DC “on Saturday afternoon.” I debated whether I should leave early, whether I should risk being snowed in for 4 days, and my friend Teju at work suggested to drive the extra hour from Philly to Jersey and get snowed in with her. Wracked with worry, I finally got reprieve on Friday afternoon. Finally the predicted start time for the snow shifted to 11pm on Saturday and I knew that I could make it to (and back from!) the wedding, even if I had to leave a little early.

A lot of you said you really loved the physics portion of one of my posts, and I have thought about creating a physics mini series. Here, is another part of that series: the anatomy of a storm.

To predict where and when it will snow, meteorologists solve complex equations across three-dimensional space and time. It primarily comes down to tracking low-pressure systems and thermal boundaries.

Snow typically falls to the north and northwest of a surface low-pressure center. If the track of that "L" on the weather map shifts by even 50 miles, the heavy snow band moves from your city to a neighboring one. Forecasters don't just look at ground temperature; they use "soundings" (vertical profiles) to analyze every layer of the atmosphere. If there’s a "warm layer" even a few thousand feet up, snowflakes melt into rain or sleet before they reach you.

You know that feeling when you’re looking at the sky and it looks like it should snow but it doesn’t? That’s called virga, when precipitation falls from a cloud but evaporates before hitting the ground.

And predicting the when? That happens through Numerical Weather Prediction, where forecasters plug current data from satellites, radar, weather balloons, and ground stations and the computer solves for fluid motion, thermodynamics, and moisture every few minutes into the future.

By doing this, it calculates when the leading edge of a moisture shield will arrive at a specific set of coordinates. As a storm gets to within 24-48 hours, meteorologists switch from global models to high-resolution models that update every hour to refine the arrival time of the "changeover" from rain to snow. 

Because water has a high "latent heat of fusion," it takes immense energy to turn a snowflake into a raindrop. If that "L" moves slightly, the rain-snow line sweeps across the map like a blade, turning a blizzard into a cold drizzle in minutes.

The Persistence of Kindness

Back to the wedding. Being there was a total blast from the past. I was reunited with Rob and Ali, the other members of our core 1L group.

In 2023, I actually told myself I never wanted to visit Philly again. The city held too many memories of a life I didn’t live anymore. Whenever I passed it on the Amtrak to New York, my breath would catch. I’d be flooded with images of the streets I used to walk and the coffee shops I frequented. I can’t tell you exactly when it changed, but eventually, “Philly is fine, I guess” turned into “Philly is great! Let’s take a day trip.”

It’s funny—the things you think you’ll never get over often end up being just fine.

A few nights ago, my friend Sarah and I were talking about old crushes. She asked, “If they showed up right now and proposed, who would you say yes to?” I realized that people I once had persistent, loyal crushes on—people I was convinced I’d love forever—now elicited a simple, “Nah, I don’t think we’d be happy together.” Time changes the landscape.

But some things are static. Sitting with Rob and Ali felt exactly like 2018. Back then, we were trying to figure out Torts; now, we were discussing litigating actual cases. When I told them I had to leave early to beat the snow, I immediately got multiple offers of a place to stay. And throughout the night, each one of us said, “it is so good to catch up with you both!”

I haven’t talked to some of these people in five years, yet the kindness persisted. We laughed about old lunches and birthdays I had completely forgotten until they brought them up. We even made new memories—Rob designed my “future Porsche” for my vision board, and we bonded over (actually, fought about) the upcoming Harry Potter series.

Maybe that’s the takeaway: it doesn’t matter how much time passes. You can always fall back into a great place with the right people. Even when the weather (and your life) is unpredictable, kind people remain a constant.

Until next time!

xo

Sandhya

Celebrate my 30th year around the sun with me! Click the follow or subscribe button to stay updated! You can also connect with me on twitter, my coffee and checkins Instagram, my podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or Amazon Music. Have a topic suggestion? Email me at coffeeandcheckins@gmail.com! I’d love to hear from you!🙂❤