Smit has the United States Weatherstation data to use ***as well as***the crime scene photos. The number on the far left is the day of the month of Dec. 26th. Snowfall is in inches and in the 5th. column. Total accumulation on the ground is the 6th. column. My comments on the meaning of this are at the end of the data below:
***16 40 14 0.23 3.8 4***
***17 18 -4 0.11 2.1 6***
18 18 -6 0 0 4
19 31 -4 0 0 4
20 49 22 0 0 3
21 47 36 0 0 2
22 52 20 0 0 1
***23 38 17 0.01 0.2 1***
24 44 24 0 0 T
25 54 24 0 0 T
***26 51 6 0 T 0***
27 59 26 0 0 0
28 54 37 0 0 0
29 64 34 0 0 0
30 60 42 0 0 0
31 65 32 0 0 0
The snow that covered the yard, as seen in the photos taken early on the morning of the 26th., fell on the 16th. & 17th.-a total of 5.9 inches.Then followed 6 days of above freezing daytime temperatures where the snow melted (down to an average depth of 1" on the 23rd. after a very light 0.2 inches fell. By the 25th. ONLY A TRACE of snow, on the average for the weather station for Boulder, WAS LEFT ON THE GROUND. Then on the 26th. a TRACE of snow fell with no significant accumulations, the "DUSTING". The remainder of the snow on the ground, just a "trace" melted on the 26th. Not much rain fell during the month, none in the two days prior to the 26th. It was a very light amount and I feel sure the ground was dry on the night of the 25th. & 26th.and probably hard.(edited to add these next sentences) The temperature at daybreak was close to 6 degrees, the daily low T, and the high of 51 degrees would have been reached in mid afternoon. That means that the snow probably did not start melting until late morning, or until after the photos had been taken.
There are trees on both sides of the house which would have blocked snowfall (dusting) to the ground beneath them, unless there were driving snows which was not the case. Based on this information I would say that the crime scene photos accurately depict what snow was on the ground at daybreak, Dec. 26th., 1996. I think it would be accepted as evidence in any court.
http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/Boulder/boulder.data.1990-99.html#Dec96
NOAA-CIRES Climate Diagnostics Center
Document maintained by Cathy Smith (cas@cdc.noaa.gov)
Updated: Jun 28, 2001 11:39:47 MDT
http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/Boulder/getdata.html
Every day from 1948 to the present for Boulder:
ftp://ftp.cdc.noaa.gov/Public/cas/boulder.daily.data