ariof

Fairbanks usually has cold snaps that last for about a month and then a warmer regime enters (warmer = above zero for highs). They've been below 0 all but one day since Dec 5, and below -10 most of that time (with several days with highs below -40 and lows to -50, but that's in the cold sink there). -19 anomaly for Dec. When it has warmed up it's snowed; 24" in Dec (avg 10"), just deep, deep winter there, at least another week to come. Anchorage was only 6° BN in Dec and dry, only 5" vs 18" normal. But they just pulled down 19" this week and are running-17 this month, with more to come snow- and cold-wise. And then Juneau: -12° anomaly in December with 82" of snow vs 18" normal. Normal amount of liquid (6.5") just it usually falls as liquid mostly. Second-snowiest month on record. And they're about to get a lot of rain on top of it. Eaglecrest might be above the snow line, should have great skiing. $57 per day if you buy a 10-ride pass.

I don't remember that winter particularly well although I think there was a day we had a good, solid glaze and after school we played on a grassy hill which had become a sledding hill, no hills needed. I would have loved to see the meltdown on this forum in January. KBOS had 34" of snow, a -8 anomaly and ended the month with 3" otg (was at 16 mid-month). Jan 15-21 had lows at Logan below 10 every day, yet somehow lost 8" of snow, because two of those days had highs in the mid-40s and 1" of +RA. And if that's not bad enough, during that same time period ORH went -12 1 -1 45 -2 35 -8 4 Imagine someone telling you that over the course of four days, ORH was going to be below 0 every night, two days won't climb out of the singles, and, oh, yeah, there was going to be an inch of rain. Toaster sales must have been through the roof.

Sidewalks in Cambridge/Somerville were treacherous in places, fine in others. Roads mostly fine (I wound up walking in them) as they've seen some salt. 32 feels warm after the past few weeks.

Trend = friend

On an Acela going eastbound through Connecticut. Went from a coating in NYC to S+ between Stamford and New Haven, everything white, snow flying past the windows. Now in New London and there's nothing. From the looks of the Connecticut Turnpike, pretty glad we didn't wind up making this as a drive.

Me on I-84 pulling into Reins.

That was the great skunking for Eastern Mass. Sunday evening every model was predicting a foot of snow for most of SNE, the 12Z model suite (and maybe some of the 06Z suite) started backing off of it and by 18Z it was gone north and east of Connecticut. This was the BOX AFD from 1614 on Monday for a storm on Tuesday: Well, I'll get right to the point with this update, there's been a big change to the forecast this afternoon based on a remarkably late but notable trend in the 12z/18z guidance which now keeps the bulk of the snow centered over the south coast of southern New England. This change is due not only to a southern shift in the track of the low but also a notable shift in the 500 mb trough; with a slower and less amplified solution and the northern and southern stream energy failing to phase/strengthen as they pass through the region. This shift has notably moved the zone of mid level frontogenesis to the south, and since we typically see the best forcing/banding to the northwest of the maxima this places southeast MA/Cape Cod and southern RI in the bullseye. BUFKIT soundings do indicate decent omega (forcing for lift) within the dendritic snow growth zone further north into MA, so we should still see some decent snowfall there, but the maxima looks to be south and east. While this is remarkably late in the game for such a relatively big shift, nearly all of the 12Z guidance including the 12Z ECMWF, 18Z NAM, 18Z HRRR and more show it. At this point, of course, most of the schools had canceled classes for Tuesday, a bunch of events were canceled, and the next day, aside from some minor accumulations on grass, anywhere northeast of Connecticut had a reasonably nice day. Toaster sales, however, were through the roof in the Boston area!

You don't really need to use the R here, but "Damariscotter Destroyah" if you pause long enough between the words.

95" in 30 days is not only the highest 30-day snowfall in BOS, but more than any 30-day period in any major city in the country. (BUF had 80" in a week in Dec 2001 but very little on either side; Orchard Park has seen more but BUF is a smaller city and the totals are banded mesoscale, not the synoptic 90"+ around BOS.) I think Sapporo has had a couple of 100" months, and it's probably the only large (2m+) city to have ever seen a heavier 30-day snowfall than that 30-day period in BOS.

I can’t remember who was asking but the report from Boston is that the Charles basin is pretty much fully frozen over. Looks thin and will probably not last through the grinch on Friday. But still rare for December.

This grinch may be weak sauce compared with other years (and certainly 2020). 00Z op GFS CADs NNE and some areas barely get to 40. Surface winds don't look that bad, either. On the 12Z and 18Z GFS, MVL is showing ~6 hours above 40, BML barely cracks 40. The ECMWF spikes both sites to 50 but not for very long. Compare that to the mega grinch: MVL was above 50˚ for 22 hours, and above 40˚ for 37! BML was 22 and 44 hours! At least that year we got to sit outside in t-shirts and let the winds blow he covid around. (Had there been snowpack, the 2015 grinch would have been worse, with temperatures pushing 70˚ in Vermont; but there was nothing to steal.)

It's [looks out window] still liquid downstream of the BU Bridge but was frozen upstream where it's narrower/shallower/less windy at least before the brief warmup/light rain (I haven't been across it in that area since). Probably too much thermal mass and wind to freeze that over without a couple of cool, calm nights, although the wind is probably cooling it nicely. I think the last time it froze in Boston in December was late 2017, but then melted out once that cold snap abated a few weeks later ("abated" being a nice way of saying "2 inches of rain at 60°"). The all-timer was 2015, of course, when it froze in early Jan and melted out on something like April 3.

The first 10 days of the month at KBOS are 38.5 / 24 / 31.3, and that's underselling since there were a couple of days which with "highs" in the 30s which occurred just after or before midnight. Coldest start to the month since 2007.

How quickly you forget Grinch 2020. 18-36 across CNE/NNE on the 15th to 17th, followed by a cold week. Then 2" RA at 55+ wiped it all out (and with the winds and dews even some manmade trails were scoured off). These are all snow depths; actual accumulation before settling was often higher. Woodstock Vt: 18"-->0" RUT: 18" --> 0" Peru, Vt: 31" --> 4" CON: 21" --> 2" GYX: 11" --> 0" Poland, Maine: 18" --> 0" PWM: 13" --> 0" Bradford, NH: 19" --> 3" Sandwich, NH: 16" --> 0" EEN: 18" --> 0" Newport, NH: 25" --> 2"

More for the Grinch to steal.