5 years ago today

[Arnold214]

So they dumped nearly 20mb in 3 hours...nice. That's almost impossible to duplicate. The 10mb in 1 hour (they probably lost most of that in much less time) might be only be duplicatable in a very intense compact hurricane or a near TOR center. I think we know where the atmosphere loss most of its mass based on that obs sequence.

What an incredible compact super bomb that was.

yeah...maybe hurricane wilma in 2005 was close...but I'm not even sure it rates were that good in that one. Someone will have to check on that.

[ORH_wxman]

yeah...maybe hurricane wilma in 2005 was close...but I'm not even sure it rates were that good in that one. Someone will have to check on that.

That pretty much puts into perspective just how unique and awe-inspiring the 12/9/05 storm was in terms of it's meteorological evolution. It super bombed so quickly...probably something that put Hurricane Charley in its place for a very brief time...that the sensible weather attributes of it sort of takes away just how incredible it was. (well save for the Cape which briefly saw for 2-3 minutes cat 2-3 winds)

The way it did that has to be in the top 3 for a cold core system in the past few decades. I'm not sure what did it...one thing that sticks out to me is the strength of the vortmax...it was over 50 easily when it hit the warm waters south of LI...that type of vortmax is quite rare..especially in the fashion it got there. Most times when you see that type of value its already a wrapped up storm and the vortmax is not compact in a ball like that one was. Its spread out...and even the spread out types are rare to get that high. But that is only speculation on why it bombed like it did.

[Arnold214]

That pretty much puts into perspective just how unique and awe-inspiring the 12/9/05 storm was in terms of it's meteorological evolution. It super bombed so quickly...probably something that put Hurricane Charley in its place for a very brief time...that the sensible weather attributes of it sort of takes away just how incredible it was. (well save for the Cape which briefly saw for 2-3 minutes cat 2-3 winds)

The way it did that has to be in the top 3 for a cold core system in the past few decades. I'm not sure what did it...one thing that sticks out to me is the strength of the vortmax...it was over 50 easily when it hit the warm waters south of LI...that type of vortmax is quite rare..especially in the fashion it got there. Most times when you see that type of value its already a wrapped up storm and the vortmax is not compact in a ball like that one was. Its spread out...and even the spread out types are rare to get that high. But that is only speculation on why it bombed like it did.

yeah, the vortmax was pretty compact and unusually strong when it ejected out of the plains...I'm sure that was the start of it. The mammoth stratospheic intrusion is what made this storm what it was. What caused that to happen in the way it did I really don't know. I'm sure the compactness of the whole thing was a big key.

[CoastalWx]

You guys pretty much hashed it out, but this is in the top 5 for me in terms of all time storms...maybe even 3 or 4. I didn't get a ton of snow verbatim, but from a meteorological standpoint, it was fooking incredible.

I went to bed around 10am or so after the 3" of snow turned to rain, down in Marshfield. The one thing I remember was how impressive the radar already looked coming off of NJ. It already looked like it had a mini comma head, and I saw the reports of TSSN from eastern PA and NJ. I didn't expect to see what was about to transpire 4 hours from that point.

I woke up around 2:30 iirc to a phonecall from my mother. She was freaking out, asking me how to put the car in 4-wheel drive, she teaches in Brockton. I asked what she was talking about..lol, and she mentioned there was thunder, lightning, wind, and said just a total whiteout. I sprinted to the computer and could not believe what the heck I was seeing. I was shocked to see how bad it was, just 15 miles or so to my west.

At this point, it was dead calm. Very little wind. We were right about to get into that band of inflow convection. We did get into that convection for a time where it poured. After that band came through, the precip lightned up, but then the nw winds came. Perhaps maybe 30-40 mph. This was nothing as all hell broke loose about 5 minutes later.

I was bouncing back and forth from the computer to outside, waiting for the band to come through. The band was accompanied by 40-50 mph winds, that you could hear coming. It went to an instant whiteout in about 1 minute. As the snow intensified, I checked out the news to listen to all the reports coming in from metro west, and then the real winds came. I remember it sounded like a jet taking off from Logan. Just a massive roar shortly after 3 minutes or so after the heaviest snow started. It must have been gusting to near and above 70mph. I just remember these were fitful gusts with trees swaying everywhere. I can't get that vision out of my head. Normally trees just sway in one direction...trees were going all over the place. It looked like the wind was shifting from wnw to almost due north. Maybe some mixing from aloft...I don't know, but never saw anything like it. We had 2 cracks of thunder with this band and total whiteout conditions for maybe an hour or so, and then the wind lightened up along with the snow. I didnt lose power, but many around me did. It took my mom over 90 minutes to get home, from all the trees down on the roads.

This storm was fascinating in so many ways.

[whitemountainhiker]

Nice radar shot, as I was over in Chester right around the time of the radar.

And then the snow picked up :-o

That pic above was taken at either 2:39pm... But this very next picture....was taken less than an hour later

Peaceful winter scene...did we just get rocked, or was it like this all day??

and then, sunset, how sweet it was

Yea, we didn't get the thunder, but it was incredible nonetheless. The snow growth was pretty darn good like dendrite was saying....you could see it in the pics. If I remember correctly, we got 14-15 inches, and half of it fell in the final two hours. I remember it was a ho-hum, whatever storm through about 1pm or so. Then it picked up in a damn hurry!!

[adam038]

I'll never forget that day either. I should have known something was brewing because my wife went into labor on the 8th (we lived in Worcester at the time) and so off we went to St. Vincent's. Our son was born at 9 PM that night, albeit prematurely, and I spent the next couple of days at the hospital. Our car was parked in the Emergency Room parking lot, but I don't think I need to tell any of you that when it was time that I had to move the car, it was, oh about 4PM on the 9th. All I had to do was move it from essentially the back of the building to the front parking garage, but anyone who knows the streets right around St. Vincent's knows that I had to go ever so slightly uphill. I made it, but it was like being Mario in Donkey Kong. Cars were sliding in all lanes backwards or getting stuck in the middle of the hill. Besides that, the hospital room window (when I wasn't holding my sun) made for an interesting watch, seeing how it was facing the road.

Definitely in the top 5 most memorable storms for me with 10/4/87 (I grew up in Columbia County in NY) and it's 18" of snow/tree destruction, December 2008s ice storm, and Feb 2004 (?; Will, you'll have to help me on this one, but it was the one with 2 ft+ of snow, and I had just moved to Worcester and had nowhere to put all the snow).

[OKpowdah]

You guys pretty much hashed it out, but this is in the top 5 for me in terms of all time storms...maybe even 3 or 4. I didn't get a ton of snow verbatim, but from a meteorological standpoint, it was fooking incredible.

I went to bed around 10am or so after the 3" of snow turned to rain, down in Marshfield. The one thing I remember was how impressive the radar already looked coming off of NJ. It already looked like it had a mini comma head, and I saw the reports of TSSN from eastern PA and NJ. I didn't expect to see what was about to transpire 4 hours from that point.

I woke up around 2:30 iirc to a phonecall from my mother. She was freaking out, asking me how to put the car in 4-wheel drive, she teaches in Brockton. I asked what she was talking about..lol, and she mentioned there was thunder, lightning, wind, and said just a total whiteout. I sprinted to the computer and could not believe what the heck I was seeing. I was shocked to see how bad it was, just 15 miles or so to my west.

At this point, it was dead calm. Very little wind. We were right about to get into that band of inflow convection. We did get into that convection for a time where it poured. After that band came through, the precip lightned up, but then the nw winds came. Perhaps maybe 30-40 mph. This was nothing as all hell broke loose about 5 minutes later.

I was bouncing back and forth from the computer to outside, waiting for the band to come through. The band was accompanied by 40-50 mph winds, that you could hear coming. It went to an instant whiteout in about 1 minute. As the snow intensified, I checked out the news to listen to all the reports coming in from metro west, and then the real winds came. I remember it sounded like a jet taking off from Logan. Just a massive roar shortly after 3 minutes or so after the heaviest snow started. It must have been gusting to near and above 70mph. I just remember these were fitful gusts with trees swaying everywhere. I can't get that vision out of my head. Normally trees just sway in one direction...trees were going all over the place. It looked like the wind was shifting from wnw to almost due north. Maybe some mixing from aloft...I don't know, but never saw anything like it. We had 2 cracks of thunder with this band and total whiteout conditions for maybe an hour or so, and then the wind lightened up along with the snow. I didnt lose power, but many around me did. It took my mom over 90 minutes to get home, from all the trees down on the roads.

This storm was fascinating in so many ways.

Just left your mother hanging?

Decent snow storm in Keene. Nothing close to as dynamic as further east obviously, but very good dendritic growth with high ratios helped me reach 16"

Loved reading this thread btw. Great discussion Mike, Will, and Brian!

[CoastalWx]

Just left your mother hanging?

Decent snow storm in Keene. Nothing close to as dynamic as further east obviously, but very good dendritic growth with high ratios helped me reach 16"

Loved reading this thread btw. Great discussion Mike, Will, and Brian!

LOL, it was an older Nissan Pathfinder, but she didn't know how to engage 4 wheel drive.

That event made me dig into how the whole tropopause fold situation works. I understand the whole idea to a point, but I feel like to the community..it's not entirely clear cut. Or maybe it's me...I don't know, but it's something that interests me.

I'm the type of person, that can't let something go, just because the equation gives me an answer. I'm always the type that says..fine, ok there is the answer, but I want to know conceptually or qualitatively what that means. That's how I feel with this, but my understanding of this phenomenon is better now than a few years ago. It probably was a combo of things that caused this to be a bomb...two of which being the high PV air acting on what was probably low static stability air over the warmer waters. Just an incredible storm.

[Tropopause_Fold]

LOL, it was an older Nissan Pathfinder, but she didn't know how to engage 4 wheel drive.

That event made me dig into how the whole tropopause fold situation works. I understand the whole idea to a point, but I feel like to the community..it's not entirely clear cut. Or maybe it's me...I don't know, but it's something that interests me.

I'm the type of person, that can't let something go, just because the equation gives me an answer. I'm always the type that says..fine, ok there is the answer, but I want to know conceptually or qualitatively what that means. That's how I feel with this, but my understanding of this phenomenon is better now than a few years ago. It probably was a combo of things that caused this to be a bomb...two of which being the high PV air acting on what was probably low static stability air over the warmer waters. Just an incredible storm.

scott - do you have the ability through work to go back and run any cross-sections?

[CoastalWx]

scott - do you have the ability through work to go back and run any cross-sections?

I remember my friend at work made a cross section showing the air parcels coming right from ACK into metro west. I don't think he has it anymore, and we don't have the data archived, unfortunately. There was some good stuff in Dave Vallee's presentation, but I'm sure you saw it.

[ORH_wxman]

R.I.P. Dec 9, 2005 anniversary....a storm I will never forget.

One that will likely not be repeated any time soon either.