Blizzard of '96 remembered

[uncle W]

I am new to the area, having moved to Somerville, NJ in January of this year. Before that I lived for 4.5 years in Northborough, MA and before that 7 years in Albany, NY. I'm a prolific snow lover, but I moved here for love. I'm panicked at the loss of snow that I'm taking, so I'm trying to concentrate on all the good qualities of my adopted area. I've been exploring and finding some things to love around here. I'm not sure if Somerville would be included in the NY metro area or the Phily metro area. I'm guessing NYC. But we are kind of in a world of our own here, I guess.

I small bit of background on me, in 1984-1986 I went to UNC Asheville and I worked for the National Climatic Data Center. That was the highlight of my working life. I used the library there and acquired immense amount of weather data. Also, my boss often got me yearly LCD's and other fun stuff because he knew what a nut I was for it. I used to spend hours analyzing all the data I had, but I would say I have slowly died down over the last 10 years. But I still follow as best I can.

Anyhow, back in the 90's I lived in Western MA, and in January of 96 I was living in Russell, a small town just in the Berkshires. My parents owned a home near the top of a 900 foot or so mountain, and I figured we were at about 800 to 850 feet in elevation. Russell is the next town to the west of Westfield, which is two towns west of Springfield, MA. In 96, I worked for a bank in downtown Northampton, MA and it would take me 35 or 40 minutes to drive there from Russell, in a northeast direction. I remember the storm of 96 very well. I was visiting relatives in Ludlow, MA on that Sunday and I was watching the weather channel all day at their house. I will never forget the excitement I had that day. Sometimes I really really miss it and I get sad that it's long past. I was 31 in 1996. I would say that 95-96 was the best winter I have ever experienced overall. If it wasn't for that horrid rainstorm in the middle of January it would be THE best, bar none. (Sadly I was living in Phoenix, AZ during the 93-94 winter, and I'll never know if that one would have beat it). Luckily I was living in Russell during the whole of the 95-96 winter, and I measured the snow after every fall.

Back to the storm. The snow started overnight Sunday to Monday in the Berkshires and I awoke to a buried car. I remember I called the bank and they said there would be a delayed opening. I told them my care was completely buried so there was no way I was coming in. Our driveway up on the mountain was long and curvy, and the road down was also pretty tough in the snow. Luckily, about 2 hours later the bank called to say there would stay closed for the day. So I got to shovel all day and enjoy the snow! I measured 24.5 inches, which is more than the snow depth maps have for me. In fact, the next day I went in to work in Northampton, and they had about 18 inches, but per all the maps the deep snow was much further south. I'm not sure how they got that wrong. This was the most snow I have ever personally measured for any storm in my whole life. (althought there were two storms when I was 13 in Southern VT, Feb of 78 and Dec of 78 that I remember had tons of snow but I didn't measure). This storm will forever remain in my memory as one of the best, but it wasn't THE best due to the fact most of it fell during the night. I measured 143.5 inches of snow in Russell for the 95-96 season, by far the most. After the storm and just before the big dissapointment, I had from 40 to 45 inchest of snow on the ground. Then the worst hit, and that rotten warm, rain hit and all but 12 inches of it went. We did get more snow that winter, lots more, but it never got back up much over 30 inches. I can only imagine how deep it would have gotten if that rain hadn't hit.

My best storm was when I was living in the Albany, NY area in December of 03. I got very lucky in Albany and we had some memorable storms when I lived there. But the Dec 03 storm was the best. It fell all day on a Saturday, so not only did I get to see it fall heavily all day, I also had Sunday to enjoy it before work. I measured 23.5 inches in Cohoes, where I was living, and this was only 1 inch lower than 96. Also, that Sunday was the Troy, NY winter walk, with carolers, mulled cider, Victorian costume, reindeer, all with 2 feet of snow on the ground. Perfection.

My most recent best snow experience was 2 winters ago, 2010-11, in Northborough/Worcester, MA. I had 48 inches of snow that month, for a memorable winter. But strangely it snowed only for six weeks, from late December to early February and that was it. Then before I moved to NJ, I had 8 inches in that strange October snowstorm. I'm really hoping that next winter gives a good fall here in Somerville, but we'll see. Nothing could be as bad as last winter. It snowed 3 or 4 inches the day I moved in on January 21st and then nothing measurable after that.

welcome to the area...Summerville gets some good snowfalls at times...

There was a weather station there that ended obs in 2006...