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Blizzard of 2005 Memories....


Chris L

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Memories of the January Blizzard of 2005...

I know Messenger had close to 40" of snow at his location...

Share your memories here. It is for sure #1 for Cape and Salem areas of Mass. Salem had 38". and supposely a 40.7" at Bridgewater, MA (Wiki has the 40" report on their page, but NWS PNS does not).. Not too sure how accurate that is, but Plymouth had 36".

Some totals can be seen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_blizzard_of_2005

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Thanks Scott. It sounded too high. But I don't doubt a 40" amount near the Cape. Maybe an isolated one.

I will say, when I went down to the upper Cape after the storm, the images I saw reminded me of the pics from the Bliz of '78. Just massive drifts and buried cars. We had some drifts down where I grew up in Marshfield to near the second story of some homes by the water, but the snow was pretty powdery which allowed it to drift much more.

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I will say, when I went down to the upper Cape after the storm, the images I saw reminded me of the pics from the Bliz of '78. Just massive drifts and buried cars. We had some drifts down where I grew up in Marshfield to near the second story of some homes by the water, but the snow was pretty powdery which allowed it to drift much more.

Yup, those drifts were EPIC. There was a wall of snow connecting my gutter to the pool deck. I wish I had taken more pictures..

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I remember posting the radar of the OES band that sat there for hours..was no wider than a half or mile. Rare to see them feed down off Plymouth harbor and points just to the east like that usually when storms get to that position they move so fast it can never really set up. Stalled in the perfect spot.

1978, 1997 and 2005....

97 was still the most dynamic and most destructive IMBY and just a fascinating overnight period with thundersnows and transformers lighting up the night.

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I remember posting the radar of the OES band that sat there for hours..was no wider than a half or mile. Rare to see them feed down off Plymouth harbor and points just to the east like that usually when storms get to that position they move so fast it can never really set up. Stalled in the perfect spot.

1978, 1997 and 2005....

97 was still the most dynamic and most destructive IMBY and just a fascinating overnight period with thundersnows and transformers lighting up the night.

How much did you get during each of the blizzards? I know you got 38" in 2005. How about '78 and '97?

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I will say, when I went down to the upper Cape after the storm, the images I saw reminded me of the pics from the Bliz of '78. Just massive drifts and buried cars. We had some drifts down where I grew up in Marshfield to near the second story of some homes by the water, but the snow was pretty powdery which allowed it to drift much more.

Our family summer house is on Foster Ave in Vegas. Drifts up to the windows.

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Our family summer house is on Foster Ave in Vegas. Drifts up to the windows.

Yeah I went down through Brant Rock and Green Harbor and it was nuts. 139 was closed near the sea wall because of all the damage from ice build up on poles and houses. BTW, I shouldn't have said "grew up" there because I didn't but lived there for over 10 yrs.

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I was 10 and not following wx at the time, so TBH I barely remember. I wouldn't mind a repeat.

:weenie:

my cpu crashed in the week leading up so I was stuck watching tv for weather / noaa radio lol. Ended up with ~23"-24" snowdepth after the snow storm (I didnt take 6 hour measurements). IIRC it was -12 imby the morning before

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:weenie:

my cpu crashed in the week leading up so I was stuck watching tv for weather / noaa radio lol. Ended up with ~23"-24" snowdepth after the snow storm (I didnt take 6 hour measurements). IIRC it was -12 imby the morning before

I got a late start on my weenieism. Back in 7th grade I would read accuweather leading up to the storms but then when it actually snowed I would log off and do something else...then I would go outside and measure at the end lol. Now it would kill me not to know what's going on during a storm.

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One of my favorite Eastern posts ever made by Walt Drag

#1WDrag

Meteorologist

412 posts

Location:Mount Holly, NJ

Posted 22 January 2005 - 06:15 AM

brief 6am update.. i am staying out of gfs soln til it climbs fully aboard. this is an eta euro storm all the way... i am thinking we have to think north north north.

"near" record 24hr snowfalls appear probable portions of sne. we'll see how this plays out...

hopefully no dissapointments if not all of this pans out but this is what am looking for. its a forecast... i hope the post mortem allows us to all stand tall! no guarantee in this. tomorrow we get a chance to post mortem review.

all said earlier 1/21 messages looks good but also warm intrusion s coast and so am thinking max axis of "all" snow pummel is shifting north... maybe roughly hpn-20s PYM... that means folks in snh could see (i think will due see due to frontogentic forcing and super ideal snowgrowth) btwn 03z-09z this coming night 2-3/hr for 6 hrs.

wind will pummel ALL e coast ma with 55-70 mph gusts, "iso" 80 mph gust expected on my part cc to pym county coast and blue hill obs (even ack in the gwave near 04z) ...tho note...ack goes light wind near high tide sunday!!!!!

if the gwave theory is correct with an incredible 30 minute ppp fall rise surge ard 04z tonight there will be eddy bursts of 50kt in the hills of ri and orh and maybe i84 to the berks.

i agree with taunton... shut down all travel between 3pm today and 9am tomorrow and let the crews due the rescues and cleaning up before going out.

preparedness: see the local office but no candles left burning while sleeping. clear ground lvl vents for air exchange and fire hydrants need to be kept clear. look out for your neighbors...esp the elderly...heat etc.

power outages my guess in e ma... see official releases .. just be safe for the seige.

i expect road closures since snowfall rates of 10" in 2-3 hrs possible.

whereevr you are at 6pm tonight... that may be where you are forced to stay for 6 to 18 hours. find a friend!

coastal flood threat being major is a concern... have seen some output for sunday morning that is interesting to say the least. cant say more on this except to defer to local offices where the specialty resides.

this is something else! enjoy, Walt

11am and final til post mortem questions/whys etc...

am going in as support only... box staff is all over this and outstanding advance work.

havent looked at new sref etc... but briefly scanned mass fields of new 12z eta/gfs.

i still say go w the eta (mostly eta)... it should have better low lvl res. i think you can see the oddity at 18 hrs se of ack in the fields... thats the gw i think i am looking for (nver know for sure) and it looks like the mesoscale processes of extreme systems are going to muk things up and are still unresolved.

mewsocalte processes play a big role here... i dont know where the relative palytry amts will be...

no heavier anywhere than what i was alluding to earlier. and no further n. inside traffic fm novak on mm5 is beautiful on the banding potency n ma and s vt...s central nh..,. i am mostly eta on this... gfs looks a little light and a little too far s for my taste. but models have stopped north..

stay the course and i hope this storm meets your expectations... for me i think we max this out somewhere with 60 mi either side of the mass pike and snowgrowth will determine the final powder wind blown figures. not deviating from expectation of "iso" 30-35 in sne warning area but box amts prevail...maybe a bit heavier in snh per banding late tonight... they have the data and will make the move if expected higher there. remember its colder there and precp water ids down there. shud b interesting to see if .05 w.e/hr gives 1.5/hr there!.

Walt

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update 11 pm:

first off... i think our office is so onto this...superb excellent efforts. not cking anywhere else and that not my business.

the following is not nws...just imo. not for media and not for calling offices. this is simply views from afar.

imo... we will see "spot=isolated" 30-35 inch amts along and se of a cef-lwm-psm line by 18z sunday with top 10snowfall in known history probable for at least 1 of the big 4 climo sites (bos/bdl/orh/pvd) and possibly a top 4 or 5 event for pvd. don t have all the rer in front of me.

21z/21 sref now has pretty high prob for 16" in 24 hrs ri/se ma.

the comment on coastal flooding by one of the authors herein is correct and the office is on it and so we will have to wait but despite a normal tide cycle... moderate coastal flooding is watched. i could even see spot major if timing is correct...again if timing of surge/30 ft seas coincides.

sleet or rain probable for a time at ack/chh and am pretty confident a gravity wave develops 00z/23 off delmarva and races to vcinty ack by 04z with tstms the key ignitor. eta modeling uvm and wind field plus asstd warming very nicely on this eta has a 6 mb ppp intensification in 3 hrs vcnty 03z/23!!! that has to have a ripple effect on the atmosphere to balance the incredible deepening rate!

n of the gwave we could see an hr or 2 of 5"/hr in the 02z-10z sunday time frame! where i dont know... lets just say some stripe in sne.

backside snowgrowth in boston area looks huge sunday morning!...lets see if the model holds it. bos 20-24" possible if we can measure it in the wind.

the storm is doing all it can to be compete for historic short term event (bliz of 78 was 3 day)... this is a powerhouse but expanding its time of influence now to 24 hrs imo.

a blockbuster is at hand (95 pct certain)...

csi banding... plus ku size storm. 18z/21 eta/gfs mass fields now in general agreement -5 ely sd compoent and -2.5 250!

we are now able via superb modeling over the years by the modelers worldwide plus at a minimum through the research efforts by the likes of

grumm/novak/bosart/stuart/archambult (in no particular order) et al....

to anticipate a special 24 hr rcord or near record event in parts of sne!

what else can be said... for those in our county warning area in sne...follow box/hpc issuances.

should see this shut down at least some roads for awhile saturday night/sun morning. will likely see hurricane force wind gusts cape cod (suspect 80 mph) and power outages by wind. again this is my opinion only based on eta wind fields and all the above prediction detectors/cues.

i think this will be my last post unless something goes awry or something even more notable comes to mind. i think evertything is well covered by all herein. prob wont write again til something special approaches in the future (another - presuming this one works out- could occur a month from now???? not sure but this is a good winter here in sne)

also...am keeping it in the back of my mind that something always goes a little askew in these outlooked events. just dont know what it is yet.

again...great call by the long rangers writing herein and or on other boards who layed out the potential days ago...

Walt

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Reading those posts I guess the Hartford to Springfield corridor was suppossed to get crushed. I remember living in Northampton at the time and hearing obscene snow forecasts of one to two feet and then right before the event 20 to 30 inches. I remember watching the weather in horror online as the storm bombed and tracked a bit further s/e and generally kept the real heavy snow from worcestor soutth and east to Boston the cape and most of RI. Some big totals on LI and parts of Jersey but the hartford to spfd corridor generally got 8 to 14 inches (half of what was forecast if not less than half at one point)

We picked up just about a foot in Northampton and 8 to 9 inches of that fell with the clipper type part of the storm...once the coastal redeveloped we only picked up a few more inches and most of that fell with one big burst as a deform band collapsed south east and crossed the area ( three inches fell right towards the end in just over an hour) but much of the night the snow was quite light and showery. I remember watching in amazement what was going on across se mass and the cape.

While a decent storm for the area it was heartbreaking. I am not sure with that kind of cold how forecasters could have thrown out numbers like that for the ct river valley. Knowing what I know now about winter storms, a lot of the features screamed a slightly more suppressed/offshore solution albeit quite potent. We have seen this with big coastal bombs during extreme arctic outbreaks many times before where the storm ends up going a bit further s and e.

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Was living in Plymouth, Ma at the time, was quite a scene to behold. Drifs up to the 2nd floor of my house, where it wasn't drifting it was waist deep and I do remember the measurements I made in 5 different spots of 34", 44", 36", 37" and 38" which averaged out to the official 38". Its something I will never forget

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I just went back over the pns and snowfall maps on noaas site for that storm and while in general eastern/southeastern mass and ri had a blizzard for the ages it was interesting to see how wildly the snowfall varied with in some of the counties on the cape itself. Must have been some localized subsidence from banding. Accums vary up to 20 inches in the areas crushed.

This storm as much as it was very dissapointing where I was still amazes me and I will never forget just how bitter cold it was leading up to and during that event. And the wind. It was one of the few times I remember mod to heavy snow in single digit temps.

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