Favorite Positive SNE snow bust since 2000

[CoastalWx]

Right,,that was a great storm for them..but that doesn't make anyones list of top storms because there was 0 wind and it all melted in 2 days

 

Who cares, it's about the here and now. 4/1/97 vaporized too.  I'll take 2' of snow any day. I don't care if it is gone tomorrow. 2' is special.

 

And since when do you like wind? You always complain that it compacts snow...weenie.

[CT Rain]

In any coastal event where there is stronger e or NE winds..you always get screwed. if I were you, i'd get the hell out of there

Ehhh I don't know about that. More often than not there are other reasons we get screwed than downsloping. Larger scale synoptic and mesoscale processes are generally much more important. There are a couple exceptions (12/92... That retrograde storm 2 years ago) but generally it's NBD.

[joey2002]

And since when do you like wind? You always complain that it compacts snow...weenie.

 

Having less wind makes it easier to go out there and enjoy the snow...

[CoastalWx]

Having less wind makes it easier to go out there and enjoy the snow...

I love the wind. To me, that solidifies a storm. I don't care if it compacted my snow by an inch.

[Ginx snewx]

Having less wind makes it easier to go out there and enjoy the snow...

Violently disagree, as much wind as possible sculps the land into great shapes, those idyllic storms are nice to look at but give me the ferocious Feb 2013 every storm

[Damage In Tolland]

Having less wind makes it easier to go out there and enjoy the snow...

Agree . Wind and powder snow ruins it

[Ginx snewx]

Agree . Wind and powder snow ruins it

yea it really ruined the Feb Blizzard of your entire life

[joey2002]

yea it really ruined the Feb Blizzard of your entire life

 

That one really wasn't crazy windy here though...

[Damage In Tolland]

yea it really ruined the Feb Blizzard of your entire life

We may have had 46 instead of 35

[joey2002]

We may have had 46 instead of 30

 

Fixed that for ya...

[Typhoon Tip]

Is there any purpose/significance to this subjective analysis that requires we not include earlier years ?  

 

I mean... from both a Meteorological, and actual physical impact combined, I don't think any can compare to Dec 23, 1997.   It's like ...

 

Dec 23 1997 is at this level --

1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, start at this level listing in order, underneath --

2

3

4

5

N

 

But maybe I'm missing the boat on something here...

 

1 to 3" of slush, otherwise, cold rain turned into 28F the whole time with 17.5 to 25" of powder snow in 7 hours.

[CoastalWx]

Was 12/23/97 that powdery? I thought it still had some good consistency to it, although not wet.

[Baroclinic Zone]

Put my vote in for the Feb 28 convective snow bomb. Almost put in for the Feb 2003 event but was followed by the blizzard.

[ORH_wxman]

Was 12/23/97 that powdery? I thought it still had some good consistency to it, although not wet.

 

 

It had high ratios due to the monstrous dendrites all hooked together...but I don't recall it being overly dry. It started off a bit pasty but it dried out a bit as it got going. But it never got to the point where I was thinking the stuff was like sugar or even Blizzard Feb 2013 consistency.

 

I think we were in the upper 20s for most of the storm.

[weathafella]

Was 12/23/97 that powdery? I thought it still had some good consistency to it, although not wet.

For us nearer to the coast it was more cementy. I remember as heavy snow was falling seeing Tom Chisholm on tv and hearing him say "don't worry about the snow, it will stop shortly and the December sun will melt whatever falls quickly". I threw my breakfast at the tv...lol. Tom hasn't been seen on tv since...lol.

[CoastalWx]

For us nearer to the coast it was more cementy. I remember as heavy snow was falling seeing Tom Chisholm on tv and hearing him say "don't worry about the snow, it will stop shortly and the December sun will melt whatever falls quickly". I threw my breakfast at the tv...lol. Tom hasn't been seen on tv since...lol.

 

 

It was a paste bomb, but went over to rain down in Marshfield. 

[ORH_wxman]

For us nearer to the coast it was more cementy. I remember as heavy snow was falling seeing Tom Chisholm on tv and hearing him say "don't worry about the snow, it will stop shortly and the December sun will melt whatever falls quickly". I threw my breakfast at the tv...lol. Tom hasn't been seen on tv since...lol.

 

 

Talking about a strong sun on 12/23?

 

Lol

[Typhoon Tip]

It had high ratios due to the monstrous dendrites all hooked together...but I don't recall it being overly dry. It started off a bit pasty but it dried out a bit as it got going. But it never got to the point where I was thinking the stuff was like sugar or even Blizzard Feb 2013 consistency.

 

I think we were in the upper 20s for most of the storm.

 

Depends where you were... In the Acton to FIT axis where I was at that time, it was dry snow.  The temp was 20F when it started, and around 26F when it ended.   There may have been a high water content, but there is a difference between "amt of water contained" and "dryness of the snow".   You can have a lot of water contained, but if it's cold, the snow will dry; it just means deeper totals.  24" out along Rt 2 certainly atones for that.   Of course, you can get weird set-ups, where it's stingy cold in the lower thickness, and you have a sleety warm layer at 800mb, so you end up with weird particles that help compaction...  But, just talking "weather" the snow was dry or not. 

 

Personal views: 

Yeah, it wasn't just a snow bust that made that event so unique.  The temps were VERY busted for the interior.  I understand that it was a bit more marginal S-E of said axis, but the night before was clear with superb rad parameters; then, the clouds came in and capped the cold at the ideal hour of 5 or so am.  That conditional air mass was underneath 538dm thickness, and ... there was a small dome of polar high situated ideally N of Maine.  

 

I recall discussing that set up the day before for Dr. Colby up at UML, and wondering why the ETA (at the time) was so eager to warm things up...well...    

 

2 major busts converged to really amp that event:

 

1) Temp and ultimately critical thickness' were poorly handled.  This, I believe, was because the modeling of the time was not considering the conditioning of intense rad cooling the night before, and how that would positively feed-back into maintaining the dammed air mass

 

2) Number 1 led to number 2 by then contributing to maximize UVM.  The cold viscous air made the inflow off the Atlantic tilt very upright aloft, where it tapped Q-v forcing at the upper range of efficiency.  That led to very intense meso-banded fall rates amid a general area of moderate.  When one of these bands passed over a community, exotic fall rates transpired.  I recorded 6.5" of snow in a single hour in Acton, with whiteout visibility in virtually calm wind;  it was pure deposition rate attributed.  

 

Another aspect I thought was interesting is that there was no thunder with that.  There were 55 dbz rad returns, and no thunder.  A friend was working that Saturday and called me, urging me to log on and check the radar.   There were these bands blinking away.  I remember we were thinking those were sleety bright bands and/or giant liquifying aggregates; but he called me in a frantic state when the band passed over the office and he said they were getting 0 mi vis in pure snow.  I have seen thunder snow several times in strong coastals, and even once in a powerful WINDEX squall, and the snow rates during were half that.    

[CoastalWx]

I was able to find the Albany and OKX soundings for 12z that day. Of course all the fun happened in central and ern MA so the soundings don't tell everything, but a few insights can be gathered. You can see on the OKX sounding that they were getting close to the dryslot, but notice how unstable it is above 700mb and it's not a completely moisture void layer between 700mb and 600mb. This isn't an unsual thing, but it very well may have helped boost precip rates as noted by those colder cloud tops in those IR images Steve posted.

 

 

 

[40/70 Benchmark]

I didn't include storms like Boxing Day 2010 which were busts 48 hours out...all of these storms had large positive busts right up to the time the storm starts.

 

I may have forgotten one or two, so feel free to name your own too if it isn't on the list.

I voted Dec 9, 2005, but Dec 16, 2007 gave it a run....

[Collinsville]

I also could have put November 27, 2002 on there. Really good storm for N CT and pike region of MA...was supposed to be 2-4/3-5 and ended up as a solid 6-10" in a stripe. Happened the day before Thanksgiving as a bonus for the holidays.

 

I just clicked on this thread for the first time and this would be my vote. Nov 27, 2002. I got 10.7" (0.68" liquid), forecasts were definitely 2-4". Toward the end of that precip shield it chunk'd parachutes. After the dreadful 01-02 season it was ripping start to 02-03 with the punishing ice storm on the 16-17th, 10.7" on the 27th quickly followed by 3.4" on the 29th then nearly 8" on Dec 5th. A nice little weenie period.

 

All I have is this small photo of the impressive deck rail stack as the snow was beginning to wind down.

 

[ORH_wxman]

 

I just clicked on this thread for the first time and this would be my vote. Nov 27, 2002. I got 10.7" (0.68" liquid), forecasts were definitely 2-4". Toward the end of that precip shield it chunk'd parachutes. After the dreadful 01-02 season it was ripping start to 02-03 with the punishing ice storm on the 16-17th, 10.7" on the 27th quickly followed by 3.4" on the 29th then nearly 8" on Dec 5th. A nice little weenie period.

 

All I have is this small photo of the impressive deck rail stack as the snow was beginning to wind down.

 

Awesome event that was. We didn't jackpot quite like you guys did, but I do recall getting about 6.5" of snow when I was expecting roughly 3". It snowed very hard for a couple hours around mid-morning. I suspect secondary intensification was ongoing a bit more rapidly than models had it and it enhanced the snowfall rates as the storm exited stage right. Helped increase the ML fronto too...and we got that nice stripe of warning snows.

[CoastalWx]

 

 

Awesome event that was. We didn't jackpot quite like you guys did, but I do recall getting about 6.5" of snow when I was expecting roughly 3". It snowed very hard for a couple hours around mid-morning. I suspect secondary intensification was ongoing a bit more rapidly than models had it and it enhanced the snowfall rates as the storm exited stage right. Helped increase the ML fronto too...and we got that nice stripe of warning snows.

 

Had just over an inch in that, but about 4" like 5 miles west of me. One ot those storms that had a WSW-ENE gradient over PYM county. IOW, New Bedford had more snow than I did thanks to longitude.

[ORH_wxman]

 

Had just over an inch in that, but about 4" like 5 miles west of me. One ot those storms that had a WSW-ENE gradient over PYM county. IOW, New Bedford had more snow than I did thanks to longitude.

 

Yeah pretty classic for November or early December snows...the south shore that sticks out often gets the shaft from the proximity to the ocean on NE winds. Though if the airmass it really cold and the winds are more northerly, it can help them, kind of like T-day 1989.

Even Logan Airport had like 4" in the 2002 event...and much of the city proper had 6".