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Remembering the Boxing Day Blizzard


IsentropicLift

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  most amazing storm ive ever seen in all my 45 yrs on the central jersey shore. I remember measuring 33" in the wall twp area of eastern Monmouth cty. incredible wind and snowfall rates. I was up visiting family for the holiday. was perfect timing. I would have been so bummed if I missed this storm. I believe nws totals were too low for my area.

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I never understood that.  If the model data had changed that dramatically, why not just admit it?  Especially with the storm occuring around a high travel period.

 

 

There was some sort of catastrophic data error apparently with the 12Z GFS, significant portions of that data apparently also were part of the 18Z runs, so even when the 18Z NAM joined it and the 18Z GFS followed they still felt it was possible the error was responsible.  The red flag however should have been so many of the ensembles supporting the Op and the Euro joining in too, once that occurred it was obvious by 3pm we had a problem but they ultimately waited til the 00Z runs to sound the alarms, but by then many had gone to sleep, hence many people did not know til the 25th instead of 5pm on the 24th when they should have.

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I had 11" and I think I overmeasured....I know OKX did. 

 

The storm two weeks later was far more satisfying...around 10 January...with 18 inches out here...great rates...severe cold...over two feet across the Sound in CT...fantastic event. 

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Although not the blockbuster that it was 50 miles to the west, 12/26/10 was the start of a pretty good run here.

 

51.4" of snow here between 12/26/10 and 1/27/11 (39.4" of it in January) culminating in a 26" snow depth on 1/27.

 

Its weird but I always mix up the late February 2010 storm with the late January 2011 storm...probably because they were both very strange events.  I have no trouble recalling 12/19/09, 2/11/10, 12/26/10, or 1/10/11...but the other 2 I always confuse.  One took the crazy retrograde track into the Sound...with rain in Albany and snow in NYC...the other was...I forget.

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Boxing Day dropped about 18" here (drifting made it hard to measure) but I remember it a lot more for the wind than the heavy snow. It definitely snowed hard at times but we also had numerous periods where the snow west of NYC took over and we had very light snow (at one point I'm pretty sure it stopped completely besides some flurries), but tons of winds causing drifting. Our best period of snow actually was when the ridiculous band over NJ eased and the subsidence east of it lessened, but that seemed to pivot through fairly quickly. The crazy snow element was mostly just for those within the megaband. Snow intensity-wise, I easily rate 1/26/2011 higher for me where it easily came down at 4"/hr late that night. Even storms like 12/19/09 and PDII were better at times, much less the behemoths like Jan 1996.

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The storm two weeks later was far more satisfying...around 10 January...with 18 inches out here...great rates...severe cold...over two feet across the Sound in CT...fantastic event. 

The Jan 12th storm that year got going a little too late for us near the city and really developed its deformation band over Suffolk. I had maybe 9 or 10" here. 

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People west of Philly remember it as a cloudy day.

Since snow fell at the rate of about 1/10 to 1/4 of an inch per hour for long stretches out here...I remember it in a similar fashion.

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We were extremely lucky that it worked out. The flow was quite progressive, but the blocking slowed things down enough to allow the phase and hard left turn up the coast. People west of Philly remember it as a cloudy day.

 

I was at my folks house along the coast in Central NJ and I remember watching the models and telling everyone on Christmas Day that a blizzard was coming.  People were shocked since it hadn't been on the news much.  I left my parents house around 4AM to drive back home since we were forecast to get something like 10" (IIRC).  My parents wound up with 30" and I had a few flurries.   :sled:

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The drifting In long beach was pretty epic. Despite only getting 18 or 19" the snow that did fall on an exposed barrier island drifted incredibly. Many areas were bare grass while my backyard at the time had 4' drifts. The best drifts I saw during that storm were at the south sides of the gigantic jones beach parking lots. I estimated them to be at least 10'. They made it through till march when they were still evident. 60mph gusts in a completely exposed location will do that. One of the best for sure!

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What an awesome year that was in general. Boxing day was actually the 3rd best storm for me that winter. I went to school in Hamden CT, where I got roughly 30 inches during Jan 11th storm. 2 weeks late I got another 17 inches.. and to top it all off I was home in Fairfield CT due to break so I picked up a quality 14 inches from the Boxing day blizzard as well. Definitely ranks #1 in my book for best winters I've ever been a part of.

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What an awesome year that was in general. Boxing day was actually the 3rd best storm for me that winter. I went to school in Hamden CT, where I got roughly 30 inches during Jan 11th storm. 2 weeks late I got another 17 inches.. and to top it all off I was home in Fairfield CT due to break so I picked up a quality 14 inches from the Boxing day blizzard as well. Definitely ranks #1 in my book for best winters I've ever been a part of.

It was a great 32 days. And remember when we couldn't get a KU storm in a strong LA Nina?

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It was a great 32 days. And remember when we couldn't get a KU storm in a strong LA Nina?

:lol: the snow depth I had at one point was absurd. It was roughly up to my chest.. hell me and a few college buddy's were even able to build an igloo(which was fun until the campus police realized that we were drinking in it). Good times.

 

I posted this vid before, but when I think snow I always think of this vid. I would have loved to of been in NYC for it.

 

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What an awesome year that was in general. Boxing day was actually the 3rd best storm for me that winter. I went to school in Hamden CT, where I got roughly 30 inches during Jan 11th storm. 2 weeks late I got another 17 inches.. and to top it all off I was home in Fairfield CT due to break so I picked up a quality 14 inches from the Boxing day blizzard as well. Definitely ranks #1 in my book for best winters I've ever been a part of.

10-11 was a great year down here on the immediate coast as well. But even then it was impossible to keep the occasional coastal front and 40+ degree reading and fog from destroying the snow pack. I remember after the 2/1 ice event we leaped to 45 or so and lost a ton and a couple of times before that, but as near as Hempstead Turnpike (less than 10 miles into Long Island) kept their snow. 10-11 was a very even year in terms of snow that fell, even here we probably made 60 inches.

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  • 1 month later...

I was at my folks house along the coast in Central NJ and I remember watching the models and telling everyone on Christmas Day that a blizzard was coming. People were shocked since it hadn't been on the news much. I left my parents house around 4AM to drive back home since we were forecast to get something like 10" (IIRC). My parents wound up with 30" and I had a few flurries. :sled:

If that ridge out west wasn't so progressive this would have been a bowling ball off the coast. An 18 hour event that would have been over 30 hours. That was some epic -NAO blocking we had.

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