Spring Banter - Pushing up Tulips

[BostonWX]

Very nice town.

 

Dover and Sherborn are a dream, but they're somewhat inconveniently located. Gods country though.

[Tolland Death Band]

Also how you keep the daytime highs so much lower with the trees..that and elevation

Your hood is ideal for pack retention, combining the elevation, the slope facing north, and the heavy oak cover. Much more classically Tolland. I might be bare grass by Friday here in the east-sloping farmlands

[TalcottWx]

I don't fooking care or whine if March sucked. That stretch was epic in mid winter. Wah Wah Wah. Onto spring.

[HoarfrostHubb]

Deer suck. Let them thin out.

Tick busses

[weatherwiz]

Hopefully 99% of the spider population was destroyed this winter.  

[Damage In Tolland]

Your hood is ideal for pack retention, combining the elevation, the slope facing north, and the heavy oak cover. Much more classically Tolland. I might be bare grass by Friday here in the east-sloping farmlands

I love living in the woods, but it's a catch 22. Hate the Oaks in spring and fall, and after any wind event of 40 mph or greater. If Thursday plays out like mets are saying with humid Dews into the 50's.. Nothing will stop that destruction. All of us will lose most of the pack .All we can hope for is like a brief 1-2 hour warm sector

[weatherwiz]

The snow is going to have to melt eventually...it's almost April...the snow should be gone.  would be nice to actually be able to do something outside or walk without tracking mud and dirt everywhere.  

[Juliancolton]

I wish I still had snow. South-facing hillside in the perpetual fringe zone ftl.

[codfishsnowman]

Hopefully 99% of the spider population was destroyed this winter.

i hate spiders too! do you get a lot of bad ones there? my friend in wolcott has tons all over her house

[peteradiator]

Maybe most of you have heard of the infamous "endless winter" in New England. 1816. A year that gave folks alive who lived through it, a firsthand experience no one may ever experience again.  This is for those who have hopes of forever keeping their snow pack. All you need is to believe,,, Oh, and a monumental volcano eruption can help a little! Stranger things have happened.

 

 

.Eighteen Hundred and Froze To Death
The Year There Was No Summer

Of the cold summers in the period 1811 to 1817, the year 1816 has gone down in the annals of New England history as "The Year There Was No Summer," the "Poverty Year" and "Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death." The year began with a moderate but dry winter. Spring was tardy and continued very dry. The growing season from late spring to early fall, however, was punctuated by a series of devastating cold waves that did major damage to the crops and greatly reduced the food supply. In areas of central and northern New England, the summer had only two extended periods without frost or near freezing temperatures. A widespread snow fell in June. As a result, corn did not ripen and hay, fruits, and vegetables were greatly reduced in quantity and quality.
From contemporary newspaper accounts and diary entries as well as a small network of stations at which meteorological conditions were recorded daily, it is possible document the turn of events in the summer of 1816. (For the location of most sites mentioned in the text, see the map at the end of the article.)
The Year Begins
With the beginning of 1816, there was no indication of the cold which was to come. January's temperatures were near normal at the Massachusetts settlements of New Bedford, Salem and Williamstown while Cambridge was 5 Fo above normal, and New Haven, Connecticut, 4 Fo below normal. February was at or slightly below normal at all sites. The winter in the northern New Hampshire community of Lancaster was reported as unusually mild with less than the expected snowfall according to the diary of Adino Brackett.
The downward turn in temperature began in the spring. The months of March and April were reported below normal. In addition, precipitation was still much less than normal. The combination of cold and drought prompted Thomas Robbins of East Windsor, Connecticut to note in his diary, "the vegetation does not seem to advance at all."
The Albany Advertiser contended they had "no recollection of so backward a season...the length and severity of drought checked progress of vegetation, grass withered." Consequently, the lack of pasture necessitated that livestock be stall fed with the corn reserves set aside for human consumption because the winter's supply of hay had been exhausted.
The pattern of cold and dry weather continued through early May, further delaying the planting and growth of vegetation. But, a mild winter and cool, dry spring do not portend disaster in most agricultural communities, only the coming months would immortalize the year 1816 in the history annals.
The First Hint
On the 12th of May, the first in a series of late Spring cold waves crossed the St Lawrence River from northeastern Canada. By the 15th, frost had penetrated into Pennsylvania and Virginia. Frost was reported in Quebec City from the 12th to the 19th and snow fell on the 14th. The cold in New England lasted to the 18th. The unusual aspect of this frost was its southern penetration. While frosts in mid-May are not uncommon in northern New England, May frosts in New Haven, Connecticut are rare--the last frost of spring normally occurring around April 20.
A storm system approached the St Lawrence River Valley on the 26th bringing rain and easterly winds to Quebec. By Monday morning, the 27th, fog and a gentle rain, characteristic of a warm front, ushered mild temperatures into the area. The Quebec Gazette (30 May 1816) noted this system "gave a new spring to vegetation. The wheat and pease [sic], just above the ground, had a most promising appearance; the meadows and the pasture ground were in a deep verdure." The wild fruit trees too were beginning to blossom, and the forests finally bursting into leaf.
The optimism was quickly dashed Tuesday afternoon as a swiftly passing cold front drew frigid arctic air southward on strong northwesterly winds. By sundown, the front had crossed over New Haven, Connecticut and Kingston, Rhode Island. By morning of the 29th, reports of ice a quarter inch in thickness and a light dusting of snow came from Quebec. David Thomas in his Travels through the Western Country in the Summer of 1816, wrote from near Erie, Pennsylvania, "This morning was very frosty and ice covered the water ¼ inch thick. We had a brisk breeze from the northeast." The next morning he wrote: "A severe frost attended this morning."
On the morning of the 30th, frost was again reported in Quebec and Erie. Robbins expressed fear for his fruit trees in East Windsor although there was no frost. In Warren, Maine, the first blossoms on fruit trees were reported to be set back substantially. Corn plants in Norway, Maine were completely killed and subsequently replanted.
In his diary, Brackett wrote: "The whole of the month has been so cold and wet that wheat could not be sown 'til late and then the ground could not be well prepared." In many areas, however, this first cold wave did little damage since few crops were far enough along to be affected.
But the cold was soon forgotten as the air mass moved off the Atlantic Coast. In its wake, milder air returned as June began. To the west, however, a second and stronger weather system was about to enter the New England scene. From Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on the 5th of June, Thomas reported a cold wave of unusual severity for June: "each night was attended by considerable frost." This was to be the harbinger for the most infamous period in the Summer of 1816.
"Most Extraordinary Weather"
During the night hours of the 5th, rain began to fall over Quebec City. The temperature, however, soon plummeted toward the freezing mark so that by the morning of the 6th, the rain was mixed with snow.
Meanwhile in New England, the weather of the 5th gave hardly a hint of what was to come. The passage of a low pressure trough brought some cloud and warm temperatures on southerly winds to the region, and daytime temperatures were seasonable. Williamstown reached 83 oF at noon, but shortly thereafter, a thunderstorm cooled the air to 69 oF The temperature remained warm, however, the shower; being an indication of the atmospheric instability characteristic of the warm sector of a low pressure system. At 2 pm, New Haven recorded 79 oF while Brunswick, Maine reported a 76 oF reading.
The North Star of Danville, Vermont reported:
[June 5] "was perhaps as warm and sultry a day as we have had since September--At night heat lightning was observed, but on Thursday morning the change of weather was so great that a fire was not only comfortable, but actually necessary. The wind during the whole day was as piercing and cold as it usually is the first of November and April. Snow and hail [ice pellets] began to fall about ten o'clock A.M., and the storm continued till evening, accompanied with a brisk wind, which rendered the habiliments of winter necessary for the comfort of those exposed to it....Probably no one living in the country ever witnessed such weather, especially of so long continuance."
By early morning of the 6th, the cold air mass arrived in Williamstown. The 7 am temperature stood at 45 oF, which was to be the high for the day. The meteorological register for the day contained the entry: "A cold rainy day from N.W.--not much rain & winds & very chilly."
At Elizabethtown, New York, the cold front passed before dawn and at 7:30 am a three-hour snow storm began. Throughout the day, snow showers were general, blown on icy westerly winds that froze the ground and destroyed most garden vegetables.
Benjamin Harwood, a Bennington, Vermont farmer, entered the following in his diary for the date:
"It had rained much during the night and this morning the wind blew exceedingly high from NE, raining copiously, chilling and sharp gusts. About 8 A.M. began to snow--continued more or less till past 2 P.M. The heads of all the mountains on every side were crowned with snow. The most gloomy and extraordinary weather ever seen."
Joshua Whitman at North Turner, Maine wrote of cold northwest winds with snow squalls. Adino Brackett in Lancaster, New Hampshire also reported snow, commenting, "This is beyond anything of the kind I have ever known." Snow was reported at Kingston, Ontario, Montreal and Quebec City, Quebec in Canada as well as Danville and Montpelier, Vermont; Warren and Bangor, Maine; Amherst, New Hampshire; Plymouth, Connecticut; Geneva and Oneida County, New York; and Waltham, Massachusetts.
Morning temperatures on the 6th at Salem, Massachusetts, Waltham, Massachusetts and Brunswick, Maine were 57 oF, 57 oF, and 44 oF, respectively, not abnormally cold for the season, but each was to be the local high for the day. By the morning of the 7th, the rapid and extreme drops in temperature froze bodies of standing water to one inch thickness in Danville and the thickness of a dollar coin in Montreal. Harwood described the morning as stiff with frost, with tree leaves blackened and snow remaining in the mountains until past noon.
Temperatures across the region on the 7th showed the extent of the cold air invasion. Middlebury College in Vermont recorded an even 32 oF for a low while the Waltham, Massachusetts temperature plummeted to 35 oF. The Reverend Alexander Sparks reported from Quebec low temperatures near the freezing mark (34 oF) at 8 am. Temperatures remained cold all day, rising to only 36 oF at 3 pm.
In his autobiography, Chauncey Jerome recalled walking to work in Plymouth, Connecticut that day dressed with thick woolen clothes and overcoat, his hands becoming so cold that he had to don mittens.
Benjamin Harwood's diary entry June 7 tells us:
"the surface of the ground was stiff with frost-- the leaves of the trees were blackened--past 6 in the morning a wash-tub full of rain water was scum'd with ice, snow remained on Sandgate and Manchester Mountain past noon or as late as that."
Late on the 7th, a second cold front crossed the region, bringing significant snowfall to the area. From the highlands of Vermont came reports of 5 to 6 inches of snow with drifts to over a foot. At Lunenberg, Vermont, Dr Hiram Cutting measured 5 inches on the ground. Amounts at other locations ranged from "a plentiful fall" at Portland, Maine, a foot at Cabot, Vermont, and 6 inches at Barnard, Vermont to "a few flakes" at Middlebury, Connecticut, Waltham, Massachusetts and Salem, Massachusetts. The Danville North Star reported a "kind of sleet or exceedingly cold snow."
Snow and freezing temperatures continued through the 8th. The Quebec Gazette observed that on the morning of the 8th, "the whole of the surrounding country was in the same state, having...the appearance of the middle of December." On the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, banks of snow reached the axletrees of the carriages. The Rev. Sparks in Quebec City wrote: "...bleak cold very uncommon weather for the season. It snowed a little the whole day--at 10 at night the ground was completely covered."
The cold too was intense. Benjamin Harwood wrote in his diary entry for the day:
"The awful scene continued. Sweeping blasts from the North all the forepart of the day, with light snow squalls....So cold in the morning that we were absolutely compelled to send for our mittens and wear them till near noon-day."
Joshua Whitman proclaimed:
"All travellers need great coats and mittens. I presume the oldest person now living knows of no such weather the 8th of June."
Great numbers of birds sought shelter in houses and barns; many falling dead in the fields. In the north, many newly-shorn sheep perished in the cold.
The cold air mass settled over New England for the next three days. Each morning was frosty. On the 9th, frost was reported as far south as Worcester, Massachusetts and on the 10th to East Windsor, Connecticut. The coldest day of the month at Waltham was the 10th with a 33 oF temperature reading at sunrise. At Williamstown, the 5 am temperature on the 11th dropped to 30.5 oF. The cold finally ended that day as the high pressure system slipped to the east. The afternoon temperature rose on southerly winds, with Waltham reaching 68 oF for the high.
The newspaper accounts of the period were best expressed in the Danville North Star (15 June 1816) under the headline Melancholy Weather which lamented:
"Some account was given in last week's issue of the unparalleled severity of the weather. It continued without any essential amelioration, from the 6th to the 10th instant--freezing as hard five nights in succession as it usually does in December....Saturday morning the weather was more severe than it generally is during the storms of winter. It was indeed a gloomy and tedious period."
Chauncey Jerome many years later, reminisced that his wife brought in some clothes, which had been spread on the ground the night before, that were frozen as stiff as in winter.
The effects of the five-day frigid spell were staggering, especially to a basically subsistence agricultural system. In Quebec, great numbers of birds and newly-shorn sheep perished in the cold. Gardens and wild fruit trees which had come to blossom suffered severely. Fortunately, the cold spring had prohibited many trees from coming to full leaf or blossom thus averting more extensive frost damage. The snow, ironically, actually protected many of the young crops from the severe frosts and thereby reduced the degree of damage.
The Quebec Gazette warned:
"Under circumstances so unfavorable to the productions of the earth throughout so great an extent of country, precautions against scarcity cannot be too strongly recommended....Nothing which may provide sustenance for man or beast ought to be neglected..."
The lateness of the season made rapid planting of barley, potatoes, and turnips imperative if they were to reach maturity before the usual fall freezes began. In New England, whatever corn had emerged from the soil was killed by the June frosts as were most garden vegetables. In Vermont, birds and lambs died from exposure. Throughout Pennsylvania and Ohio, the first growths of spring had been entirely destroyed along with the peach and apple blossoms. The New Hampshire Sentinel of Keene reported: "Season very unpromising, we begin to despair of corn, hay will come extremely light

[HoarfrostHubb]

Jerry remembers it well

Ginx has scrolls to prove it

It hit -30F on Mount Tolland that July 4th

Weymouth MA never melted

[BostonWX]

Is this the next one to fall?
 Have to admit that record would be a bit less enjoyable

[Ginx snewx]

NYC snowiest March since 1960

[dendrite]

13.8/-10

[CT Valley Snowman]

I probably have 6 inches of solid pack but the bare edges and corners are expanding .

[ORH_wxman]

Pack still pretty good on winter hill...even in exposed spots, but down in the busy street intersections of the city, plenty of bare spots on south facing slopes:

 

 

 

[HoarfrostHubb]

I hate these maps

[BostonWX]

I hate these maps

 

 

It's trying so hard...

[Ginx snewx]

Geezus March 23rd?

[HIPPYVALLEY]

18/2. Probably hit single digits by morning. Folks still ice fishing the ponds today locally.

Not like I have a choice but I'm kind of done with winter temps if snow chances are minimal. Cold and dry does not do it for me in late March. A few inches Friday night were great but go big or go spring now.

[eekuasepinniW]

I hate these maps

this map does not appear to like me.

[Ginx snewx]

Went for a walk around the base at SR, holy numb

[SnowMan]

Bye bye snowpack this week. Enjoy what you've got cause it's gone.

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

I think we will be down to piles by Saturday. Maybe some snow in shaded areas.

Its pretty much over though

[NorEastermass128]

I think we will be down to piles by Saturday. Maybe some snow in shaded areas.

Its pretty much over though

It's gone by Friday morning for those under 1' OTG right now.

[weatherwiz]

i hate spiders too! do you get a lot of bad ones there? my friend in wolcott has tons all over her house

 

Luckily my area doesn't get really any bad ones.  For some reason though at work I've seen some what appears to have been Wolf spiders.  I actually saw one a few months ago.  A friend of mine who I work with and I were in the back closet getting some stuff out and I saw a HUGE brown spider and grabbed her and told her to look...I ran out and told her to kill it so she took off her shoe and after like 5 smacks it was finally dead.  

[weatherwiz]

Just went for a walk next door to the gas station...I'M GETTING SICK AND TIRED OF THIS DAMN ARCTIC COLD BS...THIS IS ABSOLUTE CRAP...ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.  I mean for the love of God...we have had enough...cold, cold, cold, cold, cold...that's all it's been for the past 3-4 months...nothing but relentless piece of no good crap cold.  Plus now it has to be windy too making it feel 100000x more worse...IT'S FREAKING SPRING...make it feel like it.  Just end it...it's time for 50's and 60's and pleasant weather, not this ungrateful crap.  

[BostonWX]

It's gone by Friday morning for those under 1' OTG right now.

I expect be down to like 6 or 7 from 15 or 16ish. The winter appeal will mostly be gone at that level though.

[Quincy]

Just went for a walk next door to the gas station...I'M GETTING SICK AND TIRED OF THIS DAMN ARCTIC COLD BS...THIS IS ABSOLUTE CRAP...ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. I mean for the love of God...we have had enough...cold, cold, cold, cold, cold...that's all it's been for the past 3-4 months...nothing but relentless piece of no good crap cold. Plus now it has to be windy too making it feel 100000x more worse...IT'S FREAKING SPRING...make it feel like it. Just end it...it's time for 50's and 60's and pleasant weather, not this ungrateful crap.

Almost as epic as H2O_Town's meltdown. Love it! Bring on storm season, wonderful warmth and deep, deep dews.

[weatherwiz]

Almost as epic as H2O_Town's meltdown. Love it! Bring on storm season, wonderful warmth and deep, deep dews.

 

I mean this is beyond ridiculous now...I don't know how the Eskimo's and Inuits, and Penguins deal with this crap 348 days out of the year.  What else needs to be proven?  What is the point of this?