Jump to content
  • Member Statistics

    17,584
    Total Members
    7,904
    Most Online
    LopezElliana
    Newest Member
    LopezElliana
    Joined

18 Years Ago Today....Rain Drops Transitioned to Cat Paws...


40/70 Benchmark

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 181
  • Created
  • Last Reply

That 4/1/97 storm was something to behold.  Beautiful day leading up to it, I played golf and went mt biking then threw some ribs on the grill for dinner.  We sat outside as the clouds thickened and lowered and it started to rain a little after dark.  Two hours later it flipped to snow, an hour after that we had 4+" and it was coming down so hard we could barely see across the street.  At midnight half of a tree came down on the roof and I had to go outside and cut it up with a handsaw because it was being supported by the power line to the house.  As it moved in the wind it was sparking and ripping shingles off the roof so it had to go.  Have you ever stood on a ladder in the snow  in 40 mph winds trying to cut something that's moving?  Talk about sketchy.  By the time the sun came up in the morning we had 17" of the wettest, heaviest goop ever and the temps went right back to the 50's and bright sunshine by lunchtime.  

 

 

April fools 97. I think that event sparked my obsession. Turned 8 years old 3 days after that. Lived in Cohasset at the time. We got clobbered!!

1024px-Aprilfoolsdayblizzardtotalmap.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yup, i recall driving to my friends for dinner that sunday with temps in the 60s and the radio announcer saying there was a wsw for 6-12 the next day and night(monday).....rain that Monday morning turned to wet snow by midday, i dont remember insane rates but it snowed hard enough to put down a depth of 14 inches in bristol ct...todays measurements may have been 16 inches....but again the real show was eastern and se ne ....it seems like spfd got into better banding with a solid 18 inches

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice storm near Manch...not what you guys got down there though. I remember my grandfather recently dying so I was at my aunt's house watching the rain start to turn to snow in the AM. Got home to +SN, wind, and falling temps. I got my first Davis in Xmas of 96 and this was the first event that froze up the anemometer cups. I went outside in it and chucked snowballs for about an hour. Eventually I hit it and freed the cups. That was a big weenie moment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 yrs ago today, I stepped out of the car in the evening with the wind just switching to a northerly flow setting the stage for epicosity. I still remember how the gentle breeze felt on my face and thinking "this is it" for getting some late season snow. Never...never did I even come close to expecting what I got.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know that sounded wicked cheesy...lol, but it's one of those moments that I just don't forget.  After a warm day, the wind switched northerly with cooler air moving in.  

 

Downpours in the morning where I went to school in Taunton turned to +PLSN after lunch. Heading north on rt 24, all snow in Brockton with accumulations on the highway already. It was absolutely pounding paste like I've never seen. Heading to Hyde Park to stay over at my grandmother's to help shovel and anticipating a day off of school for what was supposed to be 6-12" :lol:  Already 3" or so by the time I got there at 4pm. Power out by 10pm with constant TSSN and what was the most prolonged S+ I've ever seen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was driving back from Framingham State to Medway across back roads that night.  Those back roads crossed farm fields...and right at the time I was driving past the farm fields...I saw several of the most incredible lightning flashes I have ever seen in thunder snow.  The flashes were brilliant purples.  Awe inspiring.  

 

Definitely the best storm I have ever been in.

 

Ended the storm with 36"....just awesome.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was driving back from Framingham State to Medway across back roads that night.  Those back roads crossed farm fields...and right at the time I was driving past the farm fields...I saw several of the most incredible lightning flashes I have ever seen in thunder snow.  The flashes were brilliant purples.  Awe inspiring.  

 

Definitely the best storm I have ever been in.

 

Ended the storm with 36"....just awesome.

Seems as though we just can't buy a blue-bomb anymore.....some great storms of late, but they are all either foo foo pixie dust or rain....man, get some water up in that $hit.

Gone are the days when it would take 2"+ of water to amass 20" of snow.

So fragile...almost like cell phones today, they look nice and do all these fancy things, but they are so delicate.

No more man flip phones. You could throw those against a rock...pick it up, flip it, and just rip out another call.

 

The firehose event and Halloweenie are probably the lone exceptions around here, but the halloween event was pretty lame in my area....I  know the interior elevations got some in 2010.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Seems as though we just can't buy a blue-bomb anymore.....some great storms of late, but they are all either foo foo pixie dust or rain....man, get some water up in that $hit.

Gone are the days when it would take 2"+ of water to amass 20" of snow.

So fragile...almost like cell phones today, they look nice and do all these fancy things, but they are so delicate.

No more man flip phones. You could throw those against a rock...pick it up, flip it, and just rip out another call.

 

The firehose event and Halloweenie are probably the lone exception around here, but the halloween event was pretty lame in my area....I  know the interior elevations got some in 2010.

 

There have been some wetter snows on the coast, especially south of BOS, but nothing like 4/1/97 or March 2001 in your area.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There have been some wetter snows on the coast, especially south of BOS, but nothing like 4/1/97 or March 2001 in your area.

Not where I am.

Either rain, or dust.

 

I think Boxing day was about 18" cement down there....but it was a about 1' of wind blow sand, here.

I haven't been fortunate on cf placement a lot the past few years...really, the last good one was 12/21/08, but that was powdery.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not where I am.

Either rain, or dust.

 

I Boxing day was about 18" cement down there....but it was a about 1' of wind blow sand, here.

 

Right, that's why I put the examples of wetter events where you are. Hasn't been too many big events there with wet snow...but you also are in a tougher area when many times you are west of the CF.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In ORH the storm started as rain too.

I was in chemistry class when the flip started. It was around 1030am. Started seeing fat paws mix in and it did this for about 15-20 minutes. It wasn't an instant flip. But then as we were getting out of class, I purposefully took a detour through the cafeteria on my way to the next class to look out the large bank of windows on the far wall. By this point, the transition had been completed. It was legit S/S+ with silver dollar parachutes filling the sky and it was already sticking to nearly everything owing to the intensity.

The magical moment happened with perfect timing. Just after school got out, after about 3 minutes gathering my things at my locker, I went outside and within 15-20 seconds, a large blinding flash of blue-white followed by a very loud crackle of thunder 3-4 seconds later occurred. At this point we had already accumulated 3" of wet snow on ever surface. This was about 2:25pm.

This is when I knew "something was wrong"....which of course to us sickos really means "something is awesome". I had known that the meat of the storm was to be in the evening hours and the 6-12" forecast for the ORH hills was in big trouble.

Suffice to say that thought was an understatement. 33" of snow later, we concluded one of the most epic storms on record for these parts. It is #2 of my favorite storms behind only December 1992.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Right, that's why I put the examples of wetter events where you are. Hasn't been too many big events there with wet snow...but you also are in a tougher area when many times you are west of the CF.

I've said it before...I'm a real obnoxious distance from the ocean.

Perfectly wrong.

I'd be better served to either move 5-10mi east, towards Peabody, or 5-10 miles west, towards Carlisle and Chelmsford.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In ORH the storm started as rain too.

I was in chemistry class when the flip started. It was around 1030am. Started seeing fat paws mix in and it did this for about 15-20 minutes. It wasn't an instant flip. But then as we were getting out of class, I purposefully took a detour through the cafeteria on my way to the next class to look out the large bank of windows on the far wall. By this point, the transition had been completed. It was legit S/S+ with silver dollar parachutes filling the sky and it was already sticking to nearly everything owing to the intensity.

The magical moment happened with perfect timing. Just after school got out, after about 3 minutes gathering my things at my locker, I went outside and within 15-20 seconds, a large blinding flash of blue-white followed by a very loud crackle of thunder 3-4 seconds later occurred. At this point we had already accumulated 3" of wet snow on ever surface. This was about 2:25pm.

This is when I knew "something was wrong"....which of course to us sickos really means "something is awesome". I had known that the meat of the storm was to be in the evening hours and the 6-12" forecast for the ORH hills was in big trouble.

Suffice to say that thought was an understatement. 33" of snow later, we concluded one of the most epic storms on record for these parts. It is #2 of my favorite storms behind only December 1992.

:weenie: :weenie: :weenie:

:lol:

 

My transitioned started between 2 and 3pm while sitting in Algebra....I had to stay after school that day, and by the time that my brother was picking me up around 4pm, we had a couple of inches and were off to the races.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In ORH the storm started as rain too.

I was in chemistry class when the flip started. It was around 1030am. Started seeing fat paws mix in and it did this for about 15-20 minutes. It wasn't an instant flip. But then as we were getting out of class, I purposefully took a detour through the cafeteria on my way to the next class to look out the large bank of windows on the far wall. By this point, the transition had been completed. It was legit S/S+ with silver dollar parachutes filling the sky and it was already sticking to nearly everything owing to the intensity.

The magical moment happened with perfect timing. Just after school got out, after about 3 minutes gathering my things at my locker, I went outside and within 15-20 seconds, a large blinding flash of blue-white followed by a very loud crackle of thunder 3-4 seconds later occurred. At this point we had already accumulated 3" of wet snow on ever surface. This was about 2:25pm.

This is when I knew "something was wrong"....which of course to us sickos really means "something is awesome". I had known that the meat of the storm was to be in the evening hours and the 6-12" forecast for the ORH hills was in big trouble.

Suffice to say that thought was an understatement. 33" of snow later, we concluded one of the most epic storms on record for these parts. It is #2 of my favorite storms behind only December 1992.

 

Yeah by aftn, I knew it was busting. It wasn't going back to rain. We had quite a bit of sleet for awhile down where I was before traveling north where it flipped to snow in Bridgewater.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...