Examining the Top Five Cape Cod Snowstorms of the last 29 years

[USCAPEWEATHERAF]

While as I said in the description, I am an avid weather enthusiast and observer and I love Blizzards and Nor'easters.  They fascinate me, including the unpredictable nature of these systems and what they take to develop.  However, this should not be taken as intelligence from a meteorologist or winter storm expert, they have degrees, I don't, use at your own peril.

Blizzard of 2005, Blizzard of 2015, Blizzard of 1999, Winter Storm of Boxing Day 2004, Blizzard of 2013 (NEMO)

First image is January 21st 12z 2005 upper air analysis.  That was the day the models came around in the morning cycle and ran with the storm idea for the region, NWS Taunton put up watches for the area.

Second image is January 22nd 12z 2005 upper air pattern.  That was when the warnings went out for a historic blizzard, the hype was real.  Forecasted to get 2-3 feet of snow.

Third image is January 23rd 12z 2005 upper air pattern.  This was the height of the storm in New England, snow winding down in NYC and PHL will the storm rages onward in SE New England, hurricane force winds, blizzard heavy snows, pressure down to 984mb, benchmark track, eye of the storm, 2' of snow on the ground at 7am EST

fourth image is January 26th 2015 12z upper air pattern.  This was the morning image of the nor'easter that brought the second most snow to Harwich, 32" of snow.  Shows a very amplified pattern aloft with the trough digging all the way to SC, even GA.  Warnings were in place for a massive blizzard.  Some taint was forecasted for the Cape Cod area, especially east of Hyannis, but that did not happen.

Fifth image is January 27th 2015 12z upper air pattern.  At this time we were in the midst of a major to historical winter storm, perhaps at the peak of the heaviest snows between this hour and around 7pm later that night.  Hurricane force winds and the storm deepened below 980mb, down to 977mb deeper than the Blizzard of 2005 which we ended up with 35" of snow.

Sixth image is January 28th 2015 12z upper air pattern.  This is when the storm had occluded and began to weaken and pull away Wednesday morning.

 

These will be the only images I share with this thread.  As these were the two most important storms to have witness in my lifetime.

 

 

[Typhoon Tip]

There's been snow storms on Cape Cod over the last 29 years .... ?   

...I'm confused -

[HIPPYVALLEY]

January 2005 is one of my all time favorites in Boston.   Top 3 for me. 30"+ in Cambridge with howling winds and 4 - 6' drifts. 

[USCAPEWEATHERAF]

22 minutes ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

January 2005 is one of my all time favorites in Boston.   Top 3 for me. 30"+ in Cambridge with howling winds and 4 - 6' drifts. 

Yeah same here, the mega PNA ridge out west, and the combined -NAO/-AO pattern in the eastern North America allowed one of the greatest snowstorms to impact my town that winter, we had a major nor'easter impact us the day after Christmas, that was a special storm, because of whom I spent it with and what we did, but this storm trumps that one in duration, size and snowfall.  35" of heavy snow, we had 12" from 4pm to 12am and then another foot between 12am to 6am, and then another 11" after 7am that day.  That morning around 12z January 23rd 2005, I was watching TWC updates, with Paul Kocin, and he was showing the audience on tv the eye of the blizzard, the most gorgeous non tropical satellite image I have ever seen.  It looked like a legit eye if you didn't know better.  The blizzard of 2015 (JUNO) comes in second both wind and snowfall, 32" 70mph winds.

[USCAPEWEATHERAF]

The evolution between these two storms is very different, while their type is similar.  Here is what I mean: their type is called Miller B Snowstorms, now their evolution is different, the Blizzard of 2005 was a clipper on steroids that redeveloped and went nuclear on the region including PHL and NYC in which PHL got 10-13" and NYC got between 12-14" while DC got 0", now the Blizzard of 2015 got instead an intense disturbance that dove southeastward into the Hatteras, NC region and exploded as it traveled northward up the East Coast due to a large -NAO blocking regime, while the Blizzard of 2005 was fast paced in and out within 25-28 hours, while the Blizzard of 2015 was a long duration 36+ hour snowstorm.  Banding was intense in both storms, but the movement of each storm was not similar, the 05 blizzard struck the NJ coast, redeveloped headed ENE towards the benchmark location, while the 15 Blizzard developed east of Hatteras, NC and exploded as it slowly moved up the East Coast towards a position just east of the benchmark by about 50 miles.

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

Congrats, again.

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

On 7/25/2018 at 10:32 PM, HIPPYVALLEY said:

January 2005 is one of my all time favorites in Boston.   Top 3 for me. 30"+ in Cambridge with howling winds and 4 - 6' drifts. 

Was visiting the what is now the wife in West Hartford....I was so excited for the storm I came up a day early to prep. The initial thump came, about 16” iirc and that was it. I checked the local news and the cutbacks were abundant. What was once a biblical snowstorm for central CT turned into just another storm.

I’m telling you...I think I’m cursed.

[dendrite]

1 hour ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

Congrats, again.

Looks like we got our annual James Cape Cod blizzard thread out of the way early this year.

[HIPPYVALLEY]

3 hours ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

Was visiting the what is now the wife in West Hartford....I was so excited for the storm I came up a day early to prep. The initial thump came, about 16” iirc and that was it. I checked the local news and the cutbacks were abundant. What was once a biblical snowstorm for central CT turned into just another storm.

I’m telling you...I think I’m cursed.

This year we break it and exorcise your demons!   

 

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

1 hour ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

This year we break it and exorcise your demons!   

 

I’ve tried everything from praying, to ‘meh’ing, to shutting down the SWC for the season .... nothing has worked. Please take charge this winter ala Jimmy here, that could be the key to unlock this mystery. 

[ORH_wxman]

You should take the date range back 2 more years and include February 1987.....Feb 9-10, 1987 blizzard on the cape was epic. Epic erosion on the outer cape with hurricane force gusts and 24-30" of snow out there too (though measuring it was mostly a fool's errand). Chatham, did record 28 inches on 3 and a half inches of L.E., but who knows what the real numbers were. It gets lost amongst storms like Jan 2005 and Jan 2015 because it really didn't hit the rest of SNE much at all...just an advisory snow for areas near Boston and PVD and even near the Canal it was "merely" a 10-14" storm. But once to the mid-Cape and further east, it was ridiculous. A top 5 blizzard for them since the middle 20th century.

[USCAPEWEATHERAF]

8 hours ago, ORH_wxman said:

You should take the date range back 2 more years and include February 1987.....Feb 9-10, 1987 blizzard on the cape was epic. Epic erosion on the outer cape with hurricane force gusts and 24-30" of snow out there too (though measuring it was mostly a fool's errand). Chatham, did record 28 inches on 3 and a half inches of L.E., but who knows what the real numbers were. It gets lost amongst storms like Jan 2005 and Jan 2015 because it really didn't hit the rest of SNE much at all...just an advisory snow for areas near Boston and PVD and even near the Canal it was "merely" a 10-14" storm. But once to the mid-Cape and further east, it was ridiculous. A top 5 blizzard for them since the middle 20th century.

Why isn't there much information on these systems?

[ORH_wxman]

13 hours ago, USCAPEWEATHERAF said:

Why isn't there much information on these systems?

The Feb '87 blizzard hit such a small area with historic conditions that it doesn't get much attention. It was only historic for maybe the middle Cape and eastward. The totals back at the canal were around 10-14". By the time you got to BOS-PVD corridor it was just a 2-5" advisory event. But your area down to Chatham and then of course the outer cape got probably 24-30 inches with incredible wind and wave action. I recall reading in an archived article about the storm years ago, that basically everyone from mid-Cape eastward lost power at some point. It didn't help that the early part of the storm was near freezing temps and the snow started off pasty....probably stuck to everything.

 

[Typhoon Tip]

20 hours ago, ORH_wxman said:

The Feb '87 blizzard hit such a small area with historic conditions that it doesn't get much attention. It was only historic for maybe the middle Cape and eastward. The totals back at the canal were around 10-14". By the time you got to BOS-PVD corridor it was just a 2-5" advisory event. But your area down to Chatham and then of course the outer cape got probably 24-30 inches with incredible wind and wave action. I recall reading in an archived article about the storm years ago, that basically everyone from mid-Cape eastward lost power at some point. It didn't help that the early part of the storm was near freezing temps and the snow started off pasty....probably stuck to everything.

 

That was the storm that grew me up ... quickly.  

I went from an emotionally guided mental wreck when missing out on storms, to jaded for a life time. It really was too tormenting ... too absurdly abusively wrong by Walter Drag that ... put it this way.  Years later when I read of people wanting to bring litigation before congress because of NWS f'ups ...everyone at the weather lab up at UML rolled their eyes, but I privately kinda sorta sympathized.  Not now of course... But it is often said, you don't ever love any woman quite again like you do that first one ... I haven't since wanted a storm so much.

Being tongue-in-cheek of course...  But, it started some seven days prior. 

Back whence...The Weather Channel's format was very regimented.  Scheduled slots every hour, one could depend on the Tropical Update,... or Gardening Report ...if that's your bag. But the upshot? They were actually 'good' back then (some claim they've made a comeback but I haven't bothered and at this point probably won't).  Anyway, I remember, at 19 past the hour, and again at 49 minutes past the hour, they ran their Extended Outlook... It was my favorite segment!  Usually, Mark Mancuso covered ...then it was Mike Slidel or someone. A few years later, Cantore came on the scene with his own brand of over-exuberance. I'd garnish those day's later evenings, with Harvey Leonard ... and Barry Burbank ...those two seemed less inhibited about mentioning distant threats.  That daily journey, that was our 'weather models' back in the day as Met larva.  

Sometimes I wonder if my pulse was slightly elevated. I was such a little psycho about my storms.    Eyes wide at 18 past ... there it was. I just had a feeling it was time again. I always could do that.  I would just be doing something, and it would occur to me ...and it was the case more times than not - some sort of innate awareness that it was time to look for one of those ...the anticipated, coveted white shading painted over eastern New England, with the statement floating out at sea, "Watching" and an arrow pointing west..  That's when the greatest atrocity known to predictive science, began. 

For days...  ticker scrolls would beep beep beep interrupt their programming, as NWS warning statements rolled past ...comparing that event to 1978... That begin as many as four days ahead... a 'coon's age by those technological/"art" standards of the day.  Jesus... now?  We feel Judas'ed if a four-day f's up... Just one of the many tonal notes of that storm's presaged song, that sparked the imagination in that special way.  Imagine being soaked in that propaganda for days ...comparing to the grandfather of all bombs.   Three days before ... Blizzard Watches went up... all over eastern Massachusetts... pretty much every animate and inanimate object existing E of ~ EEN - NYC was doomed ....  at the end of the ticker?  Drag. 

It was a love hate relationship with that name - haha - no idea who it was, and no offense to Walt (he's really cool actually..), it wasn't his fault. 

Two days before d-day, Watches become Warnings...  

See, one has to put this into some sort of a relativistic perspective.  This was the 1980's people.  We did not have the words 'snow' and 'storm', necessarily ever placed, perhaps even allowed, together in the same grammatical construct. Something uniquely fantastic took place that decade, where fractals met with metaphysics (for lack of better frustration) for the sole intent of deliberately not snowing ... for years!  Years. You can read this, but you unfortunately ...you have to live that scarcity to spiritually understand.  And, thus, even begin to glimmer the dark light of enduring NWS' 4th period comparisons to parking lots out of Rt 128, grid failures...and/or Hull seacoast destruction hysteria. Which, the language being used ... really was not very well functionally controlled...  I would almost venture that the cultural seed of f'n 'fake news' actually began during that storm's countdown.  

I don't know what was... Maybe it was something that caught the corner of a my eye as some weather graphic was flitting away from a television screen... or some inflection of some weather man or woman's word choice... for some reason, the afternoon before d-day ... I started denying ominous feelings.  More like, "too good to be true" feelings... It was beyond the dreams of gluttony steeped in fever pitch ... and I started to wonder.  Maybe it was just some early respect to the processes of logic and realism that was trying to pull me back from it all.  I don't know... but, something was in there... And then... about 9 pm, when it was supposed to really be rocking and rolling... silence. 

The sky had gone to butterscotch hues after about a half hour of light rain that ended as street lamp sleety aggregate bombs before blithely ending.  No wind. Just turning colder and quiet.  That glow in the sky ... essentially the reflections of the night's grid beneath, faded to black along the horizon.  I used to associate that to the end frames of a lake effect snow when I was younger yet, living in western Michigan. I remember making that connection walking home under that not-storming sky ...wondering, denying... After all, no formal declaration ...some 10 minutes before the storm ... had yet been rendered.  

About 10:15 PM ...Harvey comes on with his usual Teaser ... words to the affect of, " ...Big changes regarding the big storm, tune in at 11..."   ...I literally had butterflies ...they kind you get right as your dad's car is turning into the driveway coming home from work, after your mom picked you up at the police station two hours earlier.   Not the kind you get when that girl you can't stop thinking about brushes your arm and smiles at something you said... 

So, he comes on at 11... and sure enough... he turns the dagger blade.  "...It looks now on the latest data, the storms primary effects are going to be much farther down toward the Cape, and possibly the outer Cape..."  

I'm like... it had to be wrong.  No one born after Feb 1987 has ever lived through a bust.  OH they think they have... 

[ORH_wxman]

15 minutes ago, Typhoon Tip said:

That was the storm that grew me up ... quickly.  

I went from a emotionally guided mental wreck when missing out on storms, to jaded for a life time. It really was too tormenting ... too absurdly abusively wrong by Walter Drag that ... put it this way.  Years later when I read of people wanting to bring litigation before congress because of NWS f'ups ...everyone at the weather lab up at UML rolled their eyes, but I privately kinda sorta sympathized.  Not now of course... But it is often said, you don't ever love any woman quite again like you do that first one ... I haven't since wanted a storm so much.

Being tongue-in-cheek of course...  But, it started some seven days prior. 

Back whence...The Weather Channel's format was very regimented.  Scheduled slots every hour, one could depend on the Tropical Update,... or Gardening Report ...if that's your bag. But the upshot? They were actually 'good' back then (some claim they've made a comeback but I haven't bothered and at this point probably won't).  Anyway, I remember, at 19 past the hour, and again at 49 minutes past the hour, they ran their Extended Outlook... It was my favorite segment!  Usually, Mark Mancuso covered ...then it was Mike Slidel or someone. A few years later, Cantore came on the scene with his own brand of over-exuberance. I'd garnish those day's later evenings, with Harvey Leonard ... and Barry Burbank ...those two seemed less inhibited about mentioning distant threats.  That daily journey, that was our 'weather models' back in the day as Met larva.  

Sometimes I wonder if my pulse was slightly elevated. I was such a little psycho about my storms.    Eyes wide at 18 past ... there it was. I just had a feeling it was time again. I always could do that.  I would just be doing something, and it would occur to me ...and it was the case more times than not - some sort of innate awareness that it was time to look for one of those ...the anticipated, coveted white shading painted over eastern New England, with the statement floating out at sea, "Watching" and an arrow pointing west..  That's when the greatest atrocity known to predictive science, began. 

For days...  ticker scrolls would beep beep beep interrupt their programming, as NWS warning statements rolled past ...comparing that event to 1978... That begin as many as four days ahead... a 'coon's age by those technological/"art" standards of the day.  Jesus... now?  We feel Judas'ed if a four-day f's up... Just one of the many tonal notes of that storm's presaged song, that sparked the imagination in that special way.  Imagine being soaked in that propaganda for days ...comparing to the grandfather of all bombs.   Three days before ... Blizzard Watches went up... all over eastern Massachusetts... pretty much every animate and inanimate object existing E of ~ EEN - NYC was doomed ....  at the end of the ticker?  Drag. 

It was a love hate relationship with that name - haha - no idea who it was, and no offense to Walt (he's really cool actually..), it wasn't his fault. 

Two days before d-day, Watches become Warnings...  

See, one has to put this into some sort of a relativistic perspective.  This was the 1980's people.  We did not have the words 'snow' and 'storm', necessarily ever placed, perhaps even allowed, together in the same grammatical construct. Something uniquely fantastic took place that decade, where fractals met with metaphysics (for lack of better frustration) for the sole intent of deliberately not snowing ... for years!  Years. You can read this, but you unfortunately ...you have to live that scarcity to spiritually understand.  And, thus, even begin to glimmer the dark light of enduring NWS' 4th period comparisons to parking lots out of Rt 128, grid failures...and/or Hull seacoast destruction hysteria. Which, the language being used ... really was not very well functionally controlled...  I would almost venture that the cultural seed of f'n 'fake news' actually began during that storm's countdown.  

I don't know what was... Maybe it was something that caught the corner of a my eye as some weather graphic was flitting away from a television screen... or some inflection of some weather man or woman's word choice... for some reason, the afternoon before d-day ... I started denying ominous feelings.  More like, "too good to be true" feelings... It was beyond the dreams of gluttony steeped in fever pitch ... and I started to wonder.  Maybe it was just some early respect to the processes of logic and realism that was trying to pull me back from it all.  I don't know... but, something was in there... And then... about 9 pm, when it was supposed to really be rocking and rolling... silence. 

The sky had gone to butterscotch hues after about a half hour of light rain that ended as street lamp sleety aggregate bombs before blithely ending.  No wind. Just turning colder and quiet.  That glow in the sky ... essentially the reflections of the night's grid beneath, faded to black along the horizon.  I used to associate that to the end frames of a lake effect snow when I was younger yet, living in western Michigan. I remember making that connection walking home in under that not-storming sky ...wondering, denying...  

About 10:15 ...Harvey comes on with his usual Teaser ... words to the affect of, " ...Big changes regarding the big storm, tune in at 11..."   ...I literally had butterflies ...they kind you get when right as your dad's car is turning into the driveway coming home from work, after your mom picked you up at the police station an two hours earlier.   Not the kind you get when that girl you can't stop thinking about brushes your arm and smiles at something you said... 

So, he comes on at 11... and sure enough... he turns the dagger blade.  "...It looks now on the latest data, the storms primary effects are going to be much farther down toward the Cape, and possibly the outer Cape..."  

I'm like... it had to be wrong.  No one born after Feb 1987 has ever lived through a bust.  OH they think they have... 

Great account...I remember when reading about that storm (in whatever archived news paper I came across...I think it was NY-centric), the article mentioned how most of Long Island was under blizzard warnings that subsequently had to be dropped at the last minute....given this storm had a strong WNW/ESE gradient, I can imagine that an expected blizzard on Long Island would have meant that eastern MA/RI was in line to get absolutely crushed....the blizzard warning getting yanked for LI was a harbinger of doom for metro BOS region further up the coast.

 

It's funny, because that was one of the few winters in the 1980s where many storms did work out....but yet, as if to remind everyone that the decade was diabolical to snow-lovers, it still produced one of the uglier busts.

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

21 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

Great account...I remember when reading about that storm (in whatever archived news paper I came across...I think it was NY-centric), the article mentioned how most of Long Island was under blizzard warnings that subsequently had to be dropped at the last minute....given this storm had a strong WNW/ESE gradient, I can imagine that an expected blizzard on Long Island would have meant that eastern MA/RI was in line to get absolutely crushed....the blizzard warning getting yanked for LI was a harbinger of doom for metro BOS region further up the coast.

 

It's funny, because that was one of the few winters in the 1980s where many storms did work out....but yet, as if to remind everyone that the decade was diabolical to snow-lovers, it still produced one of the uglier busts.

IIRC, it crushed cape may NJ with 18+ but it never made it further north than about AC. Schools were cancelled for CNJ that morning and nothing happened. 

[Typhoon Tip]

1 hour ago, ORH_wxman said:

Great account...I remember when reading about that storm (in whatever archived news paper I came across...I think it was NY-centric), the article mentioned how most of Long Island was under blizzard warnings that subsequently had to be dropped at the last minute....given this storm had a strong WNW/ESE gradient, I can imagine that an expected blizzard on Long Island would have meant that eastern MA/RI was in line to get absolutely crushed....the blizzard warning getting yanked for LI was a harbinger of doom for metro BOS region further up the coast.

 

It's funny, because that was one of the few winters in the 1980s where many storms did work out....but yet, as if to remind everyone that the decade was diabolical to snow-lovers, it still produced one of the uglier busts.

There was a positive bust in there... It might have been the previous year, 1986's late Jan or Feb.... ?   But, we had a snow to sleet to cold rain and Advisory event slated for ...I think it was Tuesday. 

The day dawned like it did 10 years later, on December 23rd, 1997 - that's how I knew to question the warmer/wetter forecasts of 1997 quite frankly..  

Anyway, we "capped" cold.  It was clear as a bell the night before, and some midland polar high passed N of Maine and nosed some modest CAD to go along with down into the region. The clouds came in at down...and soon the sky was slate gray with vaguely discerned virga tendrils by 10am. At the time.. 21 F ...and heh, one started wondering. There was an ominous appeal about the air... almost a yellowish pall in dead calm permeating... And when the tiny, tiny uniform aggregates of needles and plates dropped visibility to 1/4 of mile almost immediately, straight down if poured... the temp, "rushed" up to 25 or so as the 2nd inch turned to 4... and that's what I mean... 2 --> 4 it was coming on so damn fast... 1/8th visibility when they pulled the plug and sent students home an hour early... Too late of course.. with 4 or 5" in the roads un-plowed and choking fall rates

An hour later, I was attempting some runs at Nashoba ... I didn't wanna miss out because I paid ahead; and they closed the slopes due to low visibility...  Which is funny, to have a snow day at a ski slope but I guess...  I was waiting for labored ride out of that place, when thunder cracked over head. I remember noticing on the hood of car.... no doubt, as others took note of my nerdliness in the moment, that some of the particles were 'bouncing'... so the change was coming... 

And it did... but, the positive bust was destined on that pig first.  We ended up with 10" of not-forecasted winter storm warning criteria snow, crusted over with a .25" of sleet as our verification for that 1-3" of snow to sleet to cold rain... I think it truly ended as freezing wind whipped drizzle before going starlit at 2am in refreeze.  Acton where I lived at the time.  That was biggest positive bust until that 1997 event mentioned above,... which almost doubled matters...   Similar set ups though...  

Since these 'lessons' ...it's a set up I always look for... a kind of CAD that gets entrenched that doesn't show up as well on the PP for some reason... Or just in general, model's not being able to resolve low levels will miss...  But, radiationaly cold air genesis, followed by a capping thick cirrus and there is no way that air mass is heating up with those oblate sun angle times at those times of the year.  Until there can be some sore of incredible advancement in boundary layer/topographic resolution ... frozen and or freezing will always get rushed and/or under estimated by both machine and man.

And too your point, yeah...that year gets a pass... I actually blame more of the Met community ...and perhaps more so the technology of the era, than the same issue with the decade of "not dominance" that was that era.  Because you're right ...there was some redemption at times... fleeting and rare compared to the dearths though they were. 

[ORH_wxman]

15 minutes ago, Typhoon Tip said:

There was a positive bust in there... It might have been the previous year, 1986's late Jan or Feb.... ?   But, we had a snow to sleet to cold rain and Advisory event slated for ...I think it was Tuesday. 

The day dawned like it did 10 years later, on December 23rd, 1997 - that's how I knew to question the warmer/wetter forecasts of 1997 quite frankly..  

Anyway, we "capped" cold.  It was clear as a bell the night before, and some midland polar high passed N of Maine and nosed some modest CAD to go along with down into the region. The clouds came in at down...and soon was a slate gray with vaguely discerned virga tendrils by 10am. At the time.. 21 F ...and heh, one started wondering. There was an ominous appeal about the air... almost a yellowish pall in dead calm permeating... And when the tiny, tiny uniform aggregates of needles and plates dropped visibility to 1/4 of mile almost immediately, straight down if poured... the temp, "rushed" up to 25 or so as the 2nd inch turned to 4... and that's what I mean... 2 --> 4 it was coming on so damn fast... 1/8th visibility when they pulled the plug and sent students home an hour early... Too late of course.. with 4 or 5" in the roads un-plowed and choking fall rates

An hour later, I was attempting some runs at Nashoba ... I didn't wanna miss out because I paid ahead; and they closed the slopes due to low visibility...  Which is funny, to have a snow day at a ski slope but I guess...  I was waiting for labored ride out of that place, when thunder cracked over head. I remember noticing on the hood of car.... no doubt, as others took note of my nerdliness in the moment, that some of the particles were 'bouncing'... so the change was coming... 

And it did... but, the positive bust was destined on that pig first.  We ended up with 10" of not-forecasted winter storm warning criteria snow, crusted over with a .25" of sleet as our verification for that 1-3" of snow to sleet to cold rain... I think it truly ended as freezing wind whipped drizzle before going starlit at 2am in refreeze.  Acton where I lived at the time.  That was biggest positive bust until that 1997 event mentioned above,... which almost doubled matters...   Similar set ups though...  

Since these 'lessons' ...it's a set up I always look for... a kind of CAD that gets entrenched that doesn't show up as well on the PP for some reason... Or just in general, model's not being able to resolve low levels will miss...  But, radiationaly cold air genesis, followed by a capping thick cirrus and there is no way that air mass is heating up with those oblate sun angle times at those times of the year.  Until there can be some sore of incredible advancement in boundary layer/topographic resolution ... frozen and or freezing will always get rushed and/or under estimated by both machine and man.

And too your point, yeah...that year gets a pass... I actually blame more of the Met community ...and perhaps more so the technology of the era, than the same issue with the decade of "not dominance" that was that era.  Because you're right ...there was some redemption at times... fleeting and rare compared to the dearths though they were. 

I was living in Texas as a kindergartener in the '86-'87 season, so I don't have much recollection of it other than being up for Xmas and New Years and experiencing a whopper of a snowstorm the night of New Years into Jan 2nd before we went home a few days later.

 

But the first season we moved back to central MA in 1988-1989...well, suffice to say it was a disaster for snow lovers....topped off by the cruel and sickening joke that was Feb 24-25, 1989. 1-2 feet forecasted for just about all of SNE save maybe far western areas. This was supposed to be the biggie. It was our reward for suffering through one of the worst winters for snow lovers in a decade already filled with putrid winters. '88-'89 was trying to top the list but this storm was going to save us from the indignity of it all. I remember Harvey Leonard and Bruce Schwoegler sounded a bit giddy the night before...almost relishing telling everyone that travel would be basically impossible that Friday night/Saturday. When Friday night came along and minutes staring at the spotlight out back turned to hours without a sign of first flakes, I started getting that "pit" in my stomach and the whole demeanor of the atmosphere had the "something is wrong" feel to it. Finally the snow started falling....first those almost-virga flakes....you could almost see them evaporate in the spotlight outside. I started feeling a little better as they picked up into a steady light to moderate snow.  I was allowed to stay up for the 11pm newcast that night despite being in 2nd grade. It was a Friday night after all and my mom knew I was excited for the storm. 11pm rolls around and shortly after, Harvey Leonard comes on with a mostly reassuring tone that things will really start to pick up soon. They mentioned that it could be a bit further SE, but that Boston to Worcester was still looking great for a huge storm....the amounts just might be closer to 10-12" rather than the higher end of the previous range of 1-2 feet.

 

I then woke up around 4am...but before going back to sleep I looked outside and the visibility even in the dark felt like it was too high. I flipped on the spotlight and it was snowing...but not very hard. I then saw that we had maybe 3 or 4 inches of snow on the ground. I got a pit in my stomach again since I knew even at that young age we probably should have had at least 6-8" by now. I went back to sleep hoping to wake up to a better scene. When I woke up again around 7am, the snow was still coming down but almost like flurries now. We had hardly added another half inch to perhaps an inch since my overnight glance outside. The morning newcast confirmed what I already knew...the storm was a bust. I suffered through some live shots of Cape Cod buried under 20" of snow before reluctantly going outside to go sledding. My experience was better than folks further west and southwest...apparently the CT river valley got basically skunked (maybe a coating to an inch) and NYC to PHL had winter storm warnings produce not a single flake. Still, it was little solace for a 2nd grade weenie who was expecting the big one.

[Typhoon Tip]

30 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

I was living in Texas as a kindergartener in the '86-'87 season, so I don't have much recollection of it other than being up for Xmas and New Years and experiencing a whopper of a snowstorm the night of New Years into Jan 2nd before we went home a few days later.

 

But the first season we moved back to central MA in 1988-1989...well, suffice to say it was a disaster for snow lovers....topped off by the cruel and sickening joke that was Feb 24-25, 1989. 1-2 feet forecasted for just about all of SNE save maybe far western areas. This was supposed to be the biggie. It was our reward for suffering through one of the worst winters for snow lovers in a decade already filled with putrid winters. '88-'89 was trying to top the list but this storm was going to save us from the indignity of it all. I remember Harvey Leonard and Bruce Schwoegler sounded a bit giddy the night before...almost relishing telling everyone that travel would be basically impossible that Friday night/Saturday. When Friday night came along and minutes staring at the spotlight out back turned to hours without a sign of first flakes, I started getting that "pit" in my stomach and the whole demeanor of the atmosphere had the "something is wrong" feel to it. Finally the snow started falling....first those almost-virga flakes....you could almost see them evaporate in the spotlight outside. I started feeling a little better as they picked up into a steady light to moderate snow.  I was allowed to stay up for the 11pm newcast that night despite being in 2nd grade. It was a Friday night after all and my mom knew I was excited for the storm. 11pm rolls around and shortly after, Harvey Leonard comes on with a mostly reassuring tone that things will really start to pick up soon. They mentioned that it could be a bit further SE, but that Boston to Worcester was still looking great for a huge storm....the amounts just might be closer to 10-12" rather than the higher end of the previous range of 1-2 feet.

 

I then woke up around 4am...but before going back to sleep I looked outside and the visibility even in the dark felt like it was too high. I flipped on the spotlight and it was snowing...but not very hard. I then saw that we had maybe 3 or 4 inches of snow on the ground. I got a pit in my stomach again since I knew even at that young age we probably should have had at least 6-8" by now. I went back to sleep hoping to wake up to a better scene. When I woke up again around 7am, the snow was still coming down but almost like flurries now. We had hardly added another half inch to perhaps an inch since my overnight glance outside. The morning newcast confirmed what I already knew...the storm was a bust. I suffered through some live shots of Cape Cod buried under 20" of snow before reluctantly going outside to go sledding. My experience was better than folks further west and southwest...apparently the CT river valley got basically skunked (maybe a coating to an inch) and NYC to PHL had winter storm warnings produce not a single flake. Still, it was little solace for a 2nd grade weenie who was expecting the big one.

Jesus this one brings back memories. I was just starting as a freshmen at Bunker Hill Comm. College... 18 years old - as I date myself...ha. 

But -a ...yeah, I remember that 11 pm Harvey. He was discussing how the storm was still taking the forecast track, but that it wasn't as 'large' as they thought it would be.  I remember thinking ...what a f'n gyp job!   "Not as big!"  

Memories of the former annul still haunting and eroding at one's winter-sanity as a weather enthusiast and fledgling Met ...  I couldn't believe my f'n ears.  I remember my internal monologue on the train/commute, "what the f does the atmosphere have to think up next to screw us over" ... not as big.  

That was the worst winter I ever experienced in terms of poor performance..  Although I asterisk 1994-1995 as a sore-butt contender, but we had a nice bomb followed by impressive cold that saves it by an edge.  That event put my forecast ranking close to lead up that lab because I nailed the 9 F afternoon temperature the next day. ha. 

I had heard a lot of bluster about New England winters when I first moved here in the early summer of 1984..  But it took until almost 10 years later to really have verification atone for those stories.  The thing is, there was a Cleveland Super Bomb, of Jan 25-27th ...really the 29th, in 1978 ... and when I first moved here, everyone's centric impressions of winter severity stopped at the Hudson. So I just bided time listening to 'how awesome' that storm was and sort of 'kept it to my self,' so to speak.   Waiting and waiting.... and waiting... for SOMEthing, anything, to validate there being no winters west of the Hudson... So, I'm like on year 5 or 6 waiting ... that's basically a light-hear for a teenager, of biting tongue and keeping it to my self... Yeah, I know - ur so awesome. 

Gradually as the 1990's ticked away ... and redemption years begin to pile up enough, I finally was able to begin internally justifying the claims of the New England winters. 

Now looking back... I can say with confidence, Michigan winters are a little colder, but less snow.  Not by huge margins on either... but true.  But the difference is the 'spike' years... Those snow-block-buster years out here ... ? they are like the Patriots Bears Super Bowl of 85 ... 47 to 10

 

 

[ORH_wxman]

10 minutes ago, Typhoon Tip said:

Jesus this one brings back memories. I was just starting as a freshmen at Bunker Hill Comm. College... 18 years old - as I date myself...ha. 

But -a ...yeah, I remember that 11 pm Harvey. He was discussing how the storm was still taking the forecast track, but that it wasn't as 'large' as they thought it would be.  I remember thinking ...what a f'n gyp job!   "Not as big!"  

Memories of the former annul still haunting and eroding at one's winter-sanity as weather enthusiast and fledgling Met ...  I couldn't believe my f'n ears.  I remember my internal monologue on the train/commute, "what the f does the atmosphere have to think up next to screw us over" ... not as big.  

That was the worst winter I ever experienced in terms of poor performance..  Although I asterisk 1994-1995 as a sore-butt contender, but we had a nice bomb followed by impressive cold that saves it by an edge.  That event put my forecast ranking close to lead up that lab because I nailed the 9 F afternoon temperature the next day. ha. 

I had heard a lot of bluster about New England winters when I first moved here in the early summer of 1984..  But it took until almost 10 years later to really have verification atone for those stories.  The thing is, there was a Cleveland Super Bomb, of Jan 25-27th ...really the 29th, in 1978 ... and when I first moved here, everyone's centric impressions of winter severity stopped at the Hudson. So I just bided time listening to 'how awesome' that storm was and sort of 'kept it to my self,' so to speak.   Waiting and waiting.... and waiting... for SOMEthing, anything, to validate there being no winters west of the Hudson... So, I'm like on year 5 or 6 waiting ... that's basically a light-hear for a teenager, of biting tongue and keeping it to my self... Yeah, I know - ur so awesome. 

Gradually as the 1990's ...redemption years begin to pile up enough that I finally was able to internally justify the claims of the New England winters. 

Now looking back... I can say with confidence, Michigan winters are a little colder, but less snow.  Not huge margins on either... but true.  But the snow-block-buster years out here ... ? they are like the Patriots Bears Super Bowl of 85 ... 47 to 10

 

 

 

Yeah...for me, I had to wait 4 years until the December 1992 storm to hit paydirt. I had been told many times during and shortly after that first nightmarish winter back up here in '88-'89 that I was unlucky and that soon enough we would get pummeled like New England winters are supposed to deliver. They weren't really wrong to tell me that....it was an unusually crappy winter and after all, most of these adults had experienced the blockbusters of the late '50s through the late '70s. Yet, while '89-'90 was better, it still didn't produce a double digit snowstorm, and then '90-'91 and '91-'92 were downright putrid. Not as bad as '88-'89 but still woefully below average in the snowfall department. Think of how long 4 years is for a 7-8 year old to wait. For us now? Not that long...the years seem to melt together as one gets older and 10 years starts to feel like 3 years used to. But of course I managed to time my return to New England perfectly to be here at the start when it produced the only consecutive 4 year period that ORH failed to get a double digit snow event. Before that, they had not even been able to manage 3 years in a row....and we haven't done it since either. Great timing!!!

 

But you are right that once we finally starting getting our mojo back in the 1990s, all the hype started being worth their weight. The negative busts of the late '80s and early '90s started turning into positive busts. The storms on the 5 day business planner that would disappear by day 3 back in 1990 finally started verifying or getting stronger as we got closer. The forecasted 1-3" clippers started redeveloping off NJ and turned into 6-8" "little critters that bite" (ala Bosart et al). Funny how the "luck" does tend to not only even out, but it seems to come in bunches. It's like at a blackjack table when the dealer keeps busting...you just get on a run and all those snow events seem to start going your way whereas before, you couldn't buy a blackjack or a dealer bust card (or a snowstorm to trend your way).

 

 

[Typhoon Tip]

2 hours ago, ORH_wxman said:

 

Yeah...for me, I had to wait 4 years until the December 1992 storm to hit paydirt. I had been told many times during and shortly after that first nightmarish winter back up here in '88-'89 that I was unlucky and that soon enough we would get pummeled like New England winters are supposed to deliver. They weren't really wrong to tell me that....it was an unusually crappy winter and after all, most of these adults had experienced the blockbusters of the late '50s through the late '70s. Yet, while '89-'90 was better, it still didn't produce a double digit snowstorm, and then '90-'91 and '91-'92 were downright putrid. Not as bad as '88-'89 but still woefully below average in the snowfall department. Think of how long 4 years is for a 7-8 year old to wait. For us now? Not that long...the years seem to melt together as one gets older and 10 years starts to feel like 3 years used to. But of course I managed to time my return to New England perfectly to be here at the start when it produced the only consecutive 4 year period that ORH failed to get a double digit snow event. Before that, they had not even been able to manage 3 years in a row....and we haven't done it since either. Great timing!!!

 

But you are right that once we finally starting getting our mojo back in the 1990s, all the hype started being worth their weight. The negative busts of the late '80s and early '90s started turning into positive busts. The storms on the 5 day business planner that would disappear by day 3 back in 1990 finally started verifying or getting stronger as we got closer. The forecasted 1-3" clippers started redeveloping off NJ and turned into 6-8" "little critters that bite" (ala Bosart et al). Funny how the "luck" does tend to not only even out, but it seems to come in bunches. It's like at a blackjack table when the dealer keeps busting...you just get on a run and all those snow events seem to start going your way whereas before, you couldn't buy a blackjack or a dealer bust card (or a snowstorm to trend your way).

 

 

In a lot of ways 1992 was symbolic for me...  Chapters turning and so forth.  I was just getting started up at UML.  I was  courted by ...heh, waaay more woman than I my looks deserved, or my social station instinctually lured... yet there she was.   And, the era of butt-bang winters ...was finally ended.  

All those momentous aspects probably bias my perception of matters, ... yet, no denying - that was an extraordinary event.  One that absolutely deserves its rank in the annuls... For that, it was just a while year of new stories to be told.

And I have told that story...re that storm, on many occasions. I once wrote a Steinbeckian account over that affair, incorporating the three main pillars of literature - protagonist, romance, resolution ..haha.  Jerry even recommended I begin transcription for a novel - ... but alas! I lost it.  And eastern went away and with it, some of my better anecdotal storm epics of all time  

Oh well...  

Whatever the significance, it's in my top three storm experiences of all time. 

Blizzard 1978, Kalamazoo Michigan;

Heavy wind-swept rain to blizzard, 1992;

Heavy snow even, 1997. 

It may seem odd having 'heavy rain' in that list anywhere, but ...I don't honestly know if that event would be better if it were all snow? Something about the transitional events, in its self, ... for one, it was the most spectacular short duration explosive change in settings I had ever seen before, or since.  It was literally like the glow you see in the sky when it's snowing at night... by in the y-coordinate; a giant wall crossing the Merrimack valley, and not knowing what it was.  I mean, the sky isn't suppose to curve toward the ground like that... Until it overtook us ...going from pure rain to < 1/4 mi visibility, whirling, with building groaning snow gusts in a matter of actual just seconds.

I'm sorry - zero hyperbole.  Not sure what physical processes made that possible, and/or why they came together that night, but 2 minutes prior to that flash (that was actually really a "flash"), came multi-pulse lightning and cacophonic booms that vibrated to the bone...  It was either figurative...or literally...the lightning and thunder on the differential....  I've mused at the symbolism ...as though the night were a supersaturated pre-cryo aqueous froth of wind and nor'easter torrents ...where the thunder clapped and tapped the fragility, and all that fluid suddenly crystalized...   Obviously, that's fiction - still...   

I suppose it was bit like looking at one of those Saharan dust storm panoramas ... but, the vertical face was not jagged...smooth...  unearthly looking, which was probably why at first it was more 'wtf' than knowing that was a switch to snow on a dime.  

bear ground to a 17" dawn. 

[ORH_wxman]

1 hour ago, Typhoon Tip said:

In a lot of ways 1992 was symbolic for me...  Chapters turning and so forth.  I was just getting started up at UML.  I was  courted by ...heh, waaay more woman than I my looks deserved, or my social station instinctually lured... yet there she was.   And, the era of butt-bang winters ...was finally ended.  

All those momentous aspects probably bias my perception of matters, ... yet, no denying - that was an extraordinary event.  One that absolutely deserves its rank in the annuls... For that, it was just a while year of new stories to be told.

And I have told that story...re that storm, on many occasions. I once wrote a Steinbeckian account over that affair, incorporating the three main pillars of literature - protagonist, romance, resolution ..haha.  Jerry even recommended I begin transcription for a novel - ... but alas! I lost it.  And eastern went away and with it, some of my better anecdotal storm epics of all time  

Oh well...  

Whatever the significance, it's in my top three storm experiences of all time. 

Blizzard 1978, Kalamazoo Michigan;

Heavy wind-swept rain to blizzard, 1992;

Heavy snow even, 1997. 

It may seem odd having 'heavy rain' in that list anywhere, but ...I don't honestly know if that event would be better if it were all snow? Something about the transitional events, in its self, ... for one, it was the most spectacular short duration explosive change in settings I had ever seen before, or since.  It was literally like the glow you see in the sky when it's snowing at night... by in the y-coordinate; a giant wall crossing the Merrimack valley, and not knowing what it was.  I mean, the sky isn't suppose to curve toward the ground like that... Until it overtook us ...going from pure rain to < 1/4 mi visibility, whirling, with building groaning snow gusts in a matter of actual just seconds.

I'm sorry - zero hyperbole.  Not sure what physical processes made that possible, and/or why they came together that night, but 2 minutes prior to that flash (that was actually really a "flash"), came multi-pulse lightning and cacophonic booms that vibrated to the bone...  It was either figurative...or literally...the lightning and thunder on the differential....  I've mused at the symbolism ...as though the night were a supersaturated pre-cryo aqueous froth of wind and nor'easter torrents ...where the thunder clapped and tapped the fragility, and all that fluid suddenly crystalized...   Obviously, that's fiction - still...   

I suppose it was bit like looking at one of those Saharan dust storm panoramas ... but, the vertical face was not jagged...smooth...  unearthly looking, which was probably why at first it was more 'wtf' than knowing that was a switch to snow on a dime.  

bear ground to a 17" dawn. 

That Dec '92 storm still remains my favorite of all time....and we stated as rain in the ORH hills as well, though the changeover was much earlier....occurring that Friday morning. The changeover though was very similar to what you experienced in Lowell, though perhaps maybe just a tad slower. But it came with these bursts of winds. I recall being in social studies class in 6th grade that mid to late morning and staring out over the soccer field in front of the school....I was lucky to be right next to the window. We got a huge gust of wind and the heavy rain (almost with a little whiteness mixed in it) all of the sudden flips to heavy snow...the flakes transitioned from across the field....it was almost eerie. That wall of flakes I could see coming before it reached us with the wind almost seeming to carry it. Then the gust subsided and we flipped back to the "white rain". Then this happened twice more and that final occurrence never flipped back. We stayed choking heavy snow. The funny thing is that despite the marginal temps, we didn't have aggregates really. Maybe briefly for a time. They turned into almost blizzard-like flakes....probably due to the wind....yet, it was very pasty snow at first. It did turn powdery though once we got toward evening. 35 inches later in Holden, MA and my 4 years of frustration was over.

 

The Dec '97 bust we have talked about before...that is high on my list as well....but the sheer power and amazing transition the Dec '92 storm imposed is on another level. And yeah, it seemed like a "changing of the guard" type storm....for me, it was the first big one I experienced since moving back from Texas, and of course, being 11 years old, it adds to the aura. For you, it was the change in environment at UML.

[CoastalWx]

As someone who grew up south of the city, that Feb storm was an absolute spin kick to the crotch. Ugh. That was a funny era. I remember thinking winters were either the "495" belts or the "Cape." Nothing in  between. Or so it seemed. 

[USCAPEWEATHERAF]

I was born in 1989, so obviously I can't recall the 1987 FEB storm

[Typhoon Tip]

1 hour ago, USCAPEWEATHERAF said:

I was born in 1989, so obviously I can't recall the 1987 FEB storm

And you may not ... 

The state of the art of predictive science in operational Meteorology has come so far since that era, an era when it was all really still quite adolescent,  that ... "in theory" such tragic comedies ...prooobably are not going to happen inside of a mere two or even three days.  They still can, and sometimes do.. but it's a frequency thing - that frequency is going/gone down.

The standardization for accuracy is a moving target through the generations. As science(s) vet the system's cause-and-effect physical relationships, and those better truths are in turn integrated into these fantastically complex models ... processed along by these god-like AI machines ... it becomes very hard to visualize a polarity of prediction versus verification that equals the chasm of that 1987 horror story.  

As such, what used to be day three ... might have a similar accuracy scoring overall as say, day five now ( just for the point of discussion).  It's just easier to envision a catastrophically bad performance scenario for a day five estimation ... 

The subtext of that 1987 commiseration that Will and I shared above is the time factor ... To spent that much time soaked in the fever pitch of the thing, then...waiting to the short terms to pull the plug, really is a particularly acutely painful ordeal for those that are 'vested' ( a word that's often used in this social media to describe) in these affairs of Nature.  But, now try to imagine the greatest of all cryo-terror storms simply not happening, with what amounts to one, single, solitary model run of lead correction.  One.     

Not that anyone asked, but I was really bad when I was in my youth; as an adult, I've mastered and well... grown up enough to sans all that baggage.  Probably, that was my take away from 1987... not being reliant upon others, and to try and understand the system on my own, in a more analytical tact/approach.  Big storms are more like intellectual curiosities for me... I digress.

We did actually suffer a community-wide reputation hit a couple years ago with that giant blizzard that really threw NYC and NJ for a loop ...  but I don't find that one, or any other, as "situational" acutely as bad as 1987 was... 

[ORH_wxman]

2 hours ago, CoastalWx said:

As someone who grew up south of the city, that Feb storm was an absolute spin kick to the crotch. Ugh. That was a funny era. I remember thinking winters were either the "495" belts or the "Cape." Nothing in  between. Or so it seemed. 

The 1980s/early 1990s maximum suffering zone was definitely in the BOS region down to the northern parts of south shore and prob out to about 128. It was brutal there. You missed the big Cape storms in '87, '89, and '92 (and another forgotten one I believe in Jan '81) and we're mostly too far E for the big interior bombs like Jan 87 (2 of them), Apr 87, Mar 84, etc. 

At least you nearly jackpotted in Thanksgiving '89. 

[tamarack]

19 hours ago, Typhoon Tip said:

 

I had heard a lot of bluster about New England winters when I first moved here in the early summer of 1984..  But it took until almost 10 years later to really have verification atone for those stories.  The thing is, there was a Cleveland Super Bomb, of Jan 25-27th ...really the 29th, in 1978 ... and when I first moved here, everyone's centric impressions of winter severity stopped at the Hudson. So I just bided time listening to 'how awesome' that storm was and sort of 'kept it to my self,' so to speak.   Waiting and waiting.... and waiting... for SOMEthing, anything, to validate there being no winters west of the Hudson... So, I'm like on year 5 or 6 waiting ... that's basically a light-hear for a teenager, of biting tongue and keeping it to my self... Yeah, I know - ur so awesome. 

Gradually as the 1990's ticked away ... and redemption years begin to pile up enough, I finally was able to begin internally justifying the claims of the New England winters. 

Now looking back... I can say with confidence, Michigan winters are a little colder, but less snow.  Not by huge margins on either... but true.  But the difference is the 'spike' years... Those snow-block-buster years out here ... ? they are like the Patriots Bears Super Bowl of 85 ... 47 to 10

Odd that both of you found disappointment in your early years in "snow country", or maybe not so odd, as that was my Maine experience after moving to BGR in Jan 1973.  Had a nice 8" event late that month, a paste mess in late Feb, and winter was cooked. Yay for snowy Maine.   Next year storm after storm either became rain or was wide right.  Biggest event was 9" in 2nd week of April, thus avoiding the setting of a new snow futility record.  My 3 years there featured only 2 double-digit snows, 12" of 5:1 stuff (at 50 mph, IP hurts!) April 3-5, 1975, then an 11" blizzard the following December, 2 weeks before we moved to Ft. Kent.  Even there, while getting lots of snowstorms, none exceeded 8" until late December 1976.  That first partial winter ended (for snow) with 8" on St. Patrick's Day.  Biggest subsequent event was the 1.5" that came while I was tilling the garden on May 7.  Of course, later winters more than made up for that.

For me, storm power ranks above snow depth in ranking storms, though I prefer all snow (or at least almost all) to any serious p-type messes, no matter how windy. 
Top 3 (chronologically):

Feb. 1961:  24" (at least - it included NYC's fastest Feb wind on record) atop 2'+ pack, paralyzing travel and crushing NJ snow depth records.

April 1982:  The 17" doesn't make my top 20 for depth, but gusts approached 60 and even the mongo removal equipment in the County couldn't keep up with the drifting.

March 2017:  Even farther down the accumulation list, at 15.5", but it was all snow, windblown down to 7:1 ratio and still piling up the drifts.  (If I'd been at home for Jan 2015, that would replace this one.)

[Typhoon Tip]

1 hour ago, tamarack said:

Odd that both of you found disappointment in your early years in "snow country", or maybe not so odd, as that was my Maine experience after moving to BGR in Jan 1973.  Had a nice 8" event late that month, a paste mess in late Feb, and winter was cooked. Yay for snowy Maine.   Next year storm after storm either became rain or was wide right.  Biggest event was 9" in 2nd week of April, thus avoiding the setting of a new snow futility record.  My 3 years there featured only 2 double-digit snows, 12" of 5:1 stuff (at 50 mph, IP hurts!) April 3-5, 1975, then an 11" blizzard the following December, 2 weeks before we moved to Ft. Kent.  Even there, while getting lots of snowstorms, none exceeded 8" until late December 1976.  That first partial winter ended (for snow) with 8" on St. Patrick's Day.  Biggest subsequent event was the 1.5" that came while I was tilling the garden on May 7.  Of course, later winters more than made up for that.

For me, storm power ranks above snow depth in ranking storms, though I prefer all snow (or at least almost all) to any serious p-type messes, no matter how windy. 
Top 3 (chronologically):

Feb. 1961:  24" (at least - it included NYC's fastest Feb wind on record) atop 2'+ pack, paralyzing travel and crushing NJ snow depth records.

April 1982:  The 17" doesn't make my top 20 for depth, but gusts approached 60 and even the mongo removal equipment in the County couldn't keep up with the drifting.

March 2017:  Even farther down the accumulation list, at 15.5", but it was all snow, windblown down to 7:1 ratio and still piling up the drifts.  (If I'd been at home for Jan 2015, that would replace this one.)

March 2017 was pedestrian for me here in N. Middlesex Co as far as snows.  10" was always considered "major" when I was younger, so if going by that metric it was .. and as such, we had some 10" before it started winding down as mixed whirling street lamp water mist...  Really, an emerald blue bomb... However, it's particular claim to fame is that it cracked off several lightning occurrences that buzzed windows during the ensuing reports.  Those are always special...  What also stood out to me... I recall the air smelled a lot like it does just before a summer thunderstorm, too ... that sort of pungent sweetness, and an aspect that sticks out in my memory.  I remember standing at the door listening to the thunder as crumble away its termination, thinking about summer ... most likely because of those sensible appeals.   

As for the bold above ...that's another discussion venture entirely, but just in brief, ...we've been handing out double-digit snow events like pez candies over the last ...well, two decades at this point. 

Will mentioned (as I did in my own way...) how 1992 sort of ear-marked a changing of the guard... Putrid dearth winters since then have been less frequent. Obviously ...there are exceptions to that rule - hence the word, "averaged" ...  2012 leaps to mind. 1994-1995...  But by and large, it's been 20 years since we've put together "strings" of bad winters... The outliers under-performances seemed to come back the next year and start correcting right away. 

We've covered this before...and it's true.  Eventually, the law of averages will come back to bite us... so we think. There is however, a caveat to that model - ...we are in a climate flux...so the statistically derived standards/climate reliance gets a bit shaky compared to a more stable regime spanning many years.  

[codfishsnowman]

On 8/1/2018 at 1:01 PM, Typhoon Tip said:

That was the storm that grew me up ... quickly.  

I went from an emotionally guided mental wreck when missing out on storms, to jaded for a life time. It really was too tormenting ... too absurdly abusively wrong by Walter Drag that ... put it this way.  Years later when I read of people wanting to bring litigation before congress because of NWS f'ups ...everyone at the weather lab up at UML rolled their eyes, but I privately kinda sorta sympathized.  Not now of course... But it is often said, you don't ever love any woman quite again like you do that first one ... I haven't since wanted a storm so much.

Being tongue-in-cheek of course...  But, it started some seven days prior. 

Back whence...The Weather Channel's format was very regimented.  Scheduled slots every hour, one could depend on the Tropical Update,... or Gardening Report ...if that's your bag. But the upshot? They were actually 'good' back then (some claim they've made a comeback but I haven't bothered and at this point probably won't).  Anyway, I remember, at 19 past the hour, and again at 49 minutes past the hour, they ran their Extended Outlook... It was my favorite segment!  Usually, Mark Mancuso covered ...then it was Mike Slidel or someone. A few years later, Cantore came on the scene with his own brand of over-exuberance. I'd garnish those day's later evenings, with Harvey Leonard ... and Barry Burbank ...those two seemed less inhibited about mentioning distant threats.  That daily journey, that was our 'weather models' back in the day as Met larva.  

Sometimes I wonder if my pulse was slightly elevated. I was such a little psycho about my storms.    Eyes wide at 18 past ... there it was. I just had a feeling it was time again. I always could do that.  I would just be doing something, and it would occur to me ...and it was the case more times than not - some sort of innate awareness that it was time to look for one of those ...the anticipated, coveted white shading painted over eastern New England, with the statement floating out at sea, "Watching" and an arrow pointing west..  That's when the greatest atrocity known to predictive science, began. 

For days...  ticker scrolls would beep beep beep interrupt their programming, as NWS warning statements rolled past ...comparing that event to 1978... That begin as many as four days ahead... a 'coon's age by those technological/"art" standards of the day.  Jesus... now?  We feel Judas'ed if a four-day f's up... Just one of the many tonal notes of that storm's presaged song, that sparked the imagination in that special way.  Imagine being soaked in that propaganda for days ...comparing to the grandfather of all bombs.   Three days before ... Blizzard Watches went up... all over eastern Massachusetts... pretty much every animate and inanimate object existing E of ~ EEN - NYC was doomed ....  at the end of the ticker?  Drag. 

It was a love hate relationship with that name - haha - no idea who it was, and no offense to Walt (he's really cool actually..), it wasn't his fault. 

Two days before d-day, Watches become Warnings...  

See, one has to put this into some sort of a relativistic perspective.  This was the 1980's people.  We did not have the words 'snow' and 'storm', necessarily ever placed, perhaps even allowed, together in the same grammatical construct. Something uniquely fantastic took place that decade, where fractals met with metaphysics (for lack of better frustration) for the sole intent of deliberately not snowing ... for years!  Years. You can read this, but you unfortunately ...you have to live that scarcity to spiritually understand.  And, thus, even begin to glimmer the dark light of enduring NWS' 4th period comparisons to parking lots out of Rt 128, grid failures...and/or Hull seacoast destruction hysteria. Which, the language being used ... really was not very well functionally controlled...  I would almost venture that the cultural seed of f'n 'fake news' actually began during that storm's countdown.  

I don't know what was... Maybe it was something that caught the corner of a my eye as some weather graphic was flitting away from a television screen... or some inflection of some weather man or woman's word choice... for some reason, the afternoon before d-day ... I started denying ominous feelings.  More like, "too good to be true" feelings... It was beyond the dreams of gluttony steeped in fever pitch ... and I started to wonder.  Maybe it was just some early respect to the processes of logic and realism that was trying to pull me back from it all.  I don't know... but, something was in there... And then... about 9 pm, when it was supposed to really be rocking and rolling... silence. 

The sky had gone to butterscotch hues after about a half hour of light rain that ended as street lamp sleety aggregate bombs before blithely ending.  No wind. Just turning colder and quiet.  That glow in the sky ... essentially the reflections of the night's grid beneath, faded to black along the horizon.  I used to associate that to the end frames of a lake effect snow when I was younger yet, living in western Michigan. I remember making that connection walking home under that not-storming sky ...wondering, denying... After all, no formal declaration ...some 10 minutes before the storm ... had yet been rendered.  

About 10:15 PM ...Harvey comes on with his usual Teaser ... words to the affect of, " ...Big changes regarding the big storm, tune in at 11..."   ...I literally had butterflies ...they kind you get right as your dad's car is turning into the driveway coming home from work, after your mom picked you up at the police station two hours earlier.   Not the kind you get when that girl you can't stop thinking about brushes your arm and smiles at something you said... 

So, he comes on at 11... and sure enough... he turns the dagger blade.  "...It looks now on the latest data, the storms primary effects are going to be much farther down toward the Cape, and possibly the outer Cape..."  

I'm like... it had to be wrong.  No one born after Feb 1987 has ever lived through a bust.  OH they think they have... 

that one was particularly brutal, I remember it like yesterday....

[ORH_wxman]

I think the closest negative bust we had in SNE to those '87 and '89 storms in modern times (with modern model guidance) was probably 2/10/10. Just about everyone was expecting a big storm....not necessarily a blockbuster, but something in the range of 8-12" or so. When I woke to the shredded radar returns and barely 2" of new snow OTG outside, I knew something was "wrong". It brought back those feelings of dread from childhood. I think I finished with 2.5" in that despite a robust winter storm warning. I remember pulling the plug on my own forecast about mid-morning once it was apparent there would be no "late comeback".

The Dec 19-20, 2009 storm busted pretty bad in some spots too...mostly out toward the CT River valley. For them, that was probably a lot like those late '80s busts where the southeast and "dry air" solutions are winning the battle. I think many out there got absolutely nothing despite winter storm warnings 6 hours to the onset.