Top 5(ish) New England Weather events

[GCWarrior]

Hi Everyone!  Been lurking around for a long time.  Hope I can contribute!

In no real order most are recent because they are are still fresh in my mind.

Tropical Storm Irene 2011-  Most rain I have ever seen in my life including my time in Olympia.  I remember going to bed and waking up the next day to the Deerfield River flooding much of downtown Shelburne Falls.  I see the high water line every am driving to work.

Octobomb same year-  weak over all winter as we all know.  Not a weak snow storm.  We weren’t far from the jackpot.  I skinned Berkshire East and made thigh deep “turns” straight down the mountain.  Halloween was fun that year for my very young children at the time!

 

Thanksgiving eve Storm 2014-  We lost power for an hour or so with the turkey in the middle of cooking.  Power came back on and we definitely ate the turkey.  Skied the next day with zero base, totally worth it.

January 11 2011-  Savoy, MA reported over 40” of snow.  I remember taking my son up to the state park so he could play.  Everything was just buried in snow.

 

January 1994 cold outbreak I think -  I remember this well.  Before our bubble wrap protected society took over they made us actually go to school in negative temperatures(the horror!) I remember waiting at the bus stop a couple mornings of -20.  That month. 

 

 

[HoarfrostHubb]

Pete?

[tamarack]

On ‎10‎/‎20‎/‎2019 at 7:42 AM, GCWarrior said:

Hi Everyone!  Been lurking around for a long time.  Hope I can contribute!

In no real order most are recent because they are are still fresh in my mind.

Tropical Storm Irene 2011-  Most rain I have ever seen in my life including my time in Olympia.  I remember going to bed and waking up the next day to the Deerfield River flooding much of downtown Shelburne Falls.  I see the high water line every am driving to work.

Welcome to the board.  I lurked for a year or more before joining, back in the Eastern days.

Having spent Thanksgiving week in the Olympia area in both 1995 and '96, my impression for RA there was "some every day" - the November joke is that it only rains once that month, lasting 1st to 30th.  However, in those 2 weeks there were only 2 all-day rains, and w/o a gauge I'd estimate neither reached 2".  IIRC, Seattle averages a bit under 40"/year and Olympia probably isn't much different, with Port Angeles (closer to Olympics' rain shadow) about 10" less.  Without checking stats, I'd guess your current area has big rain events - 3"/4"+ in 24 hours - more often than the communities on the inner part of Puget Sound.

[JC-CT]

Sandy

Feb 13

Oct 11

Jan 11

Feb 20

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

2 hours ago, JC-CT said:

Sandy

Feb 13

Oct 11

Jan 11

Feb 20

Something big coming? Do tell..

[JC-CT]

9 hours ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

Something big coming? Do tell..

Record-breaking heat wave

[Hailstoned]

1) Blizzard of 78

2) Monson, etc. tornado, 2011

3) Hurricane Carol

4) February 9, 1969-- the so called "Lindsey Storm" Boston style with 2 feet of wet snow/thunder snow on 50 mph gust gales

5) January 8, 1968; Living atop a high hill in S.W. N.H.: A high temperature of -8 with 60 MPH wind gusts. Plumes of snow flying from exposed places on Mount Monadnock, 8 miles to the south. Walked out into a field just to feel what -70 wind chill feels like. Not recommended.

6) December 12, 1960 blizzard, early start to a story book winter; the storm that sparked a life long wiener roast.

[Sugarloaf1989]

It seems like I've been at Sugarloaf, Maine for most of these weather events.

1 January 1998 ice storm. 1" of ice and 6" of sleet at Sugarloaf, with no power loss.  Absolute devastation further South with 2 - 4'" of ice. State of emergency, couldn't go home. I've never seen power lines sag all the way to the ground without breaking. Most ice accumulation I've ever seen. Freezing rain for 3 consecutive days .

2 April 2007 Nor'easter, the end of 100" of snow from a series of snow storms since the start of the month. Most snow I've ever seen in April. Stratton Maine was clearing snow with a highway grader. Snow Banks higher than the car along Route 27.

3 December 1989 Coldest skiing I've ever done -37F at Sugarloaf.

4 January 1996 Blizzard. At Sugarloaf skiing, had to come home to Bayside, Queens to dig out my parents house from 25" of snow. Severe cold at Sugarloaf, but snowfield skiing in January, which is very rare.

5 November 12th 2013, snow in Coventry on my Birthday.

Honerable mention 10/18/09 2" of snow in Coventry. This remains the earliest snowfall I've seen.

[tamarack]

On ‎10‎/‎22‎/‎2019 at 10:03 PM, Hailstoned said:

1) Blizzard of 78

2) Monson, etc. tornado, 2011

3) Hurricane Carol

4) February 9, 1969-- the so called "Lindsey Storm" Boston style with 2 feet of wet snow/thunder snow on 50 mph gust gales

5) January 8, 1968; Living atop a high hill in S.W. N.H.: A high temperature of -8 with 60 MPH wind gusts. Plumes of snow flying from exposed places on Mount Monadnock, 8 miles to the south. Walked out into a field just to feel what -70 wind chill feels like. Not recommended.

6) December 12, 1960 blizzard, early start to a story book winter; the storm that sparked a life long wiener roast.

Some NNJ memories triggered by 4,5,6:
4.  Our scout troop (I was asst. scoutmaster) got caught at Allamuchy Scout Reservation that Sunday morning, and we had an interesting (but safe) 35 mile drive home.  My '62 Beetle had no problem at all.
5.  Had a high of about 4° that day with a stiff breeze.  We were framing a new house, usually a well-warming exercise, but we were hard put to keep hands and feet fully operational.  (Not as uncomfortable as 5 years earlier, 12/31/62, when the same 4° max was accompanied by gusts well into the 60s - speed estimated, but backed up by all the damage.)
6.  18" at low teens overnight, starting to taper off as we headed into the woods for the deer season opener.  My dad dropped a nice little buck a couple hundred yards from the house while my friend and I saw nothing while slogging a mile or so thru the powder.  Dad gave me a knife and showed me how to field dress a deer - came in handy 8 years later when I took my 1st deer, with no one else nearby.

[Sugarloaf1989]

I've only been living in Connecticut since 2006, previously I lived in NYC and Suffolk County.

Honerable mention has to Hurricane Gloria and Hurricane Bob. Gloria was the most intense hurricane I've seen.

I didn't experience Bob directly, but storm chased the extreme damage in Eastern Suffolk County.

[Sugarloaf1989]

Can we post pictures of these events?

I have pictures of the 10/18/09 snow and the 4/09 Nor'easter. Unfortunately I only have video of the 1/96 blizzard.

[Torch Tiger]

#1

[dendrite]

15 minutes ago, Dr. Dews said:

#1

You forgot to include the preceding DJF too.

[Torch Tiger]

7 minutes ago, dendrite said:

You forgot to include the preceding DJF too.

Perhaps, but that Mar.-May was even better. Winters as a whole suck, even warm ones.

[Typhoon Tip]

As this is a tedious exercise in subjectivity ... I'm sure this will roll-eyes in the same vane, but I agree with that Dr. Dew user.  That warm March in particular in 2012 was a truly extraordinary event, considering the preceding some 200 years of both reanalysis and/or empirical-based climate construction(s).  

That should be on the list, imho -

One particular reason that is important for me is that it was one of the few examples spanning the last 20 years ... when mid latitudes of N. America experienced the type of anomalies that have become more common place abroad.  I think that's an important distinction.  Our above normals seem to not be in the best of the best ... save that event, and perhaps the heat wave in the mid west to mid Atlantic later that summer. 

I think the specter of 2015's February should also rank highly but it gets and a question for two reason:  a,  it was more local to SNE and N. M/A....  and b, the snow was a lower pwat anomaly, which sort of 'inflated' depth.  

From there drill down to specific events...  obviously very few using this past-time/social media would probably rank 1953 Worcester Tornado but that's a high ranker.  

Then, 1978 February...  etc etc..

[tamarack]

1 hour ago, Dr. Dews said:

#1

Maine's #1 must be 2010, the winter eaten by the New Year's retro-bomb.   #2 might be the 1998 super Nino.  2012 obliterated some daily records and featured the 3 warmest March maxima in Farmington's 125-year POR.  However, 2010 "wins" because those months had almost no BN temps at all, until the 2nd week of May when all our apple blossoms got freeze-killed, along with ash, birch and some maple shoots. 

[Torch Tiger]

6 minutes ago, tamarack said:

Maine's #1 must be 2010, the winter eaten by the New Year's retro-bomb.   #2 might be the 1998 super Nino.  2012 obliterated some daily records and featured the 3 warmest March maxima in Farmington's 125-year POR.  However, 2010 "wins" because those months had almost no BN temps at all, until the 2nd week of May when all our apple blossoms got freeze-killed, along with ash, birch and some maple shoots. 

I liked 2010. Remember closing on my house Jan 1st 2010. days of mood snow, totalling around 8"

[Sugarloaf1989]

1 hour ago, Dr. Dews said:

Perhaps, but that Mar.-May was even better. Winters as a whole suck, even warm ones.

Summers as a whole suck even the hot and humid ones.

[Sugarloaf1989]

11 minutes ago, tamarack said:

Maine's #1 must be 2010, the winter eaten by the New Year's retro-bomb.   #2 might be the 1998 super Nino.  2012 obliterated some daily records and featured the 3 warmest March maxima in Farmington's 125-year POR.  However, 2010 "wins" because those months had almost no BN temps at all, until the 2nd week of May when all our apple blossoms got freeze-killed, along with ash, birch and some maple shoots. 

Where you around to see Olympia snow woman in Bethel?

[tamarack]

9 minutes ago, Dr. Dews said:

I liked 2010. Remember closing on my house Jan 1st 2010. days of mood snow, totalling around 8"

April and May were nice, but JFM had way BN sun, 140% of avg precip and 60% snowfall - no way to run a NNE winter.

Were you around to see Olympia snow woman in Bethel?

Only on TV.

[Sugarloaf1989]

My notes say these pictures are from 10/16/09, other posters say the snow was on 10/18/09.

 

[Sugarloaf1989]

4/17/07 The day the April 14-17 Nor'easter ended, with 18-24" of snow. Cars were buried in the parking lot.

[Sugarloaf1989]

4/18/07 The day after the Nor'easter ended. Snowcats dug out the Timberline Lift, easily 10-15' snow depths at the summit. Just incredible amounts of snow for late April.

[tamarack]

That mid-April event dropped 5" snow at my place and 5" cold rain.  Hope I never see another such pair of 5s.        Sugarloaf summit probably got 4-5 feet, maybe more.
Brought the month up to 37.2", and the 36.1" at the Farmington co-op was 12" above its next snowiest April since 1893.  My #2 April here is 15.6" in 2011, and even my Fort Kent records top out at 29" in 1982.

[Sugarloaf1989]

Driving up to Saddleback from Sunday River on 4/9/07, deep snow along side the road.

 

[Sugarloaf1989]

14 minutes ago, tamarack said:

That mid-April event dropped 5" snow at my place and 5" cold rain.  Hope I never see another such pair of 5s.        Sugarloaf summit probably got 4-5 feet, maybe more.
Brought the month up to 37.2", and the 36.1" at the Farmington co-op was 12" above its next snowiest April since 1893.  My #2 April here is 15.6" in 2011, and even my Fort Kent records top out at 29" in 1982.

The last snow event was elevation dependant. I recall green grass and no snow OTG in Farmington when we drove home.

[Sugarloaf1989]

This article mentions the 95" of snow at Sugarloaf in 3 weeks. We skied Saddleback on closing day in 2007 and they had 60" at the base. That's a once in a lifetime snow event. I doubt I'll ever see more snow in April ever again.

http://checkinwithcharlie.bangordailynews.com/2017/04/14/home/patriots-day-storm-10-years-ago-sunday/

[ORH_wxman]

1 hour ago, Sugarloaf1989 said:

My notes say these pictures are from 10/16/09, other posters say the snow was on 10/18/09.

 

That's because there were two snow events...an October rarity. 10/15-16 and 10/18. 

2011 also had two events. A little teaser on 10/27/11 two days before the big one. 

[Sugarloaf1989]

My second coldest skiing weather.

1/16/09 

-24F with the car thermometer in Stratton, Maine.

Sugarloaf summit was -35F, skiing with any speed was painful.

[Sugarloaf1989]

30 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

That's because there were two snow events...an October rarity. 10/15-16 and 10/18. 

2011 also had two events. A little teaser on 10/27/11 two days before the big one. 

Okay, thanks for the explanation.

10/27/11