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New England snowstorm memories.


CoastalWx
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Trying to put October 2011 in some type of historical perspective in CT. I can't think of any snowstorm other than 1978 that had the same type of societal impact in post-1900. Can anyone think of any others?

Probably not...Feb 1899 probably did.but that was pre-1900. The leaves on the trees made the October storm so unique.

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Probably not...Feb 1899 probably did.but that was pre-1900. The leaves on the trees made the October storm so unique.

The 3 biggest for impact would have to be October 2011, February 1978, and March 1888.

1888 for amounts, 1978 for drifts/amounts/strandings/coastal flooding, and 2011 for damage.

I'm not sure any others come into that category.

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The 3 biggest for impact would have to be October 2011, February 1978, and March 1888.

1888 for amounts, 1978 for drifts/amounts/strandings/coastal flooding, and 2011 for damage.

I'm not sure any others come into that category.

Well def for CT...I'm not sure about MA though since Oct 2011 "missed" a large portion of MA with big snows...even though lots of people had power outages with 6" of snow in interior E MA. There's some coastal flooding monsters like Dec 1992 in E MA that combined with the snow inland that might put Oct '11 behind it.

But I agree overall it was a monster impact storm for SNE. I would be interested in hearing the damage totals when they finally get them final (in adjusted dollars of course)...the lack of coastal flooding in Oct '11 will prob put it behind a few snowstorms in NE...but in terms of just the snow damage dollars, nothing comes close to Oct '11...not even close.

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Well def for CT...I'm not sure about MA though since Oct 2011 "missed" a large portion of MA with big snows...even though lots of people had power outages with 6" of snow in interior E MA. There's some coastal flooding monsters like Dec 1992 in E MA that combined with the snow inland that might put Oct '11 behind it.

But I agree overall it was a monster impact storm for SNE. I would be interested in hearing the damage totals when they finally get them final (in adjusted dollars of course)...the lack of coastal flooding in Oct '11 will prob put it behind a few snowstorms in NE...but in terms of just the snow damage dollars, nothing comes close to Oct '11...not even close.

Yeah agreed.

Judging storms by impact I think is the most important means of ranking storms. The 2006 powder bomb was the least impactful 26" of my life. I cleared my car off in about 3 minutes.

I would have to give the edge to 1978 and definitely 1888 over 2011. All three storms were quite different.

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Trying to put October 2011 in some type of historical perspective in CT. I can't think of any snowstorm other than 1978 that had the same type of societal impact in post-1900. Can anyone think of any others?

Not a single storm but last year was amazing. Classes canceled for a week at universities and longer than that ay public schools. Roofs collapsed etc, unbelievable.

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Not a single storm but last year was amazing. Classes canceled for a week at universities and longer than that ay public schools. Roofs collapsed etc, unbelievable.

Yeah agreed.

Looking at specific storms we all have memories of different ones for different reasons. 3/93, 1/96, 4/97, 3/01, 2/03 all have pretty special places in my weather memory. Oct 11 blows them all out of the water though.

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Yeah agreed.

Looking at specific storms we all have memories of different ones for different reasons. 3/93, 1/96, 4/97, 3/01, 2/03 all have pretty special places in my weather memory. Oct 11 blows them all out of the water though.

I'm young, but I have bits of memories from 96. I remember being in a sliding car with high drifts and snowbanks. Weird the snapshots your mind takes

My dad just told me 78 was his worst.

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Not a single storm but last year was amazing. Classes canceled for a week at universities and longer than that ay public schools. Roofs collapsed etc, unbelievable.

Yeah, the lasting effects of a few storms last winter was memorable, to say the least.

1978 closed schools for a week. All roads in CT were closed except to emergency vehicles - and there was widespread damage on the coast. Oct 2011 had a major impact, but probably not as widespread, but it hit CT hard in some spots.

There was an ice storm in '74 (I think). I have vague recollections of being able to actually use flexible flyer runner sleds since the ice was so thick. No power for at least a few days.

I don't remember 1888.

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Yeah, the lasting effects of a few storms last winter was memorable, to say the least.

1978 closed schools for a week. All roads in CT were closed except to emergency vehicles - and there was widespread damage on the coast. Oct 2011 had a major impact, but probably not as widespread, but it hit CT hard in some spots.

There was an ice storm in '74 (I think). I have vague recollections of being able to actually use flexible flyer runner sleds since the ice was so thick. No power for at least a few days.

I don't remember 1888.

I wasn't even a thought in 78 so I can't comment, but maybe being at my 1000' location in nw ct skewed my Oct '11 view. We got buried, originally told our power could be out 20 days. Looked literally like a warzone. We STILL see trucks cleaning up debris from the storm this way. Pete got more snow, but our ratios sucked so it was way heavier here.. I honestly think nw ct got it worst..especially over 600'...moreso over 800-900

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Yeah, the lasting effects of a few storms last winter was memorable, to say the least.

1978 closed schools for a week. All roads in CT were closed except to emergency vehicles - and there was widespread damage on the coast. Oct 2011 had a major impact, but probably not as widespread, but it hit CT hard in some spots.

There was an ice storm in '74 (I think). I have vague recollections of being able to actually use flexible flyer runner sleds since the ice was so thick. No power for at least a few days.

I don't remember 1888.

You are thinking of the Dec 16, 1973 ice storm if you were in CT at the time...that was the worst ice storm there in the past 50 years minimum...possibly 100 years.

The 2008 ice storm here had local effects worse than Oct 2011 and I think part of the reason Oct 2011 wasn't as bad was because of the Dec 2008 ice storm...it pruned so many large vulnerable branches that weren't there to get ripped off in 2011 like in the lowest parts of ORH and obviously down in Hartford and including Kevin's Tolland CT...most of CT except higher spots in Litchfield county avoided much damage in Dec 2008.

Oct 2011 still had some good damage here, but it could have been so much worse if 2008 hadn't happened before it...but of course we went through the disaster 3 years earlier with people not having pwoer for 7-14 days around here back then. Most people in this area in October got it back within 5 days this time. I was out for about 60 hours.

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You are thinking of the Dec 16, 1973 ice storm if you were in CT at the time...that was the worst ice storm there in the past 50 years minimum...possibly 100 years.

The 2008 ice storm here had local effects worse than Oct 2011 and I think part of the reason Oct 2011 wasn't as bad was because of the Dec 2008 ice storm...it pruned so many large vulnerable branches that weren't there to get ripped off in 2011 like in the lowest parts of ORH and obviously down in Hartford and including Kevin's Tolland CT...most of CT except higher spots in Litchfield county avoided much damage in Dec 2008.

Oct 2011 still had some good damage here, but it could have been so much worse if 2008 hadn't happened before it...but of course we went through the disaster 3 years earlier with people not having pwoer for 7-14 days around here back then. Most people in this area in October got it back within 5 days this time. I was out for about 60 hours.

Hey will, what was the ice storm around here in maybe 2001? I have great stories from that for when I'm not on my phone even.thoufh I was about 11

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Hey will, what was the ice storm around here in maybe 2011? I have great stories from that for when I'm not on my phone even.thoufh I was about 11

Huh?

Did you mean 2001?

If you meant 2001 you are probably thinking of the Nov 16, 2002 ice storm in CT...yes, November....really early, but it smoked the higher elevation of CT with a lot of ice damage. It wasn't devastating like 2008 in MA or '73 in CT, but it was pretty bad. Def the worst ice storm in CT in the past decade.

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Huh?

Did you mean 2001?

If you meant 2001 you are probably thinking of the Nov 16, 2002 ice storm in CT...yes, November....really early, but it smoked the higher elevation of CT with a lot of ice damage. It wasn't devastating like 2008 in MA or '73 in CT, but it was pretty bad. Def the worst ice storm in CT in the past decade.

Yeah 02. Was unbelievable. Exploding transformers EVERYWHERE even days later. Still bent trees in my yard from that

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October was really cool for me, but just a big powder bomb. Top 10 event due to lots of snow and top 5 for me due to weirdness. But very little impact here. Roads were drivable the next day, no power loss.

My top storms were

1978 by a lot

2008 Ice storm

April 1997

2005

Oct 2011

2008 is it for me since I wasn't alive in '78...my parents had just started dating back then, lol. My mom actually got trapped at my Dad's pad in Boston because of the '78 storm, she went straight to his place from work since she lived in Arlington but worked downtown in the state building for the Governor (I think Dukakis at the time)...and decided it would be easier to get to my Dad's place in Boston rather than try and get back to Arlington (she parked in a garage at the building instead of riding the rail)...and ended stranded at my Dad's for about 6 days. Cool story anyway.

2008 was sickening damage...Dec 1992 was kind of close here (I think you said you were in Lowell at the time)...but Dec 1992 shut down the entire city of ORH for literally 3-4 business days even though though the storm started Friday and ended on Saturday night...everything was closed from Mon-Wed and many were closed Thursday too.

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There piles in the local shaws here from October...they got down to about 2-3 feet in height before the January "infusion" of snow...so they are crusted underneath what's left of January.

These could be the longest lasting snowpiles I have seen in a while. 1978 had piles into June near me (snow farm at the Foxboro Company parking lot), so that was 5 months or so.The October snow could make it that long...hard to say. A wet torch could kill that

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