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New England snowstorm memories.


CoastalWx
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The January 26-27th 2015 Blizzard was just that for Harwich, MA.  A storm that was originally thought to have brought taint and rain to The outer Cape Cod area, never saw a drop of rain.  We got 30.4" of snow, maybe a bit more in certain areas of the region, but we stayed all snow and never went to rain.  I read some of that thread a week ago.  Man everyone was down on the event three days ahead of time.

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Those are interesting totals...when I made my map years ago, there was a thin stripe of <=18" totals down the Housatonic Valley. I think Lanesboro had 18" and Great Barrington had 13". I never did find a Pittsfield number as they stopped reporting snow in 1970 at their site. I would suspect Pittsfield did ok since they are above 1,000 feet, but 30 inches would surprise me a bit. The Stockbridge coop discontinued in 1985 and Adams in 1978, so unfortunately nothing official there.

 

The Kocin Book has what looks to be 13" in AQW, but can't say for sure that is where the number comes from since it isn't labeled on those maps. He does have a couple 48" amounts on what looks like the spine of the Berkshires...I never found those totals (best I found was 44.5"), but they are probably pretty accurate given what we know about that storm.

 

Unless the 30" Pittsfield measurement was taken above 1500' in Pittsfield State Forest, it may have been taken in a drift or something. 30" seems a little high for a downslope spot. The 18" in Lanesboro (just north of Pittsfield at similar elevation) is more reasonable as does the 13" in Great Barrington as both COOPs seem to be pretty reliable. Too bad the one in Lenox Dale doesn't go back that far.

 

As for the 36" in Adams, I don't know. Mt. Greylock is in Adams, so maybe it was taken at some elevation, but 36" seems high for town which is 800' and downslopes badly. 15-20", perhaps 18-24", is more likely from the Pittsfield to Adams corridor. QPF began to decrease a bit heading toward the VT line, which may, at least in part, help to explain the lower total at AQW. The snow was cement, so it obviously had some considerable staying power despite a mild pattern if I remember a fair amount of snow around these parts at Christmas that year.

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The January 26-27th 2015 Blizzard was just that for Harwich, MA. A storm that was originally thought to have brought taint and rain to The outer Cape Cod area, never saw a drop of rain. We got 30.4" of snow, maybe a bit more in certain areas of the region, but we stayed all snow and never went to rain. I read some of that thread a week ago. Man everyone was down on the event three days ahead of time.

not everyone,in fact Jan 05 was analog for a week prior and mentioned several times
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ugh those storms both of them...both the 05 and 15 bitter cold jan events....heart breakers for many western and some central interior folk, both promising feb 13 totals from big models and neither one delivering more than a moderate to moderate heavy run of the mill snowstorm over many many hours of snow

 

i hated both events personally although from a met perspective they were pretty amazing but just goes to show that those type of events will ALWAYS favor the coast, the hfd spfd corridor north and west will always be on the outside looking in with those events...the storms really have to track inside the benchmark...jan 96 was on the weaker side in the hfd spfd area as well compared to just about everywhere else, some bad data exists on that event but the big 20 plus inch totals were confined to higher elevations and south (mostly well south west) of hartford ct...actually some eastern and south eastern zones kind of got screwed a bit from that event...

 

id like to see a widespread two to three foot event from 195 nw with very cold temps

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There are model runs showing similar characteristics from that Jan 26-27 2015 event as to now for the 16-17th of OCT.  There is a lot of energy running around the base of the northeast US trough for this period and models are beginning to show signs of a more energetic disturbance associated with this trough and +PNA pattern.  Just something to look after.

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ugh those storms both of them...both the 05 and 15 bitter cold jan events....heart breakers for many western and some central interior folk, both promising feb 13 totals from big models and neither one delivering more than a moderate to moderate heavy run of the mill snowstorm over many many hours of snow

i hated both events personally although from a met perspective they were pretty amazing but just goes to show that those type of events will ALWAYS favor the coast, the hfd spfd corridor north and west will always be on the outside looking in with those events...the storms really have to track inside the benchmark...jan 96 was on the weaker side in the hfd spfd area as well compared to just about everywhere else, some bad data exists on that event but the big 20 plus inch totals were confined to higher elevations and south (mostly well south west) of hartford ct...actually some eastern and south eastern zones kind of got screwed a bit from that event...

id like to see a widespread two to three foot event from 195 nw with very cold temps

Yeah I was living in Norwalk during the blizzard of 96. The cut off east and north was sharp. We received 27 inches (Norwalks largest total to date). While Bridgeport reported 15! Of course Bridgeport probably received 18 as they always under report.

I remember the massive drifts, only Nemo came close when we received 22.

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There was really nothing obvious at 3-4 days lead time. The trough looked too far east. It required pretty deep phasing to pull that storm back for us.

There were strong signals but of course no specifics as is always the case. the only mega snowstorm i can ever recall being modeled pretty good out past 5 days was 93.

 

 

I didn't mean to start a twitter slap fight , Tru dat. Sbos will respond on banter thread.

24/25 get ready for the snow train that's coming. Drumbeat is clearer each day. Late Siberian high just kicked this off a little later.

 

 

best part being there is a definite signal and its has gotten stronger which is a good sign, could be the 25th on but I think by the 23rd . but time will tell.

 

 

not trying to be oppo, but I actually like the latest look,. The cold overwhelming the pattern and forcing suppression is not what I want to see, with the trough axis closer to us that could be lots of fun. anyways lets see how this hakes out as thats a pretty stout signal for the 25th-27th period.

 
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I just read that entire Jan thread, wow on the Debras in that thread. In fact you said the same thing Jan 10 th when we started seeing strong signals for something to pop. Many doubters few believed,grasshoppers with patience were.

 

I just hope the weenies remember this next time somebody says something about climo and cancelling winter. You don't really need a February 2015 to turn a ratter into an average season. Too many cliff jumpers.

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I just read that entire Jan thread, wow on the Debras in that thread. In fact you said the same thing Jan 10 th when we started seeing strong signals for something to pop. Many doubters few believed,grasshoppers with patience were.

That period did really nothing for us up here, grasshoppers with patience are still waiting lol.

We know the Sultan of Frigidair will sniff out any potential well in advance.

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There were strong signals but of course no specifics as is always the case. the only mega snowstorm i can ever recall being modeled pretty good out past 5 days was 93.

 

 

Oh I know the signal was good a good couple weeks out on a much better pattern for storminess and cold (I was one of the few also trying to keep all the cliff jumpers from diving)...I was just talking once we got inside of 5 days, there was nothing that would really make you predict a historic blizzard until we got inside of 72...the whole setup was really too far east on guidance and we got that ideal, monster phase that showed up on Friday night to bring things back for eastern areas (Euro subsequently came even further west, but ended up wrong).

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I hope we get a few SE Mass Specials this winter. There was a good one in '93 that I distinctively remember in early Feb. ACK had 60 mph winds. I wonder how the cape did in that storm. Feb. 1/2, 1993. I went home from daycare early on the 1st. I remember the teachers talking about how we were going to get a bad storm. I looked outside and saw the battleship gray color of the clouds hanging low. Then there were very small snowflakes that stuck to the teachers coat.

 

That night was windy with light snow.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Thanksgiving 1989 rings a bell. ACK got a foot out of it (in November nonetheless.) With Turkey Day in two weeks. Sorry for the crappy snow map.12241412_3457027386931_62781516207956996

I was five years old and I actually remember thinking how odd it was to have snow on Turkey Day.

 

On another note, does anyone remember how low the pressure got in that late March Cape storm in '14? I remember it was a monster at sea and just kind of scraped the islands with blizzard conditions. Was just trying to imagine what it could've been if it had phased a bit earlier. 

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The March '14 storm was a huge blizzard, but it was about 200 miles out to sea.  Anyways, it looks like the pattern gets better for Thanksgiving Week, much colder temps and a huge reservoir of cold air in central Canada shifting eastward into the Quebec, Canada sector.  Also storms are starting to get closer and closer to the big deal, the 12z GFS shows a monster.

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  • 4 weeks later...

What a storm that was. I would've given anything to have been back home in Hamden for that one. It was awesome in Boston, too, but my mother called excitedly during that mega band to say it was hailing and she couldn't even see across the street. I told her it was called sleet, but apparently she was actually technically correct haha. Wish she'd measured the snowfall rate. Bet it was 4-5"/hr. And who could forget that NAM run that popped like 60"+ accumulations? Ah, memories.

 

It's been an amazing few years in the storm department. I never thought I'd see a period like late December '10 through January '11 again. I mean, Boxing Day, 9" norlun, two feet on Jan 12th, and 15" Jan 27 is tough to beat. And who could imagine that we'd have Feb '13, the crazy March '13 firehose, the frigid zero degree storms of '14 and the endless paradisiacal glory that was late January through mid-Feb '15? I've actually lost track of how many 12"+ snows I've seen over the last five years. Last winter sort of became a blur with the mega-SWFE and the 100 hour thing and the ocean effect enhancement and mood flakes every day. Glory days, no question.

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What a storm that was. I would've given anything to have been back home in Hamden for that one. It was awesome in Boston, too, but my mother called excitedly during that mega band to say it was hailing and she couldn't even see across the street. I told her it was called sleet, but apparently she was actually technically correct haha. Wish she'd measured the snowfall rate. Bet it was 4-5"/hr. And who could forget that NAM run that popped like 60"+ accumulations? Ah, memories.

It's been an amazing few years in the storm department. I never thought I'd see a period like late December '10 through January '11 again. I mean, Boxing Day, 9" norlun, two feet on Jan 12th, and 15" Jan 27 is tough to beat. And who could imagine that we'd have Feb '13, the crazy March '13 firehose, the frigid zero degree storms of '14 and the endless paradisiacal glory that was late January through mid-Feb '15? I've actually lost track of how many 12"+ snows I've seen over the last five years. Last winter sort of became a blur with the mega-SWFE and the 100 hour thing and the ocean effect enhancement and mood flakes every day. Glory days, no question.

lifetime achievement award
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