New England snowstorm memories.

[CoastalWx]

49 minutes ago, 40/70 Benchmark said:

I think I tuned out for the season right after I saw those pics TBH.

Same type of deal here with those pics. Just stacked on the cars and a little wetter than what he had, but about the same amount. 

[ma blizzard]

2 hours ago, ORH_wxman said:

Then of course, winter hill after Mar 4-6, 2001....the snow got even deeper too after that, LOL

 

after 2001, which years had the most snowpack going into April locally? 2007 and 2015 had pack into April but are there any other years up there? Too young to remember how ‘96 was before the April storms so could that be up there? 

[tamarack]

10 minutes ago, ma blizzard said:

after 2001, which years had the most snowpack going into April locally? 2007 and 2015 had pack into April but are there any other years up there? Too young to remember how ‘96 was before the April storms so could that be up there? 

Ten top years for that.  Since my obs time of 9 PM, the years are ranked by the March 31 number, 3 hours before entering April.
Year   3/31    4/1
2001    48      47   (Even in Ft. Kent we never entered April with more pack.  46" in 1984 was tops there.)
2008    35      34
2014    34      32
2019    26      26
2017    25      28   (3.5" on 4/1)
2015    20      20
2018    15      14
2005    14      13
2011    13      25   (15.0" on 4/1)
2020    10      10

22-yr
Avg       12.5   12.8
median   9.5    9.0


 

[ORH_wxman]

1 hour ago, ma blizzard said:

after 2001, which years had the most snowpack going into April locally? 2007 and 2015 had pack into April but are there any other years up there? Too young to remember how ‘96 was before the April storms so could that be up there? 

1996 mostly melted out in mid March....there was a pretty good warm spell the week after the big snows in the 3/2-3/8 period before it got chillier again. Even 2007 was mostly gone IIRC going into April but it was still present in the typical shaded spots.

 

2005 def had pack going into April but it was on its last legs and didn't last long. But I remember it still pretty impressive like on March 29-30ish and then it started going pretty quick. 2018 had some leftover pack too but it was pretty mangled because that final few days of March torched pretty good. 2017 was also trying to hold on too and even got an event on 3/31-4/1 to reinforce it.

2013 was trying to hold on but it went really fast in the first 3-4 days of April. I do have a pic of what it looked like on Mar 22nd that year:

 

 

Nothing rivals 2001 though because it was like legit pack everywhere (not just shaded spots) going into April. Though I will say that ORH was literally the line for that....you went to southern and lower parts of the town and it didn't look nearly as uniformly covered. But my area up into Holden and those areas was like 18+ even in open fields and because the first week of April was pretty cold, the pack was taking a while to melt out so you had like full pack everywhere still on like 4/9 or 4/10. Part of the reason for that too was the 3/30/01 storm. That storm literally sliced the city in half....even the airport had some trouble because they are kind of south. Up by the north side on the Holden line we had like 8-10" of paste but the airport was like 4" with a ton of sleet and marginal ZR contamination. It was a sick gradient. I think they basically got almost shut out down around Auburn/Millbury.

 

The only year that probably rivals 2001 for continuous pack into April around here was 1956. The difference is that 1956 was probably much more impressive than 2001 southeast of ORH...like my current area back toward Auburn/your old stomping grounds in Shrewsbury and then south into N RI....they got destroyed/jackpotted in multiple late March storms worse than ORH did surprisingly whereas 2001 was mostly N ORH county for the obscene pack durability into April.

1984 went into April with a stout pack, but it wasn't super durable since the winter pack had already mostly melted out before the big 3/29-30/84 storm. Ditto 1997 of course...ton's of pack on 4.1 but it was all from one storm, so the liquid equivalent was no more than 2-3" maybe. Still impressive, but you usually want like 5-6+ inches of water in that sucker late in the year from the winter pack that has absorbed all those ZR/sleet/cold rain events....it makes it harder to melt out fast.

We really squandered 1993 badly....had a massive pack after the superstorm and then even added to it (or at least slowed the melting/compaction) with a couple of events over the next 10 days. That pack had a lot of water in too from all the events (including a juicy snow to sleet SWFE) in Feb '93 and pre-superstorm Mar '93 and virtually zero rain at all during that time....but then we absolutely furnaced the final week or so of the month. We had multiple days near 70F IIRC and then a massive rainstorm and that was all she wrote. The piles lasted until May, but dreams of full pack into April were dashed with that final week of March which was a bloodbath. If you had shown someone a pic of the snow on like St. Patty's day or the equinox that year, you would have never guessed it would mostly melt out by 4/1.

[CoastalWx]

Goes without saying, but the true April pack I can remember was really just 2015. No surprise obviously around here with not getting a routine pack, but that lasted deep into the 1st week of April. Some protected areas did not melt until near mid month. But boy, it's amazing how rapidly things got going after the snow melted. Just a rapid acceleration into Spring.

[ma blizzard]

@ORH_wxman @tamarack

appreciate the detailed responses and info! 

[CoastalWx]

I saw pics from late March 2001 in New Ipswich NH. Had to be near 4 1/2’ or more. 

[tamarack]

83-84 in Ft. Kent had the longest run of snow cover, 169 days - Nov 11-April 28.  Then two days of frozen stuff (more IP than SN, 2.2" from 0.71" LE) on May 4-5 that added another 2 days.  81-82 was the only season that carried cover into May, Nov 18-May 3, 167 days, helped mightily by the April blizzard.  1984 had only 8.4" after the big dump on 3/14-15 as the late month event stayed south.  Each of those snow seasons totaled 173 days with 1"+.

[George001]

March 8th 2013 was my favorite storm. This wasn’t the best storm I have experienced in my life (that was a month earlier), but it was my favorite one due to how it came out of nowhere. Most of the weather stations had my area forecast for a 2-4/3-6 type storm before it changed over to rain. However, it never did change to rain. I went to sleep expecting only a few inches of snow on the ground when I woke up. I remember the following morning I woke up, looked out the window and saw 2 feet of snow! I was shocked and immediately turned on the news, and remember the TV meteorologist explaining how the temps were a couple of degrees colder than expected, which allows for the precip type to stay all snow as well as increase the ratios. Also the low absorbed another system that pulled it back in a bit and allowed it to stall 500 miles offshore. It was out to sea, but the storm was massive and the unusual retrograding motion allowed for it to ram a huge plume of Atlantic moisture into eastern mass and heavy bands of snow rotted over us. That second low came out of nowhere, if it didn’t come in the storm would not have became massive and would not have produced its own cold air which allowed for the precip to stay all snow. Really cool setup and as a huge weenie there is nothing better than a surprise blizzard that comes out of nowhere.

[Ginx snewx]

2 hours ago, CoastalWx said:

I saw pics from late March 2001 in New Ipswich NH. Had to be near 4 1/2’ or more. 

I skied cross country and down hill well into April in Maine that year. Deep in the woods on northern exposures was 5 feet plus. Most snow I have seen so late. I have pictures on an old hard drive I need to recover 

[Ginx snewx]

12 minutes ago, George001 said:

March 8th 2013 was my favorite storm. This wasn’t the best storm I have experienced in my life (that was a month earlier), but it was my favorite one due to how it came out of nowhere. Most of the weather stations had my area forecast for a 2-4/3-6 type storm before it changed over to rain. However, it never did change to rain. I went to sleep expecting only a few inches of snow on the ground when I woke up. I remember the following morning I woke up, looked out the window and saw 2 feet of snow! I was shocked and immediately turned on the news, and remember the TV meteorologist explaining how the temps were a couple of degrees colder than expected, which allows for the precip type to stay all snow as well as increase the ratios. Also the low absorbed another system that pulled it back in a bit and allowed it to stall 500 miles offshore. It was out to sea, but the storm was massive and the unusual retrograding motion allowed for it to ram a huge plume of Atlantic moisture into eastern mass and heavy bands of snow rotted over us. That second low came out of nowhere, if it didn’t come in the storm would not have became massive and would not have produced its own cold air which allowed for the precip to stay all snow. Really cool setup and as a huge weenie there is nothing better than a surprise blizzard that comes out of nowhere.

Too bad you weren't on here then you definitely would not have been surprised.  We were all over it

[CoastalWx]

I actually have most of the radar loop from 3/4/19 on my laptop. Too large to post, but oye vey those bands.

[CoastalWx]

The Bruce Willis storm. 6 years ago. What a pissah to miss, but it nailed srn areas.

 

[DavisStraight]

I remember doing a house in Wilbraham in 1993 and the snow was up to my waist, I was younger then so got through. I had to use snow shoes in 2015 to get around houses.

[Ginx snewx]

55 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

The Bruce Willis storm. 6 years ago. What a pissah to miss, but it nailed srn areas.

 

RIP Scott Messenger 

 

 

 

[Ginx snewx]

March 7th 2018 mega storm. Big paster here , western areas smoked.Lost a bunch of limbs

[ORH_wxman]

Yeah Ginxy, we lost power for 3 days in that one. We had about 12” of grease...even at the bottom of the hill was more like 9-10”. Noticeable elevation gradient 

[CoastalWx]

42 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

Yeah Ginxy, we lost power for 3 days in that one. We had about 12” of grease...even at the bottom of the hill was more like 9-10”. Noticeable elevation gradient 

[tamarack]

Missed 20" by 0.1".  About 1/4" at my 9PM obs on 3/7 and another 12" by 7A on 3/8.   Then I watched barely-accumulating SN from our Augusta office, maybe 2" on older snow.  Was surprised to see over 7" on the board when I got home.  Another 16.5" event a week later made 2018 our 2nd snowiest March.  Of course I dreamed of what would've happened if we'd been dumped upon by all 4 of that month's biggies instead of just #2 and #3.  Might've challenged 12/76 in Fort Kent (61.5") for my snowiest month ever.

[The 4 Seasons]

Marth 7-8th 2018.

Light to moderate snow began during the day here. It was mostly white rain with less than <1" by sunset. I thought we would have a hard time with this in the lower elevation areas but that changed quickly after sunset. By the time i had less than an inch of white rain glop, @Sey-Mour Snow was closing in on 8.5" just to the west of me around 550ft. Shortly after sunset radar returns started rapidly deepening and we were under S+ with heavy 1-2"/rates. NWS issued an SPS for 1-3"/hr rates and possible thunder.

 

At this point i went outside for a while and the snow was still coming down very heavily. I saw this huge white flash above my head and thought briefly it was a flood light turning on and then a second late a large summer-time convective clap follwed by even heavier rates. This was probably the most intense thunder snow ive seen since Feb 2001. As i was outside for a while i saw several more CG strikes and extemely loud thunder. The majority of the snow fell from 5-10PM and we ended up with 13.5". I imagine some of the rates reached up to 4"/hr during the period of thunder/lightning.

Forecast for this was really really good but ended up being too low in W CT where some amounts ranged from 16-28". The ranges worked out perfect and the gradient from 0-2-->8-16 SE to W did as well.

Some of the regional NWS maps. NYC was definitely spared from the big amounts along with most of LI and SE CT.

Radar

[Ginx snewx]

21 hours ago, ORH_wxman said:

Yeah Ginxy, we lost power for 3 days in that one. We had about 12” of grease...even at the bottom of the hill was more like 9-10”. Noticeable elevation gradient 

It was a good thing we had a lot of snow on my roof. There were literally 10 to 15 branches of various sizes up there. It was why I removed all the 7 trees around the house. They finished as the April 18 storm started.

[Ginx snewx]

2nd storm in a week in March 17

[DavisStraight]

On 3/8/2021 at 4:55 PM, Ginx snewx said:

It was a good thing we had a lot of snow on my roof. There were literally 10 to 15 branches of various sizes up there. It was why I removed all the 7 trees around the house. They finished as the April 18 storm started.

Good firewood

[H2Otown_WX]

On 3/8/2021 at 3:20 PM, The 4 Seasons said:

Marth 7-8th 2018.

Light to moderate snow began during the day here. It was mostly white rain with less than <1" by sunset. I thought we would have a hard time with this in the lower elevation areas but that changed quickly after sunset. By the time i had less than an inch of white rain glop, @Sey-Mour Snow was closing in on 8.5" just to the west of me around 550ft. Shortly after sunset radar returns started rapidly deepening and we were under S+ with heavy 1-2"/rates. NWS issued an SPS for 1-3"/hr rates and possible thunder.

 

At this point i went outside for a while and the snow was still coming down very heavily. I saw this huge white flash above my head and thought briefly it was a flood light turning on and then a second late a large summer-time convective clap follwed by even heavier rates. This was probably the most intense thunder snow ive seen since Feb 2001. As i was outside for a while i saw several more CG strikes and extemely loud thunder. The majority of the snow fell from 5-10PM and we ended up with 13.5". I imagine some of the rates reached up to 4"/hr during the period of thunder/lightning.

Forecast for this was really really good but ended up being too low in W CT where some amounts ranged from 16-28". The ranges worked out perfect and the gradient from 0-2-->8-16 SE to W did as well.

Which storm overperformed in '13-'14? I think it was in February...it was either in 2014 or 2015. I just remember it was sort of in two parts and the ULL snows overperformed quite a bit especially down your way.

[The 4 Seasons]

22 hours ago, H2Otown_WX said:

Which storm overperformed in '13-'14? I think it was in February...it was either in 2014 or 2015. I just remember it was sort of in two parts and the ULL snows overperformed quite a bit especially down your way.

Feb 1-2 2015.

[The 4 Seasons]

4 year anni of Pi-day snow storm. This storm certainly wasn't a complete bust but it under performed a bit in CT as last minute ticks NW caused a complete changeover to sleet for most of southern CT. 

This could have been the biggest March snowstorm ever in a lot of climo sites if it had performed as forecast. 

Aside from Jan 2015, these are the highest forecast numbers ive seen come out of local news forecasts in the past 7 or so years. 

This storm also featured some of the heaviest snowfall ive ever seen. During the period of changeover we had some extremely large sized flakes sticking together mixed with sleet probably at a rate of 3"/hr.

We ended up with 9.5" here in just a few hours which isn't awful on a 12-20FX but definitely under performed (NWS Zone at the time was 18-24 which would have been worse if you were expecting that). Definitely a bust on the SE corner with only 2". 

 

 

[Hoth]

1 hour ago, The 4 Seasons said:

4 year anni of Pi-day snow storm. This storm certainly wasn't a complete bust but it under performed a bit in CT as last minute ticks NW caused a complete changeover to sleet for most of southern CT. 

This could have been the biggest March snowstorm ever in a lot of climo sites if it had performed as forecast. 

Aside from Jan 2015, these are the highest forecast numbers ive seen come out of local news forecasts in the past 7 or so years. 

This storm also featured some of the heaviest snowfall ive ever seen. During the period of changeover we had some extremely large sized flakes sticking together mixed with sleet probably at a rate of 3"/hr.

We ended up with 9.5" here in just a few hours which isn't awful on a 12-20FX but definitely under performed (NWS Zone at the time was 18-24 which would have been worse if you were expecting that). Definitely a bust on the SE corner with only 2". 

 

 

What a juiced up beast that was. Was that our last blizzard warning? I still remember watching the sleet line racing north from NJ early that morning and realizing our goose was probably cooked for high-end accumulations. It was a fun storm though, all the more so as the models locked in early.

[tamarack]

1 hour ago, Hoth said:

What a juiced up beast that was. Was that our last blizzard warning? I still remember watching the sleet line racing north from NJ early that morning and realizing our goose was probably cooked for high-end accumulations. It was a fun storm though, all the more so as the models locked in early.

I don't recall a blizzard warning for my area, but we had 5 hours of prime blizzard criteria 4-9 PM - gusts 40+, 1/8 vis in S+, 10" in those 5 hours.  And it terrorized our rescue Lab from TX that had arrived here on Feb. 4.  None of the 5 storms/45" in her 1st 2 weeks here bothered her much, but I had to drag her off the porch that evening for her to do her business.  That event was the 4th and most recent storm to fit the criteria in 23 winters here.  (12/6-7/2003, 12/21-22/2008, 1/27-28/2015 the others, though I missed that last one.)

[The 4 Seasons]

34 minutes ago, Hoth said:

What a juiced up beast that was. Was that our last blizzard warning? I still remember watching the sleet line racing north from NJ early that morning and realizing our goose was probably cooked for high-end accumulations. It was a fun storm though, all the more so as the models locked in early.

yeah noticeable juiced, havent seen anything like it really.

That was not our last blizzard warning, Jan 4th 2018. The snow-bomb.

[ORH_wxman]

3/14/17 was a solid event. Didn’t get the jackpot obviously (reserved for NNE and upstate NY) but that was crazy intense snow for about 5 hours. We picked up 14” here and most it fell in 5-6 hours. The sleet line barely made it here during the dryslot but it changed back to ugly snowflakes pretty quickly. Good QPF dump in that as the ratios were prob near 10 to 1. We had full snowpack until the end of the month that year and partial snowpack into the first week of April.