New England snowstorm memories.

[tamarack]

12 hours ago, beavis1729 said:

Wow…I imagine your snowpack lasted forever that season, even if much of the rest of that winter was dry (?).

One of the all-time cold winters up there, right?

186.7" total for 76-77 with peak depth 54".  We had no rain between 12/7 and 3/13, only snow, and had flakes on 82 of 90 days in DJF.  After the mid-March thaw settled the pack by 20"+ and cold returned, the snow was so solid that we had 3-4 weeks of no-snowshoe travel thru the woods (would support a running moose), where the depth was 3-4 feet.  We spent Christmas with family in NNJ while Fort Kent had 24" on 12/26-27, then another 12" that we drove thru during the night of 29-30 (another story).  Our 2nd car, a blue VW Beetle, was just a white lump in the parking lot when we got home.

[The 4 Seasons]

12 hours ago, H2Otown_WX said:

Wow, Jan '22 was noose worthy for western CT. Looks like eastern sections cashed in...thanks for all the info. '19-'20 and '22-'23 are the only winters I missed so it's kinda funny they were two of the worst ever.

lol i think you said the same thing before when you asked me about Jan 22 like last year or the year before. It didn't sting like Jan 15 though, because we knew it was coming this time. Sucked but the forecast wasn't too off from what happened. I went W CT 6-12/12-20 E CT

[H2Otown_WX]

3 minutes ago, The 4 Seasons said:

lol i think you said the same thing before when you asked me about Jan 22 like last year or the year before. It didn't sting like Jan 15 though, because we knew it was coming this time. Sucked but the forecast wasn't too off from what happened. I went W CT 6-12/12-20 E CT

Yeah, I'm like an Alzheimer's patient. I noticed I asked you about Feb 2015 several years ago and then asked about it again this year  It still stings though. I was weenieing out and looking at your seasonal snowfall maps and all the individual events. That looks like it was a ton of work. I think 2/5/01 should be added to the historic storm list. I also questioned the Thomaston total on several occasions but I can't remember for which storms. I think your total for my area is too high for '09-'10. Granted I lived in Danbury part of the time but I still think I'm pretty sure we didn't crack 40". It was crazy to see how many years they totally cashed in from eastern CT to eastern MA. They had 100"+ several times. I've never even come close, most I had was 82" in '02-'03. I didn't realize how good '04-'05 was though comparatively not that great when looking at the totals out on the Cape lol. It had a string of solid moderate events in February and March.

[The 4 Seasons]

14 minutes ago, H2Otown_WX said:

Yeah, I'm like an Alzheimer's patient. I noticed I asked you about Feb 2015 several years ago and then asked about it again this year  It still stings though. I was weenieing out and looking at your seasonal snowfall maps and all the individual events. That looks like it was a ton of work. I think 2/5/01 should be added to the historic storm list. I also questioned the Thomaston total on several occasions but I can't remember for which storms. I think your total for my area is too high for '09-'10. Granted I lived in Danbury part of the time but I still think I'm pretty sure we didn't crack 40". It was crazy to see how many years they totally cashed in from eastern CT to eastern MA. They had 100"+ several times. I've never even come close, most I had was 82" in '02-'03. I didn't realize how good '04-'05 was though comparatively not that great when looking at the totals out on the Cape lol. It had a string of solid moderate events in February and March.

Thanks. Yeah it was probably 1,000s of hours over the course of 2 years. I'm still working on it and adding new stuff all the time. I recently added a freezing rain map section and added the 2023 and 2022 storms to the historic section. Im going backward and doing all the big ones but i def plan on doing Feb 2001 and Dec 2000 as well.

https://www.jdjweatherconsulting.com/ice-storms

As far as 04-05...that was a weird one because it was so good on paper but looking back (and at the time) it was always seemed kinda meh. Probably because the Jan 05 blizzard sucked and like 70% of the snowfall fell after late Feb into march. That late feb and march blitz was pretty insane. That Jan 2005 kinda felt like 2015. Looking from the outside while E MA and the cape got crushed with 2-3 feet. Also i remember forecasts being pretty high like 18-30" and we ended up with much less and with the rates were pretty bad throughout the storm, the radar looked like shredded sh*t the whole time. 

https://www.raymondcmartinjr.com/weather/2005/22-Jan-05-RegionalRadarImagery.html

The next storm ill be adding this week to the site is Feb 2021 then Dec 2020 to the historic page. 

[H2Otown_WX]

1 minute ago, The 4 Seasons said:

Thanks. Yeah it was probably 1,000s of hours over the course of 2 years. I'm still working on it and adding new stuff all the time. I recently added a freezing rain map section and added the 2023 and 2022 storms to the historic section. Im going backward and doing all the big ones but i def plan on doing Feb 2001 and Dec 2000 as well.

https://www.jdjweatherconsulting.com/ice-storms

As far as 04-05...that was a weird one because it was so good on paper but looking back (and at the time) it was always seemed kinda meh. Probably because the Jan 05 blizzard sucked and like 70% of the snowfall fell after late Feb into march. That late feb and march blitz was pretty insane. That Jan 2005 kinda felt like 2015. Looking from the outside while E MA and the cape got crushed with 2-3 feet. Also i remember forecasts being pretty high like 18-30" and we ended up with much less and with the rates were pretty bad throughout the storm, the radar looked like shredded sh*t the whole time. 

https://www.raymondcmartinjr.com/weather/2005/22-Jan-05-RegionalRadarImagery.html

The next storm ill be adding this week to the site is Feb 2021 then Dec 2020 to the historic page. 

Wow, I'm glad you never hired me that's too much work lol. I believe I had 72" in '04-'05...which is my second highest total since I started tracking in 2000-01. Idk, I was surprised how many and how close together there were a bunch of like 5-9" events. That's pretty solid as opposed to the stupid 1-3" crap of this winter. I understand what you mean though. When it happens that late in the season you're battling sun angle and it feels less wintry with Tip warm car seat season setting in. I didn't realize what a bust that storm was for us. I knew it was better out east but yeah, that looks like disjointed crap. I saw your ice storm archive that's a cool addition. How far back do you think you'll go? I'm hoping you add the Novie '02 storm. That's my siggy icing event. We lost power for like 4 or 5 days because we were on the extreme southern end of  so they tended to us last lol.

 

[The 4 Seasons]

4 minutes ago, H2Otown_WX said:

Wow, I'm glad you never hired me that's too much work lol. I believe I had 72" in '04-'05...which is my second highest total since I started tracking in 2000-01. Idk, I was surprised how many and how close together there were a bunch of like 5-9" events. That's pretty solid as opposed to the stupid 1-3" crap of this winter. I understand what you mean though. When it happens that late in the season you're battling sun angle and it feels less wintry with Tip warm car seat season setting in. I didn't realize what a bust that storm was for us. I knew it was better out east but yeah, that looks like disjointed crap. I saw your ice storm archive that's a cool addition. How far back do you think you'll go? I'm hoping you add the Novie '02 storm. That's my siggy icing event. We lost power for like 4 or 5 days because we were on the extreme southern end of  so they tended to us last lol.

 

How far back for what? the CT archive goes back to 1999 for all storms..so the November 2002 storm is there. As far as ice events, thats all of them unless you think there is more i can add. if you know please let me know, but i also need to have reports in the PNS for any additional events. 

https://www.jdjweatherconsulting.com/past-storms-02-03

 

[H2Otown_WX]

9 minutes ago, The 4 Seasons said:

How far back for what? the CT archive goes back to 1999 for all storms..so the November 2002 storm is there. As far as ice events, thats all of them unless you think there is more i can add. if you know please let me know, but i also need to have reports in the PNS for any additional events. 

https://www.jdjweatherconsulting.com/past-storms-02-03

 

I meant how far back for ZR?

[The 4 Seasons]

9 minutes ago, H2Otown_WX said:

I meant how far back for ZR?

That's all I got reports get pretty scarse in the 2000s. So 1999. If you have any suggestions let me know and I'll see if there are reports

[The 4 Seasons]

What was the ice storm in 02 November? After the 26-27 snow storm? So the 29th storm i have on my site?

[H2Otown_WX]

6 minutes ago, The 4 Seasons said:

What was the ice storm in 02 November? After the 26-27 snow storm? So the 29th storm i have on my site?

I believe it was 11/16/02: Ice Storm Of November 2002 – Hartford Courant

[The 4 Seasons]

3 minutes ago, H2Otown_WX said:

I believe it was 11/16/02: Ice Storm Of November 2002 – Hartford Courant

Ok I'll check to see if there are pns reports 

[beavis1729]

6 hours ago, tamarack said:

186.7" total for 76-77 with peak depth 54".  We had no rain between 12/7 and 3/13, only snow, and had flakes on 82 of 90 days in DJF.  After the mid-March thaw settled the pack by 20"+ and cold returned, the snow was so solid that we had 3-4 weeks of no-snowshoe travel thru the woods (would support a running moose), where the depth was 3-4 feet.  We spent Christmas with family in NNJ while Fort Kent had 24" on 12/26-27, then another 12" that we drove thru during the night of 29-30 (another story).  Our 2nd car, a blue VW Beetle, was just a white lump in the parking lot when we got home.

That’s incredible…definitely a legendary winter of yore. 

[The 4 Seasons]

4 hours ago, The 4 Seasons said:

Ok I'll check to see if there are pns reports 

Nada

OKX/ALY - no PNS

BOX PNS not enough to do a map with, two reports

[codfishsnowman]

On 3/5/2025 at 11:47 PM, The 4 Seasons said:

The climo sites are really low <1" but id image it was between 1.5-2.5" for most of the state considering what snowfall totals were plus the addition of sleet, compacting, wet snow. 

BDL is suspiciously low compared to surrounding reports for snowfall. and BDR is kind of high and doesnt match their precip report at all. 15.5" with 0.59" liquid? yea thats obviously wrong. 

Sleet blew through the whole state and then we cooled off Monday night. 

you can look at the radar, sfc maps, and BDR obs here https://www.raymondcmartinjr.com/weather/2001/05-Mar-01.html

It seemed like it sleeted forever in that event. I still had a solid foot where I lived on the Bristol/Farmington line. If it had really developed like earlier runs showed and buried the northern mid Atlantic through southern and South Central New England it would have been historic

[The 4 Seasons]

10 minutes ago, codfishsnowman said:

It seemed like it sleeted forever in that event. I still had a solid foot where I lived on the Bristol/Farmington line. If it had really developed like earlier runs showed and buried the northern mid Atlantic through southern and South Central New England it would have been historic

Yeah i remember sleet began Sunday night and lasted on and off through monday night, then we went to pound town. I would have loved to seen that modeled today, that was before i started even looking at models. I remember Kocin calling it "probably the biggest storm the NYC/tri-state area has seen in over 50 years" Looking back i think he was referring to current record for NYC at the time which was the blizzard of 1947.  12/26-27/47. I didn't realize that fell on the same dates as the Blizzard of 2010 until now. 

[H2Otown_WX]

12 hours ago, The 4 Seasons said:

Nada

OKX/ALY - no PNS

BOX PNS not enough to do a map with, two reports

Booooooo...maybe I'll call ALY and see if they got any paper copies of old PNS reports

[tamarack]

15 hours ago, beavis1729 said:

That’s incredible…definitely a legendary winter of yore. 

1983-84 in Fort Kent had 'only' 171" but the pack depth and SWE were enormous.  Total precip Nov-Mar was over 25" and most was frozen.  A significant IP/ZR event in mid-Dec produced a 3" crust (1.9" water) that would carry a bull moose.  The 18.5" surprise (forecast was 1-3) in early Feb had the pack at 61" on the morning of 2/6 but 4 days of 25° AN chopped it to 37" by 2/16.  On March 14-15 we had 26.5" that pushed the depth to 65" - 80" in the northern tip of Maine - with 16" SWE at home and probably near 20" on Big Twenty Twp.  (Both that storm and that pack are the tallest I've experienced.)  Then April was dry with many warm days after frosty nights, and all that water made it safely down the St. John.

[The 4 Seasons]

6 hours ago, H2Otown_WX said:

Booooooo...maybe I'll call ALY and see if they got any paper copies of old PNS reports

i think this site has every one of them available, if its not there it likely doesnt exist. 

https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/wx/afos/list.phtml?by=cccc&source=ALY&pil=AFD&year=2002&month=11&day=16&year2=2025&month2=3&day2=11&view=grid&order=asc

[H2Otown_WX]

3 hours ago, The 4 Seasons said:

i think this site has every one of them available, if its not there it likely doesnt exist. 

https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/wx/afos/list.phtml?by=cccc&source=ALY&pil=AFD&year=2002&month=11&day=16&year2=2025&month2=3&day2=11&view=grid&order=asc

Yeah, you were right. Just spoke to Tom from ALY and he directed me to that site and we were both checking and there's nothing except some light snowfall reports for the ALY area on the 18th. Sucks...my last hope is NCEI but I doubt they'll have anything. 

[The 4 Seasons]

2 hours ago, H2Otown_WX said:

Yeah, you were right. Just spoke to Tom from ALY and he directed me to that site and we were both checking and there's nothing except some light snowfall reports for the ALY area on the 18th. Sucks...my last hope is NCEI but I doubt they'll have anything. 

well any other years/events that i dont have for ice let me know if you think of anything

[beavis1729]

11 hours ago, tamarack said:

1983-84 in Fort Kent had 'only' 171" but the pack depth and SWE were enormous.  Total precip Nov-Mar was over 25" and most was frozen.  A significant IP/ZR event in mid-Dec produced a 3" crust (1.9" water) that would carry a bull moose.  The 18.5" surprise (forecast was 1-3) in early Feb had the pack at 61" on the morning of 2/6 but 4 days of 25° AN chopped it to 37" by 2/16.  On March 14-15 we had 26.5" that pushed the depth to 65" - 80" in the northern tip of Maine - with 16" SWE at home and probably near 20" on Big Twenty Twp.  (Both that storm and that pack are the tallest I've experienced.)  Then April was dry with many warm days after frosty nights, and all that water made it safely down the St. John.

That’s an incredible amount of QPF for a northern location during the cold season. Crazy to have a 5’ depth drop to 3’, then back up to 5’ during the same season. 

I’m guessing 4.5+ months of continuous snow cover that winter, including 3-4 months of foot+?

Hopefully there will be another winter like that up there soon. It seems like an impossible distant memory, the way things have gone recently.

1983-84 was a decent winter in the Chicago area, relatively speaking. I was 9 years old, and it’s the first winter I actually remember. Christmas Eve 1983 had the coldest daily average temperature on record, -11/-25 at ORD and a bit colder in the suburbs. 1/30/2019 came close, -10/-23 at ORD.

 

 

[H2Otown_WX]

1 hour ago, The 4 Seasons said:

well any other years/events that i dont have for ice let me know if you think of anything

I feel like 07-08 had something but the only thing I found was 12/3/07 and it was limited to the Capital Region around Albany.

[The 4 Seasons]

38 minutes ago, H2Otown_WX said:

I feel like 07-08 had something but the only thing I found was 12/3/07 and it was limited to the Capital Region around Albany.

i feel like 06-07 did as well but i think it was just a sleet fest. V-day 07 was like 3" of pure sleet at Danbury i remember. And the storms after it i think  were sleet and snow. 

The big 08 icestorm did not affect CT really. mostly Mass to VT/NY

and 08-09 i got a good one in january. 

[DavisStraight]

1 hour ago, The 4 Seasons said:

i feel like 06-07 did as well but i think it was just a sleet fest. V-day 07 was like 3" of pure sleet at Danbury i remember. And the storms after it i think  were sleet and snow. 

The big 08 icestorm did not affect CT really. mostly Mass to VT/NY

and 08-09 i got a good one in january. 

Mostly the northern half, came close to me, about 5 miles north was the cutoff.

[tamarack]

12 hours ago, beavis1729 said:

That’s an incredible amount of QPF for a northern location during the cold season. Crazy to have a 5’ depth drop to 3’, then back up to 5’ during the same season. 

I’m guessing 4.5+ months of continuous snow cover that winter, including 3-4 months of foot+?

Hopefully there will be another winter like that up there soon. It seems like an impossible distant memory, the way things have gone recently.

1983-84 was a decent winter in the Chicago area, relatively speaking. I was 9 years old, and it’s the first winter I actually remember. Christmas Eve 1983 had the coldest daily average temperature on record, -11/-25 at ORD and a bit colder in the suburbs. 1/30/2019 came close, -10/-23 at ORD.

 

 

That 1983-84 winter included the only times in our Fort Kent days that school was closed due to snow, 1.5 days in 10 years.  The Feb surprise cost a full day as the 1-3" forecast meant that the plow folks slept thru the 18" in 9 hours, waking up to a morning's worth of parking lot clearing.  The March bomb started overnight with about 6" new by sunrise and another 6" forecast, so the buses ran.  By late morning snow was falling at 3"/hour with radar showing lots more to come, so students re-entered the buses at noon.  The 30 miles to Allagash has few hills but the 25 miles to Winterville has some notable climbs.  Everyone got home okay as 2 feet plus accumulated.  (CAR had 29.0", their biggest at the time.)

The school superintendent lived next to the high school and folks figured that was why school was never closed.  He said that was incorrect; he'd send his German shepherd out to get the morning paper.  If she made it to the box, there would be school, even if he had to help her back to the house.  

[TheBudMan]

Back when we used to have winters ....

 

Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Taunton MA
703 AM EDT Mon Mar 12 2018

 

SHORT TERM /6 PM THIS EVENING THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT/...
Monday Night into Tuesday...

*/ Highlights...

 - Moderate to heavy snow, some locations seeing upwards of a
   foot to perhaps two feet total accumulation

 - 1-3"/hr snowfall rates at times, plus winds could yield
   blizzard conditions with visibility less than a quarter of a
   mile

 - Strong to damaging winds, E gusts up around 65 mph possible
   for E/SE MA coast, brunt of the winds around Tuesday morning

 - Impacts to the Tuesday AM commute with difficult, near-
   impossible travel.

 - Especially the Tuesday morning high tide, strong E onshore
   flow yielding around a 2 to 3 foot surge, splashover, minor
   coastal flood issues, especially ocean-facing shores,
   vulnerable areas impacted by earlier storm systems