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New England snowstorm memories.


CoastalWx
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Youngsters like weatherMA and ma_blizzard would have been in nirvana in ORH during Dec 1992 since school was out until Thursday or Friday despite the fact the storm started Friday and ended late Sat night into early Sunday morning.

 

I know you SNE guys always talk about this storm, I cant seem to find a snowfall map for it. I think it was a big east slopes dump and downsloping pain in the valleys.  I have no memory of it since it was a cold rain storm where I grew up in the Mid Atl CP.  I thought it was mentioned Will made one, but maybe I'm not remembering that correctly. 

 

EDIT:

 

Guess I didn't look hard enough, found this one:

 

1992noreastertotals.jpg

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I know you SNE guys always talk about this storm, I cant seem to find a snowfall map for it. I think it was a big east slopes dump and downsloping pain in the valleys.  I have no memory of it since it was a cold rain storm where I grew up in the Mid Atl CP.  I thought it was mentioned Will made one, but maybe I'm not remembering that correctly. 

 

EDIT:

 

Guess I didn't look hard enough, found this one:

 

 

 

 

I have one for SNE that I made...but it's on my home computer. I'll have to post it later when I get back. I couldn't seem to find it doing a quick search.

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I know you SNE guys always talk about this storm, I cant seem to find a snowfall map for it. I think it was a big east slopes dump and downsloping pain in the valleys.  I have no memory of it since it was a cold rain storm where I grew up in the Mid Atl CP.  I thought it was mentioned Will made one, but maybe I'm not remembering that correctly. 

 

EDIT:

 

Guess I didn't look hard enough, found this one:

 

1992noreastertotals.jpg

That's a really bad depiction of that storm. The Ct Valley itself had 6-10 depending on location. There was 16-18 ion this general area.

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That's a really bad depiction of that storm. The Ct Valley itself had 6-10 depending on location. There was 16-18 ion this general area.

 

My parents in in the valley portion of Somers only had about 3".  The hills above them had over a foot....very sharp cutoff.  Union had over 30" so that map is a little off.  Elevation definitely played a role around here.

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My parents in in the valley portion of Somers only had about 3".  The hills above them had over a foot....very sharp cutoff.  Union had over 30" so that map is a little off.  Elevation definitely played a role around here.

Where i grew up in Vernon we had 6 inches..but there was s much as 8 in higher spots in town

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My parents in in the valley portion of Somers only had about 3".  The hills above them had over a foot....very sharp cutoff.  Union had over 30" so that map is a little off.  Elevation definitely played a role around here.

 

Parts of the CT River Valley had a trace...esp up toward CEF.

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Read on ALY NWS that ALB had .5" during the meat of the storm while 10-15 miles W/SW the Catskills/helderbergs had 20-40"...rough. Although ALB snagged a few extra inches once winds shifted from E to N.

 

 

I didn't do the ALB area...but here is my map of the December 1992 snowfall

 

December1992_snowfall_revised.png

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I didn't do the ALB area...but here is my map of the December 1992 snowfall

December1992_snowfall_revised.png

Disgusting. One of the worst storms ever. My Dad was working in Dalton Ma and was stunned at how little snow we had at home. I kept looking up at the sky literally seeing the flakes pounding high up in the air but never making it to the ground.

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I didn't do the ALB area...but here is my map of the December 1992 snowfall

December1992_snowfall_revised.png

What were total QPF amounts? Was it that no precip fell in the valleys or was it rain?

I honestly can't really fathom that map. That's more obscene gradients than our upslope precipitation events in the Greens. Would've loved to see a radar loop of that entire storm. Like what would a vertical profile look like to have so much blocked air over the terrain to wring out that much snow, yet be able to downslope the valleys so much. That takes a very special set of circumstances (inversion levels or slight veering winds) more than just saying east flow upslope/downslope.

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Read on ALY NWS that ALB had .5" during the meat of the storm while 10-15 miles W/SW the Catskills/helderbergs had 20-40"...rough. Although ALB snagged a few extra inches once winds shifted from E to N.

The Catskills and Helderbergs are underrated for snow as we don't hear much out of those areas, especially with Logan/Rick posting less. They have some huge events and may even be better at E/SE upslope flow than the Berkshires. There are a lot of inhabited towns at 1,500ft+ and even 2,000+ feet. Mountains are 3-4,000ft.

They get crushed in a lot of the big synoptic storms, especially prolonged east flow.

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What were total QPF amounts? Was it that no precip fell in the valleys or was it rain?

I honestly can't really fathom that map. That's more obscene gradients than our upslope precipitation events in the Greens. Would've loved to see a radar loop of that entire storm. Like what would a vertical profile look like to have so much blocked air over the terrain to wring out that much snow, yet be able to downslope the valleys so much. That takes a very special set of circumstances (inversion levels or slight veering winds) more than just saying east flow upslope/downslope.

 

I can assure you that it was raining in the valley.  It literally went from rain to a foot+ in about a mile as the crow flies and 800' up.  One of the sharpest cutoff's I've ever seen.  At my parents house in the valley we had 2.45" of QPF and 3.2" of snow.  Stafford Springs (next town over and elevated) had a little over 3" of QPF.  Like I said, snow ranged from around a foot in the lowest places to close to 30" in the highest.

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The Catskills and Helderbergs are underrated for snow as we don't hear much out of those areas, especially with Logan/Rick posting less. They have some huge events and may even be better at E/SE upslope flow than the Berkshires. There are a lot of inhabited towns at 1,500ft+ and even 2,000+ feet. Mountains are 3-4,000ft.

They get crushed in a lot of the big synoptic storms, especially prolonged east flow.

He posts on Pete's website where every day it's winter.

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If I do move up it would most likely be to east slopes of the southern Berks or the Northwest Hills. Probably not way up on the spine but on the escarpment at like 1000-1200 where you can still get to civilization in 20-25 minutes. Granville MA is like 1200 but you can get down to Westfield in like 15 minutes. North Granby and Barkhamsted CT are similiar.

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What were total QPF amounts? Was it that no precip fell in the valleys or was it rain?

I honestly can't really fathom that map. That's more obscene gradients than our upslope precipitation events in the Greens. Would've loved to see a radar loop of that entire storm. Like what would a vertical profile look like to have so much blocked air over the terrain to wring out that much snow, yet be able to downslope the valleys so much. That takes a very special set of circumstances (inversion levels or slight veering winds) more than just saying east flow upslope/downslope.

QPF amounts were generally 2-4" but some areas in the east had over 6".

There was no cap or much turning of winds or anything. This was a vertically stacked firehouse out of the ENE. The BL was at like 50 knots. Lol. The combo of the strength of the BL winds (from a perfect direction) and marginal temps produced the huge snowfall gradients.

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I can assure you that it was raining in the valley. It literally went from rain to a foot+ in about a mile as the crow flies and 800' up. One of the sharpest cutoff's I've ever seen. At my parents house in the valley we had 2.45" of QPF and 3.2" of snow. Stafford Springs (next town over and elevated) had a little over 3" of QPF. Like I said, snow ranged from around a foot in the lowest places to close to 30" in the highest.

Ahhh ok so it wasn't necessarily a downslope valley event but more a pure elevation event. I usually put downslope in the "it doesn't precipitate much" category while moisture gets wrung out on the slopes. Not sure what anyone classifies that storm as.

So massive QPF event with a very tight rain/snow line. Obviously probably some upslope assist in dynamic cooling, and compressional warming on the downside, but I love those tight snow lines. We see those gradients on the mountain but it's much more dramatic when it happens in populated areas so close to the surface. Rain below 2,000ft and 30" of snow at 3,000ft isn't as dramatic as rain at sea level and 30" at 1,000ft.

Reminds me of the April 2012 upslope event at Stowe where the office at 1,500ft had 3" of like white water, but it was 18"+ just 500ft higher at 2kft, and 30"+ above 2,500ft. Total QPF was almost 4" at the summit Coop. One of the highest QPF events I've ever seen from orographics. No thermal advection, just a steady state heavy precip event where heavy rates can only bring the snow level down so far.

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