New England snowstorm memories.

[CoastalWx]

3 hours ago, ORH_wxman said:

Nice fat band while Ray and central area were choking on exhaust:

 

 

We pound.

[HoarfrostHubb]

I only got like 3" here from that.    Meh

[HoarfrostHubb]

Last winter had so many melts.  Could not retain at all...Presidents week was the worst

[ORH_wxman]

Just now, HoarfrostHubb said:

Last winter had so many melts.  Could not retain at all...Presidents week was the worst

Yeah mid-winter retention was disappointing...we had snow cover most of the time, but it kept getting thinned pretty bad before the next one....until Feb vacation week of course when it decided to turn into June for a week.

 

The good retention pattern didn't occur until March...and by then, you're fighting the sliding climo. But that Mar 9-Mar 20th period def had a pretty deep winter feel...and the Mar 20-Apr 3rd period was more like waning winter feel...snow took a while to go...got that replenisher on April 1st.

[CoastalWx]

Another good one. The Feb 5 2016 paste job. It was +paste  in this photo with my little helper.

 

[ORH_wxman]

Yeah that was a great storm actually. It produced a decent number of power outages in E MA. 10-12" of pure cement. 

[Hoth]

1 hour ago, ORH_wxman said:

Yeah that was a great storm actually. It produced a decent number of power outages in E MA. 10-12" of pure cement. 

You wouldn't have any saved radar images of the 2011 norlun would you? Think it was around 1/7 or 1/8. That was a fun event down here.

[tamarack]

On ‎9‎/‎15‎/‎2017 at 2:07 PM, ORH_wxman said:

The January 24th storm where we had that weird upslope in ORH county that allowed enough cooling for a lot of slee/tsnow mix while many others got sleet/ZR/RA

The December 29th, 2016 paste job:

Like here, 2.18" LE, mainly IP (4.5") with some ZR/RA at the end.  Messy but made the pack bulletproof.

The 21" on Dec 29-30 wasn't exactly paste, but I think it was heavy enough to break limbs off the fir we transplanted in 1998.  Might also have been the March blizzard, or both.  That latter storm, though 3rd largest (15.5" vs 2 @ 21") was the winter's best, due to 5 hours of SN+ with gusts into the 40s.  1st blizzard-criteria conditions I'd witnessed since 12/21-22/2008 and only the 2nd (12/6-7/2003 the other) in 19 winters here.  Jan 2015 also met the criteria, judging by our neighbor's pics and description, but we were in SNJ at the time.

[powderfreak]

On 9/16/2017 at 7:02 AM, CoastalWx said:

Another good one. The Feb 5 2016 paste job. It was +paste  in this photo with my little helper.

 

This is awesome!  Been a while since I've seen a sight like that at home with wet snow that isn't like 3-5" but 8"+.  It's not a true blue bomb until the windward side of the trees have 6" of paste going up and down the trunks.

I get to see that on the mountain all the time (not that hard when you have the ability to search up to 4,000ft in elevation to find the rain/snow line) but haven't had one in the valley at home in a while.  I love going just like 300-500ft higher in elevation from the actual rain/snow line and its just pure paste on everything.  By the time you are 1,000ft above the rain/snow line its back over to pretty much powder. 

Would love to see a good blue bomb at home one of these seasons.  Like a solid 8-12" of pure cake.

[powderfreak]

4 hours ago, tamarack said:

Like here, 2.18" LE, mainly IP (4.5") with some ZR/RA at the end. 

Similar ratio here, lol.

2.8" frozen on 1.40" liquid.  I think we had mostly freezing rain in that that then switched over to a mix of very wet snow and sleet.  I lost some branches around the yard from the ice. 

[CoastalWx]

3 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

This is awesome!  Been a while since I've seen a sight like that at home.  It's not a true blue bomb until the windward side of the trees have 6" of paste going up and down the trunks.

I get to see that on the mountain all the time (not that hard when you have the ability to search up to 4,000ft in elevation to find the rain/snow line) but haven't had one in the valley at home in a while.  I love going just like 300-500ft higher in elevation from the actual rain/snow line and its just pure paste on everything.  By the time you are 1,000ft above the rain/snow line its back over to pretty much powder. 

Would love to see a good blue bomb at home one of these seasons.

Had decent damage in this one. We do get our share of wet snow events which is always fun. I had to swing by my folks that evening to help shovel and remove a tree limb and it was rather strange with no power and every so often...the sound of a limb crashing in the woods.  Just dead quiet that was broken up by these snapping/crashing sounds. This was one of the better wet snow events in awhile. 

[EastonSN+]

On 9/15/2017 at 2:03 PM, ORH_wxman said:

Bumping this thread...while responding to new Vermonter das in the 2016-2017 winter thread, I went into my attachments to find an old snowfall map...I came across a bunch of images from last winter.

 

All in all, last winter really was pretty decent for most. Def a bit more frustrating right on the coast, but even there it was still above average for snowfall.

 

Some of my favorite images I saw were:


The approach of the huge March 14th nor' easter. We had over 14 inches in ORH...this storm happened too right around when we closed on our new house. We had around 11-12 inches in Holliston judging by the landscape the next day driving there. This one hit all of New England hard save maybe parts of the south coast which flipped pretty early and some extreme exposed spots on the eastern MA shore...Logan underperformed a bit. We actually managed to avoid flipping to sleet in ORH despite most models thinking we would...the snow did get a bit rimed though late in the storm when we finally dryslotted:

 

 

 

 

Here's the big thump on Sunday Feb 12th that gave us about 9 inches...that had followed the really nice snowstorm on February 9th...we achieved max depth after the 12th storm:

 

 

 

Awesome banding in the February 9th storm:

 

 

 

The March storm was a dynamic one. 9.5 inches of snow sleet mix for sw coastal CT. 

[tamarack]

16 hours ago, powderfreak said:

This is awesome!  Been a while since I've seen a sight like that at home with wet snow that isn't like 3-5" but 8"+.  It's not a true blue bomb until the windward side of the trees have 6" of paste going up and down the trunks.

I get to see that on the mountain all the time (not that hard when you have the ability to search up to 4,000ft in elevation to find the rain/snow line) but haven't had one in the valley at home in a while.  I love going just like 300-500ft higher in elevation from the actual rain/snow line and its just pure paste on everything.  By the time you are 1,000ft above the rain/snow line its back over to pretty much powder. 

Would love to see a good blue bomb at home one of these seasons.  Like a solid 8-12" of pure cake.

Saw more of that in Gardiner than at my foothills location, and I missed the one true blue bomb - was in SC for the 16" on 3/22-23/2001.  That storm, according to friends, was a "can't stick" event for several hours before the S+ arrived near sunset and continued thru the night - nice wet branches to catch sticky snow.  About 20% of the fir, the most abundant species by far on my woodlot, had their tops broken out by the snow.  (Eustis recorded 34.5" from that storm, and 10 miles to its south/1000'+ higher elevation, the final load from our harvest on the Redington Public Lot headed out just as the snow got serious.  Just in time - probably 40" or more up there, atop the 4-5' already OG.)

[ORH_wxman]

11 minutes ago, tamarack said:

Saw more of that in Gardiner than at my foothills location, and I missed the one true blue bomb - was in SC for the 16" on 3/22-23/2001.  That storm, according to friends, was a "can't stick" event for several hours before the S+ arrived near sunset and continued thru the night - nice wet branches to catch sticky snow.  About 20% of the fir, the most abundant species by far on my woodlot, had their tops broken out by the snow.  (Eustis recorded 34.5" from that storm, and 10 miles to its south/1000'+ higher elevation, the final load from our harvest on the Redington Public Lot headed out just as the snow got serious.  Just in time - probably 40" or more up there, atop the 4-5' already OG.)

2000-2001 was one of the more amazing snow seasons up there not just for the big totals but the longevity of the season...at least in terms of snow cover on the ground. There was a pretty sizable event around the Eustis area and prob up to Long Falls damn around 10/9/00...then they had ANOTHER event even larger around 10/29-30...we actually had snow in that in interior SNE, but only about a half inch (they had more up in Cheshire county NH...a few inches). But it was a huge October in Maine which consisted of two events spaced out apart by 3 weeks...pretty rare for two events that size in October..esp so spaced out.

 

Then of course the late season snowfall was so prolific, that it lasted basically into May....even though April itself wasn't very snowy, the end of March was obscene so that along with the relative cold first half of April really set the stage for the snowpack lasting so long. That winter was also notable for the consistency...lack of thaws. There was a huge cutter on Dec 17-18 that torched everyone right into Canada, but after that, the mild spells were very few and far between...and generally lacked much punch.

 

I think for anyone from about BOS surburbs WSW through interior N CT and then everyone north of that line would take this year's La Nina winter being a repeat of 2000-2001. It was def a bit more frustrating right on the coast in SNE, but even there it had its moments. It was still above average for almost everyone....save maybe for SE coast of CT/RI...they had a lot of screwjobs that winter.

[CoastalWx]

3 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

2000-2001 was one of the more amazing snow seasons up there not just for the big totals but the longevity of the season...at least in terms of snow cover on the ground. There was a pretty sizable event around the Eustis area and prob up to Long Falls damn around 10/9/00...then they had ANOTHER event even larger around 10/29-30...we actually had snow in that in interior SNE, but only about a half inch (they had more up in Cheshire county NH...a few inches). But it was a huge October in Maine which consisted of two events spaced out apart by 3 weeks...pretty rare for two events that size in October..esp so spaced out.

 

Then of course the late season snowfall was so prolific, that it lasted basically into May....even though April itself wasn't very snowy, the end of March was obscene so that along with the relative cold first half of April really set the stage for the snowpack lasting so long. That winter was also notable for the consistency...lack of thaws. There was a huge cutter on Dec 17-18 that torched everyone right into Canada, but after that, the mild spells were very few and far between...and generally lacked much punch.

 

I think for anyone from about BOS surburbs WSW through interior N CT and then everyone north of that line would take this year's La Nina winter being a repeat of 2000-2001. It was def a bit more frustrating right on the coast in SNE, but even there it had its moments. It was still above average for almost everyone....save maybe for SE coast of CT/RI...they had a lot of screwjobs that winter.

That was a top 5 snow for March around here. March 2001 sort of porked the area, but it was significant, and some other events sprinkled in too.

[ORH_wxman]

6 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

That was a top 5 snow for March around here. March 2001 sort of porked the area, but it was significant, and some other events sprinkled in too.

And it was pretty big not that far off the coast too...obviously areas like ORH got pounded, but even like 128-495 really did well that month (and winter overall). Storms like 2/5/01 and 12/30/00 had 128-ish rain/snow lines....the 2/5 snow line did collapse back SE later in the storm and pasted the coast at the end, but it was obviously a bit frustrating being so close to a much bigger event. Then the big March 4-6, 2001 storm was like 18"+ once you got 128/pike N&W. But there was a SE MA special or two mixed in...I think 1/21/01 was a good one and so was 2/23/01...esp for Cape area.

[powderfreak]

Wasn't there a decent 6-12" event like 4 days after the early March 2001 biggie?  

I have a lot of AFDs from BTV that month and it's insane how everything trended snowier leading up to events...starting with 3/5/2001 which was going smoke cirrus in a lot of VT even 48-72 hours prior.  In reality all of VT got like 20-40".  

Then there were two more big bombs that had over 24" each for the mountains I think on 3/22 and 3/30.  Both of those looked like rain or something other than snow based on reading the AFDs a few days out.  

[ORH_wxman]

Just now, powderfreak said:

Wasn't there a decent 6-12" event like 4 days after the early March 2001 biggie?  

I have a lot of AFDs from BTV that month and it's insane how everything trended snowier leading up to events...starting with 3/5/2001 which was going smoke cirrus in a lot of VT even 48-72 hours prior.  In reality all of VT got like 20-40".  

Then there were two more big bombs that had over 24" each for the mountains I think on 3/22 and 3/30.  Both of those looked like rain or something other than snow based on reading the AFDs a few days out.  

Yeah 3/9/01 had a good late blooming storm. Gave 6-10" for a chunk of SNE (mostly northern half) and then prob some 12 lollis in NNE.

[powderfreak]

6 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

Yeah 3/9/01 had a good late blooming storm. Gave 6-10" for a chunk of SNE (mostly northern half) and then prob some 12 lollis in NNE.

That's the way to run a snowstorm...love when you spend a while tracking a big one but once you get that post storm depression, you realize there's one right behind it.

[tamarack]

18 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

2000-2001 was one of the more amazing snow seasons up there not just for the big totals but the longevity of the season...at least in terms of snow cover on the ground. There was a pretty sizable event around the Eustis area and prob up to Long Falls damn around 10/9/00...then they had ANOTHER event even larger around 10/29-30...we actually had snow in that in interior SNE, but only about a half inch (they had more up in Cheshire county NH...a few inches). But it was a huge October in Maine which consisted of two events spaced out apart by 3 weeks...pretty rare for two events that size in October..esp so spaced out.

 

Then of course the late season snowfall was so prolific, that it lasted basically into May....even though April itself wasn't very snowy, the end of March was obscene so that along with the relative cold first half of April really set the stage for the snowpack lasting so long. That winter was also notable for the consistency...lack of thaws. There was a huge cutter on Dec 17-18 that torched everyone right into Canada, but after that, the mild spells were very few and far between...and generally lacked much punch.

 

I think for anyone from about BOS surburbs WSW through interior N CT and then everyone north of that line would take this year's La Nina winter being a repeat of 2000-2001. It was def a bit more frustrating right on the coast in SNE, but even there it had its moments. It was still above average for almost everyone....save maybe for SE coast of CT/RI...they had a lot of screwjobs that winter.

I was measuring trees on permanent plots on state land 5 miles west of LFD a week after the first Oct event, and the footing was quite treacherous because falling leaves had covered the snow, the only time I've observed (and fallen because of) that phenomenon.  Quite a lot of aspen branches/trees broken along the Long Falls Dam Road as well.

March 2001 with 58.3" is Farmington's snowiest for any month not starting with "F" - 3 Febs have topped 60".  I had 55.5", only 9.5" from the 3/5-6 event while they measured 14". The 19" storm (18" in Farmington) on 30-31 brought the depth up to 48" at both locations, tallest ever so late in the season - for Farmington, with depth records back into the 1940s, for me, even when Fort Kent is included.  (46" on 3/31/1984 is next.)  The Feb-Mar total that year, 96.6", misses Farmington's Feb-Mar record by just 0.4", losing to 1993 (51.0, 46.0), and snowfall records date back thru 1893.  #3 is 1969 at 84.0", thanks to the 67" in Feb.

[CoastalWx]

6 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

That's the way to run a snowstorm...love when you spend a while tracking a big one but once you get that post storm depression, you realize there's one right behind it.

Aka Late Jan 2015 to mid Feb 2015.

[OceanStWx]

We had a real nice paster last December. I worked that evening and watched the rain/snow line move inland early in the event. It got to about the Turnpike around here and held with rain for an hour or two. Then it crashed back to the coast and we pounded +SN for a few hours after. 6-10" of heavy, wet snow stuck to everything. Might as well have just set a bomb off between GYX and PWM, with all the trees and wires down. People are still cleaning up the broken limbs around their yards.

[tamarack]

38 minutes ago, OceanStWx said:

We had a real nice paster last December. I worked that evening and watched the rain/snow line move inland early in the event. It got to about the Turnpike around here and held with rain for an hour or two. Then it crashed back to the coast and we pounded +SN for a few hours after. 6-10" of heavy, wet snow stuck to everything. Might as well have just set a bomb off between GYX and PWM, with all the trees and wires down. People are still cleaning up the broken limbs around their yards.

Much prefer the 21" of moist powder up here, on precisely 2.10" LE - not making this up.  We measured 5.5" by my 9 PM obs time on the 29th, then 15.5" after that for the 30th.  One of my comments on that storm is below:

"Many SN/-SN/SN stutters for 11 hr, then bombs away!  17" from 8P-3A"

[ORH_wxman]

1 hour ago, CoastalWx said:

Aka Late Jan 2015 to mid Feb 2015.

Or Jan 2011 for a while...every 4-5 days it seemed. 1/7-8, 1/12, 1/17-18, 1/21, 1/26-27, etc. Jan 2009 had stretches too...and on a shorter scale, that glorious 8 day period in Dec 2007.

 

Those are so much fun...it's like a continuous bender on winter wx for 3 weeks.

[CoastalWx]

1 hour ago, ORH_wxman said:

Or Jan 2011 for a while...every 4-5 days it seemed. 1/7-8, 1/12, 1/17-18, 1/21, 1/26-27, etc. Jan 2009 had stretches too...and on a shorter scale, that glorious 8 day period in Dec 2007.

 

Those are so much fun...it's like a continuous bender on winter wx for 3 weeks.

Yep, can't forget those years. But 2015 was on another level. At least I knew where I was during the other stretches. I literally lost all contact with reality during those several weeks.  

[powderfreak]

1 hour ago, CoastalWx said:

Yep, can't forget those years. But 2015 was on another level. At least I knew where I was during the other stretches. I literally lost all contact with reality during those several weeks.  

Sort of reminds me of a stretch this past winter that brought snow to the mountain on 21 of 23 days...with 80" at 1,500ft and 108" at 3,000ft during those three weeks.  At the end of it we just needed a break, haha.  My wife hated me...every 5 minutes looking outside because even if it was just 3sm -SN at home it would be 1-2"/hr up at the office.  Highly localized period of crush.  

I still can't believe I had 375" at the 3,000ft board when the winter before I only had 153".

 

 

[CoastalWx]

On 9/19/2017 at 7:35 PM, powderfreak said:

Sort of reminds me of a stretch this past winter that brought snow to the mountain on 21 of 23 days...with 80" at 1,500ft and 108" at 3,000ft during those three weeks.  At the end of it we just needed a break, haha.  My wife hated me...every 5 minutes looking outside because even if it was just 3sm -SN at home it would be 1-2"/hr up at the office.  Highly localized period of crush.  

I still can't believe I had 375" at the 3,000ft board when the winter before I only had 153".

 

 

I go back and forth in your shoes. I don't know if I would be aggravated knowing 5 miles away it was pounding fluff and I had moon dimly visible...but, you spend so much time on the mtn, I suppose it doesn't matter.  

That was quite a stretch there. I remember thinking how the hell did you do it, but you fart flakes with every WAA,CAA type deal there.

[powderfreak]

1 hour ago, CoastalWx said:

I go back and forth in your shoes. I don't know if I would be aggravated knowing 5 miles away it was pounding fluff and I had moon dimly visible...but, you spend so much time on the mtn, I suppose it doesn't matter.  

That was quite a stretch there. I remember thinking how the hell did you do it, but you fart flakes with every WAA,CAA type deal there.

Ha, interesting you say that because I was like that in Burlington during college and then the two years after UVM that I lived there.  After a while you realize how it works the more frustrating part is not being involved *at all*.  I actually enjoy the difference between mountain and town.  I mean, it is just as close as a lot of people are to their nearest major supermarket in any suburb.  As a meteorology weenie, there really is so much small micro-scale stuff that is absolutely fascinating.  I think what also helps is although the snow is significantly less than it is just up the road...you are still on the higher end of snowfall for a large portion of the population.  BTV to me was much more frustrating because there you weren't getting anything.  Forget 2sm -SN with dim moon all night long leading to 2" on the car in the morning and 4-6" at the mountain from some weak-sauce shortwave, at BTV you had 10sm bright moon....and I gotta say, growing up in the Hudson Valley where Logan11 crushed me in every event, you appreciate the number of flakes that fall from the sky.

Like you said, I also spend so much time up there... at least 6 days per week during daylight hours during the winter...that it is essentially home as well.  There's also something appealing about knowing the mountain is getting more snow.  As a hardcore skier (130-150 days per season I have skis on my feet), the snow at the mountain is more important anyway.  For a non-skier, I bet it would be a bit more of an issue to be so close to big snows, haha.  I can enjoy watching it fall and shoveling it, but I can't enjoy it in my yard like I can on the mountain.  There are a couple rare times when home gets more snow due to some weird flow/inversion level and I find myself more annoyed by that.  I can't ski that, haha. 

 

 

[powderfreak]

Not SNE but time for a weenie revisit to the beginning of last winter...which had several sweet snow events prior to Thanksgiving.

Last winter the early season was pretty awesome.

October 23rd started it off with 7-11" (elevation dependent) at the mountain...

 

It snowed off and on for that final week of October... adding another couple inches here and there.

October 28, 2018

 

After that there were a few mild weeks in November but winter returned/arrived on November 21st...a solid upslope snowstorm moved in with NW flow bringing heavy snow squalls to the area.

Up at the mountain on November 21st.    The closest building is "the office."

Down the road at 1,300ft.

Even down in town, November 21st rocked and broke my almost 2 year drought for a warning criteria event with just over 7" falling in the end.  All from some moisture and NW flow.

 

This is how it should look down in the valley prior to every Thanksgiving, haha.

[OceanStWx]

There are a lot of buns being tossed in this thread...