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Octorcher or Roctober 2023 Discussion Thread


Damage In Tolland
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17 minutes ago, dryslot said:

Looks like its snowing good in Jackman as well.

http://72.65.119.134/axis-cgi/mjpg/video.cgi

 

Had 15 minutes of IP ending with some fat flakes about 9:30.  Now it's back to RA with temp mid 30s.  First October frozen since 2020, makes 16 of 26 here with at least a trace, though only 7 with measurable snow.


1989 there was a biggie around Thanks Giving, but that one may have been a more full latitude type of storm genesis

That was a good event for SNE while we had only flurries in Gardiner.  Our turn had come 2 days earlier with 8.5" and winds gusting 50+ along with thunder.

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How many other forums across the entirety of the internet are there where a statement like this arises and is likely received by nods of understanding rather than question marks? 
I enjoy hearing the stories of storms gone by.  They tend to get better with time and the memories are often better than the actual experience itself.  

I can hear the alert “beeps” in my head with that scrolling red screen just reading that.


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1 hour ago, Typhoon Tip said:

Yeah ...and while I'm dating myself, ha I go back to the 1980s.  A lot of autumns between 1985 and 1990 had an affinity for Novie events. Those were bad years overall for winter weather enthusiasts, but subjectivity aside ... they did produce some Novie exceptions to that rule.

One of my favorites was in 1986 ( but it might have been then one in 1987).  A high of 52 out at Logan the afternoon before. This was prior to the dramatic variability over short duration we've grown accustomed to over the decades since; back then, 52 would seem rather incongruous with any kind of dynamic snow bomb.  The sky was macro textured nearing sunset, the wind calms. Tranquil. Utterly unremarkable.

But while that was the case, upstream ... a nasty torpedo jet at mid levels (just a description for a powerful wind max embedded in a S/W that actually lacks a lot of geometric curvature) with a wind max over 120kts was unzipping the sky over the southern Great Lakes. Cleveland was reporting thundersnow around 3:30 pm.  It was somewhere around November 10 I wanna say but for all my protestation about my love for weather events, as well as my clear proclivity for discussion surrounding them ... I suck donkey balls at remembering dates. I am 100% certain this was November, tho.

Turned on The Weather Channel like any after-school day.  They were doing the Gardening Report segment, which at that time carried no meaning or purpose to the natural cosmos for me... but as it aired, "beep beep beep-beep.  beep beep beep-beep"  Fists grip thighs followed by my own, "OOH OOH OOH."  From right to left across the bottom of the screen scrolls, "...THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TAUNTON MASSACHUSETTS HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WATCH FOR FROM 11PM TONIGHT UNTIL 12PM TUESDAY ..."  Just typing that brings back memories, like when you hear a favorite song you haven't heard in a long while.  I used to love those moments. Steeped in boredom, seems there's nothing that is ever going to happen exciting ever again, when out of nowhere those beep chimes cut through the malaise like a light beam from salvation.

See, back then the culture of awareness was entirely a different reality.  There wasn't any internet.  There wasn't any cell phones.  I think personal pagers weren't even ubiquitous just yet.  The cable companies still only carried maybe 40 or 50 channels airing anything imaginable other than live news ... much less weather-related news information?  TWC was the only one that carried weather-related 'drama.'  Otherwise, you had to wait until 5 or 6 pm, 11pm or 7am to get updates and forecasts.  So, these tickers and special cut-ins were a bigger deal, an experience that will probably never be shared again since the 1990s rolled around and put the entire world in everyone's lap - it's been drama pap on tap ever since. A ticker for winter system wouldn't even lift a chin over a shoulder by most nowadays.

Anyway, Harvey Leonard ( recently retired) was a local on-air fan fav Met at the time, and he came on 5 and it was a dreamy presentation.  I remember his words, if not exact to a very close tolerance of precision, "Now, you might be thinking, 'what, snow' after a high temperature of 52 this afternoon, but it appears that as this storm emerges off the New Jersey coast overnight it will rapidly intensify and trickle down just enough cold air from up N to flip a lot of the area over to a period of heavy snow..."  -never forget.

I awoke at 3:30 am to the sound of thunder.  I could here rattling by the window at the far side of the bedroom, where the screen part of the storm window's metal frame had long since slipped it's rails and would upon occasion carry on with it when the wind blew.  As I was looking that direction through the dark at the butter scotch glow in the sky the bled through, there was another flash followed by the report.  That 2nd one had me out of bed and staring with gaped expression as curtains of snow, glowing from the city scape lights, waved their way over swaying silhouetted tree lines.  Another flash of lightning. 

So, I'm getting dress as quickly as possible... I think I actually kept my p.j. bottoms on and just threw on my boots and my winter parka/hoodie and set out.  The only sounds was that of snow particle on the hood and white howls of the wind as it transported heavy snow.  There was only 3 or 4" at the time... but it would end up closer to 10 or 11" by the time the storm wrapped up around 10am. I believe southern Mass put up some bigger numbers than that.  That was the only day in the entire 1980s I attended Acton Boxborough Regional High School where municipal would call it quits and phone in a snow day. 

Funny ... if a hockey rink dumps their Zamboni slush out back of the facility these days surrounding townships seem to call in snow days as if were a nuclear waste disposal accident. 

There was another one similar to that..  These are quick hitters, "New Jersey model lows" they used to be called in AFDs back in the day. They tend to come down as Alberta Clipper type lows. Some do and some don't have more obviously sexy storm vitals while diving SE over Chicago - this one with the Cleveland thunder snow apparently did.  But as they bottom out over the Ohio Valley and then immediately next ... their nose of dynamic power sniffs the baroclinic powderkeg along the Eastern Seaboard ...       boom!  Whatever they may have lacked, they can go from a limited satellite presentation to an explosive baroclinic leaf in a matter of short hours.   I guess if we want to be technical, Dec 2005 was one of these on 'roids.  1989 there was a biggie around Thanks Giving, but that one may have been a more full latitude type of storm genesis - different total spatial aspects.

That's an awesome memory. The 2012 event wasn't as dynamic as that one. I remember the scrolling on TWC in the early and mid 2000s before the channel went to hell. Great memories but I don't recall much in the way of November events, certainly not early in the month. There was the storm the day before Thanksgiving in '02 though...kicked off a nice start to an awesome winter. Would you say these "NJ model lows" favor eastern NE? I'm guessing the storm you're referring to wasn't much down this way.

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37 minutes ago, H2Otown_WX said:

That's an awesome memory. The 2012 event wasn't as dynamic as that one. I remember the scrolling on TWC in the early and mid 2000s before the channel went to hell. Great memories but I don't recall much in the way of November events, certainly not early in the month. There was the storm the day before Thanksgiving in '02 though...kicked off a nice start to an awesome winter. Would you say these "NJ model lows" favor eastern NE? I'm guessing the storm you're referring to wasn't much down this way.

The day before Tday in 2002 was sort of a NJ model low....really popped quick and I think CT jackpotted with some 10"+ lollis on what was something like a 3-6/4-8 forecast.

 

This is prob the storm Tip was thinking of in 1986:

http://www.meteo.psu.edu/ewall/NARR/1986/us1119.php

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28 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

The day before Tday in 2002 was sort of a NJ model low....really popped quick and I think CT jackpotted with some 10"+ lollis on what was something like a 3-6/4-8 forecast.

 

This is prob the storm Tip was thinking of in 1986:

http://www.meteo.psu.edu/ewall/NARR/1986/us1119.php

Wasn’t that also the year of the Christmas Day snow. One of my favorite memories as a kid. 

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1 hour ago, ORH_wxman said:

The day before Tday in 2002 was sort of a NJ model low....really popped quick and I think CT jackpotted with some 10"+ lollis on what was something like a 3-6/4-8 forecast.

 

This is prob the storm Tip was thinking of in 1986:

http://www.meteo.psu.edu/ewall/NARR/1986/us1119.php

Was a huge bust-forecasts were low like you said-ended with 10-12 inches, from 50 and rain to heavy wet slop...

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1 hour ago, MaineJayhawk said:

I'm looking forward to @TheClimateChanger's report on this TX cold snap 

I don't know how this myth has started that I don't give equal time to record cold. Why in the world would I post about a Texas cold snap in a New England subforum?

Regardless, to show the folly in this accusation, let's shift back to New England and look at Burlington, Vermont (BTV) on ThreadEx.

So far, just this year, there have been 17 days where the maximum temperature has been among the 3 highest of record [dating to 1883].

January 1: 51, 2nd warmest

February 10: 45, 3rd warmest [tie]

February 15: 57, record warmest

February 16: 56, record warmest

April 13: 88, record warmest

April 14: 77, 3rd warmest

April 15: 85, record warmest

April 16: 83, 3rd warmest

June 1: 96, record warmest

June 2: 91, record warmest

September 4: 90, 3rd warrmest [tie]

September 5: 90, 2nd warmest [tie]

September 6: 92, record warmest

October 3: 84, record warmest

October 4: 86, record warmest *monthly record*

October 5: 83, record warmest

October 27: 73, 2nd warmest [tie]

By comparison, since 1/1/2020 (so nearly 4 full years), there have been only three days in which the low temperature was among the three coldest readings.

May 18, 2023: 29, record coldest [tie]

September 19, 2020: 34, 3rd coldest [tie]

October 31, 2020: 20, 3rd coldest [tie]

It's very difficult to give equal time to two things when only one of them occurs with any sort of regularity.

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, ORH_wxman said:

The day before Tday in 2002 was sort of a NJ model low....really popped quick and I think CT jackpotted with some 10"+ lollis on what was something like a 3-6/4-8 forecast.

 

This is prob the storm Tip was thinking of in 1986:

http://www.meteo.psu.edu/ewall/NARR/1986/us1119.php

Yeah I had 9.5" if I'm not mistaken. I think it snowed on Black Friday too. Upper level stuff rotated through.

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