Winter Overtakes New England

Quick Recap
Warm dry November led to rather mild dry December 1-14.
Snow began Sunday December 16th, and has been pretty much going non stop ever since.
From Sunday the 16th to the Major Winter Solstice Nor'easter on Friday the 21 st , 36 inches of snow fell at Saddleback Maine, 30" at Wildcat New Hampshire.
Then just in time for Christmas, a light coating of snow fell from New York City to Boston. At the same time we were having day after day of cold up-slope snow in Vermont. On Mount Mansfield Vermont, the snow depth went from 10" on the 16th to 42" on the 23rd.
Next, back to back powerful Nor'easter's on the 27th and 29th. Each of these storms dumped double digit snowfalls for New England, with the rain snow line shifting southeastward with each storm.
Did you hear about Montreal's snow record? The 27th storm broke a 24 hour snowfall record for the city, in 12 hours!
This most recent storm is also historic in some regard, at least in recent memory.
This photo and note was sent by weather watcher Rod O'Connor from Southwest Harbor Maine.

Tim
With the snow winding down here on Mount Desert Island, here is my total, thus far: 17.5 inches.Snow began just after 5PM Sat. fell heavily all night with whiteout conditions much of the night. I'll have to check my back records, but I'm pretty sure this is the most snow I have recorded here since I moved back here in 1999.
(a later note)
Here are a couple pics of  my driveway, and believe it or not, that's my neighbor's sailboat (de-masted for winter) in front of the garage behind a 6-foot snowbank. and my Trusty 2002 Honda Civic in garage...took me a half hour to dig thru that drift, but very light and powdery.

I did check my records and the previous max. 24-hour snowfall I have recorded here  was the Christmas Day Blizzard, Dec. 24/25, 2002 with 14".

Last winter 2011/2012 my total snowfall was only 19" here.
 
Take care
Happy New Year
Rod O'Connor
Southwest Harbor ME 04679


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Here are the storm totals from the December 29/30 2012 Nor'easter.


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This is the midday view from space as the December 29th storm began it's
'Bombogenesis'

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Bombogenesis is weather jargon for rapid deepening (intensification) of a low pressure system.
The weather map below shows the storms position and strength late Sunday December 30th.
963 millibars  equals 28.43 inches of mercury on the barometer. This is a 'winter-cane'
Note the Hurricane Force label lower right of the center.
As of 7pm December 30 the wind on Mount Washington New Hampshire was gusting to 117 mph with a temperature near -10F.

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For the first time in two winters, every town in New England has snow on the ground.
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Below are photos form my ride home at 11 pm Saturday  December 29th.
Rain changed to snow everywhere in eastern Massachusetts at the same time! It was a top down transition.

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This forecast map for Wednesday January 2, 2013 shows our winter-cane stalled and stacked (surface low and upper low both over the same position) this is a block in the atmosphere that will send most of this weeks' storms out to sea south of New England.
Of course, surprises always lurk. This is not a high confidence forecast of storms missing.
Cape Cod and Vermont are most prone to 'surprise' snows.
We will be experiencing 2 or 3 fronts from Hudson Bay. Each font will bring snow squalls to Vermont and Colder air to New England. Our first sub zero air mass of the winter should arrive in southern New England by Sunday January 6th.
After that a warmer and stormy pattern will evolve.
Warmer than zero is still cold enough for snow.
We have potential for a brief thaw Jan 7-11 ish.
After that, our friend, Joe D'Aleo of Weatherbell.com says watch out for cold unmatched since winter 2004.
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