Thursday, December 17, 2020

What. A. Storm.

This storm was incredible, and it'll certainly be remembered for a long time. Some of my most vivid memories during my youth related to massive snowstorms (think Feb blizzard in 2013 and the Halloween snowstorm in 2011). These storms contributed to my love of weather, and helped grow my desire to become a meteorologist. I am sure that there are some kids that will want to become meteorologists after this storm. Let's unpack it.


The big winners for this storm were locations along an intense band of snowfall that extended from north central Pennsylvania, through the capital region of New York, and into southern Vermont and New Hampshire. As the above tweet from the NWS Eastern Region shows, 4 states (New York, Vermont, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire) saw 40+ inch snowfall totals. It is difficult to put into perspective how much snow that actually is - I'll simply say it's incredible!



I find the above GOES East view of the storm pretty fascinating as well, and it shows just how potent it was. (Unfortunately the tweet of the satellite imagery is not embedding in the blog, but I encourage you to click the link and take a look).

Officially in Connecticut, we had 12.3" at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks and  9.4" at Bridgeport.

Vermont had a very interesting gradient of snowfall from north to south. In Burlington, only 2.5" of snow fell, while Ludlow, the town of Okemo Mountain Resort, had 44". This early season storm will certainly be a boon for the New England ski areas that were struggling to open terrain. If anything, 44" could be too much at one time for a ski area. I read that Okemo had to delay it's opening today as it worked on snow removal.

For me, the most impressive thing about this storm was how much snow it produced in such a short amount of time. I have read reports that some areas saw snowfall rates between 6 and 7 (!) inches per hour! That's incredible! In the 2013 blizzard (which is probably my favorite weather memory), we had 30+ inches of snow, but the storm lasted much longer. For this one, in less than 24 hours, sites saw 40+ inches.

Here are some scenes near my house in Middlebury, CT, where about 1 foot of snow fell. I spent much of the day enjoying the snow and shoveling in my neighborhood - unfortunately, I was so much fun that I forgot to stop and take more pictures. I absolutely love snow and will remember this storm for a long time.


Overlooking I-84 early this morning




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