Volcanic Winter

We can get snow even here in March, I have pics from a few year back a solid coating on like the 28th, and I’m fairly inland to the immediate coast. It’s just a preference thing whether I live here or in upstate Vermont, more tied in with the length of a solar day. My point was Feb is early to call winter, March is more preferential - but I’m not naive to the climate differences over the relative short distances across the northeast and various metros. I didn’t extend my thoughts on March to anyone but myself. March is absolutely still winter even down here, especially in the northern pine barrens where overnights remain very cold on radiative cooling nights. Like I said, it’s more an abstraction than empirical as far as what I like / dislike or feel is a winter vibe or not, paramount is dark, short days. I was being tongue in cheek about the sun. It’s similar to how the sun starts to ‘look like fall’ in August, nothing beats the dark of December and the feel of looking to the entire winter ahead - that’s more what I meant.

Well sure, the sun is a giant fusion reactor in the form of a glowing ball of plasma - it damn sure’s going to feel warm in unobstructed sunlight . That said, February is still a real winter month and I’m picky, not a fan of March and never have been. To me that’s when winter feels over. Let’s see how the next few weeks progress.

I haven’t tracked pack days here but I know for sure it’s the best down here since the 2013-2015 block. Give me a nice refresher with this clipper and then possibly one more moderate event and this is an outstanding, top grade winter for me - again cold and winter “vibes” counts near equal to snow in my book. Driving over the bridge on 37 going to my parents and seeing the frozen Barnegat Bay for a couple weeks now, it’s fantastic. My evaluation improves when I’m not frequently going, “wait what season are we in?” All sensory input points to “real winter” and I’m a happy camper. Not as mathematical/empirical and more an abstraction for me.

That last one was epic, I'd love to buy a repeat. Also 12 overnight, 35 now. While above freezing this week I haven’t even sniffed close to a normal high temp in so long it feels very significant.

I mean all said and done as modeled this will end up a solid month block of below normal to very below normal, in the heart of winter. We only capitalized on one major storm but it was a good storm, surprisingly for all despite concerns about NYC / CNJ to me. This next arctic blast looks intense and I’m going to enjoy it one last time, get our fireplace going and make hot chocolate with my wife from scratch. If after we go fully mild through the last two weeks of Feb, nobody can say this wasn’t a fascinating winter that altered the crappy tempo of the 2020’s. I got my money’s worth even if it wasn’t a prolific snowfall season. Still chipping my parents out of their encased ice palace in Seaside too, lol - I’m going to need an oil change and 120k service on my body soon.

Out in just a grid fleece today, crazy how much one acclimatizes to the cold when it becomes truly significant with respect to the human body. Felt to me today at 34ish how 45 feels in a normal winter, just chilly.

Dude, my wife and I were dating at the time. She had just moved in with me in a ground floor apartment in North Brunswick. From Boxing Day on all I remember doing together that winter is shoveling . Oh and our cars continually being plowed back in and having to dig them back out, again and again. That winter was wild even with the cutoff. The year before I was in Long Branch, and that Dec 09 storm became one of the most prominent in my memories. Have pics somewhere of my buried Civic SI, those years back to back were something.

Finished up the month at 29.7 average, crazy considering we had a fairly sizable mild period which feels like a distant memory now. 1/26 to present is averaging 16.3F with a max of 27! Low max was 1F from last night. Just absolute kid in a candy store this winter, even if not quite prolific for now the winter vibe since December has been a gift in the 2020’s.

I received about 5 inches down here, but had to commute to my job right outside Newark where they received 18 inches, and our lot was completely unplowed. I had just got my WRX and let’s just say, it was a fun breaking-in storm. Absolute beast in the snow. 2022 is more memorable for me down here because 1/29/22 was my 2/1/21. Feb 2021 and Jan 2022 were the extent of our winters for the following several years. Also Jan ‘22 featured the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai eruption, the largest since Pinatubo (or Novarupta by some estimations) - which kept me busy on the science front for several months after. May still have a fingerprint on our current weather, although in an atypical way for large eruptions.

Definitely starting to adjust to these temps, today actually feels mild to me at 25f and I’m out in a lighter jacket than previously. You really do begin to acclimate rather quickly, but then again our home is set to 68 so it’s not overly warm inside where it destroys that. My parents house is on like 78 . Definitely noting a bit more melt today than previously as well, not a lot but some. I believe in glaciology -10c / 14f is supposed to be the temp where sublimation stops even in sunlight and glaciers can accrue mass much more easily, but I’m not sure how much that translates to our snowpacks - I’m a little rusty on the physics . Still, it’s interesting noting how much melt occurs while wholly below freezing, and when it more or less slows to a stop. Almost nothing melted yesterday for example, very very little. According to my lawn snow stick, I’ve lost about 1.5 inches of pack since the storm (and why even a small refresher tomorrow would’ve been nice).

Yup, was a mistake in hindsight. There were other factors though including my car acting up, was just frantically trying to get something accomplished at their place during the height of it - and then get home safely. I was worried about exactly their conditions now, figured it would’ve been more difficult letting everything fall before shoveling the next day. Regardless they got the worst of the ice for sure, we had about half of that where I live about 10- 12ish miles inland of them.

Pics of the glacial conditions… in Seaside Park (my parents). To clear their driveway I’ve had to, no joke, use a metal framing hammer with a pointed end bit by bit and a metal shovel. This is ONLY the accreting ice that had fallen the last 4-6 hours of the storm, I had cleared away the 6ish inches of snow that fell first during the storm. This is wild. I’m sore. Salt has been effectively useless. Crazy! My pack at home hasn’t reduced more than a half inch - inch since the storm, about as perfect retention as it gets.

10.5 storm total 21 season total Toms River, western border within a mile of Manchester

Memorable for sure, I rate and enjoy cold so even without snow I appreciate the contrast to other winters this decade. Gonna be planning a hiking trip in CT for my bday in a few weeks, love getting out in cold air and snow.

This is bang on for what I have down here, about 20-22ish inches.

As someone who rates cold, I’m loving this winter. It’s not a prolific snow winter as in the region’s best, but it’s a throwback winter in summation I would say. Even during the warmup this month I wasn’t getting stressed and thinking “what the hell season are we in?” UnLike most of the 2020’s, it never went extreme and it was brief with respect to how we’ve had near full months wildly AN. Now we all have a literal glacier for the foreseeable future. Good in my book.

How is the ice situation up through Middlesex / Union / Essex / the city etc? Down here it’s an ice skating rink; bad. Be safe all. Temp crashing too, 23F and falling.

I was supposed to be above freezing by like 1-2pm and stay there until midnight. I only went above 32 at 5ish and was back below by 7:30p. 26 now and steadily falling. Also only had about an hour of actual rain, the rest was accumulating frozen precip. Storm was a crazy positive bust IMBY with respect to winter weather.

I now have an absolute glacier, thinking about naming it. All the best glaciers have names.

It’s literally raining diamond dust you can hear right now, and it’s still accumulating. This is pretty cool. What a day.

Still accumulating, back out to shovel. Very fine ice, heavy as hell.

My neighbor is a big snow quad weenie, measured 10.5 on a flat untouched surface somewhat wind sheltered. I honestly thought it’s higher. Had to be a major QPF jack down by me, I had definitely more than 6 by 10am with pics to prove it. Great storm. So about 10.5 at my location along the border of TR and Manchester. Still coming down and slowly accumulating just shoveled again, but obviously wet and compacting now. I’m eyeing spots in my backyard that look more like 12 but may have been wind blown somewhat. Still I think we maximized down here, surprisingly. Mt Holly bumping back to 6-10 was the right call. This juicy storm with a better track for the central / southern metro would’ve been pretty top tier I think.

I’m happy

Interesting yeah, my parents had 5-6inches in SSP when I got there around 11ish. Must have been more of a lull by you? It can be spotty in this area for sure.