tamarack

Up to a surprising 8.5".  The overnight 5.5" ratio was 10.5:1.  The 3.0" since 7 AM had ratio 43:1.  Still watching mood flakes.

50 minutes ago, moneypitmike said:

Wow on brunswick…just a 10 minute drive from here.

Actually across the bridge in Topsham.

Added another inch+, high ratio feathers.  Some decent echoes overhead but leaving, should pass 7".  Getting a breeze, temp still upper teens.

Loving it when friends getting jacked, especially when we have a decent amount here.

5.5" and 0.52" LE at 7 AM, currently light SN, might reach 6".  That death band extended to within about 5 miles of here, but the 8" at the stake will be plenty for the grandkids.

Rooting for 20"+ in south LEW!

2 hours ago, The 4 Seasons said:

thats Butler, NJ

I grew up in Kinnelon, the next town south, but I went to Butler HS.  If I'd been a year younger, I'd have been in the first graduating class of Kinnelon HS.  Most of Butler is 200-400 feet lower than where we lived, and that difference occasionally was dramatic.  The ice storm of Jan 8-9, 1953 ripped trees apart near home and took out our power for 6 days.  Most of Butler had cold RA.  In late March 1961 we had a paste bomb to cap our 100"+ winter, 5-6 sloppy inches outside the HS, most coming in 4 hours.  School closed at noon but no buses heading south so a bunch of us walked the 5 miles, finding 12" at home.

Cut the Christmas tree, now waiting for the water in the stand to freeze before I try to do anything else with it.

9 minutes ago, The 4 Seasons said:

Nice band of 2-6" in Orange and Rockland counties 

Looks like 2.1" (NNJ along Rt 23) near where I grew up.

Cloudy with an occasional flake and low 20s.  One noon news station has us at 5-9.  Might reach the low end.

1 hour ago, Great Snow 1717 said:

At one time I had family in the Fort Kent and Caribou areas. One of my uncles said in all the years he lived in Caribou there was only one school closing  that he could recall and that was because the school bus doors were frozen and could not be open

That's a new one for me.  The single full day's closing in FK was due to a busted forecast.  Folks went to bed that February evening expecting the 1-3" that was forecast and they wouldn't even bother running the plows for that.  Then we got 18" in 9 hours and by the time roads and especially parking lots were cleared, the day would be shot anyway.
The half day came 6 week later, March 14-15, 1984.  Forecast was 6-12", the 6" new had fallen by sunrise with moderate snow - no cancelling for that.  By late morning the new snow was 14" with 3"/hr rate, so the buses loaded up at noon and all of them made their runs with little problem.  You've probably been on Rt 11 between Portage and FK so you're familiar with the hills.  CAR recorded 29.0", I had 26.5" (Biggest I've seen) and FK 24", but they measure 1/day at 7 AM, 6-8 hours after accum ended.

1 hour ago, weatherwiz said:

This didn't happened when I was in school (although maybe it was being discussed when I was in high school and implemented shortly after) but do they use days from like February or April break to make up for snow days instead of going deeper into June? I know some districts had done this. 

Back in the stone age (50s-60s) NNJ schools would schedule a few "snow days" to avoid early summer classes.  (No schools had AC then.)  I think only 60-61 required the extended days, as we lost 6 days to snow.  Fortunately, the Feb 3-4 bomb was Fri-Sat.  If mid-week it would've closed 3 days instead of one.
I'm sure that Fort Kent has been lawyered away from the 70s-80s when our 9.7 years there included only 1.5 days of closes, all in 1984.
 

Based on the 12z runs, I'd bump Jeff's hood up.

He's close to the Pike, so already in the 8-12 color.

5 hours ago, tamarack said:

GYX has a watch for the counties just to our south, advisory level here, about 3-5 with high ratio.  Family in SNJ is planning to head up tomorrow and can't start before noon, so may be driving their 15-passenger van in snow from Hartford north.  Last time they were here for Christmas was 2 years ago, and they didn't see a flake, not even a dirty snow pile (4"+ RA at 50-55° wiped everything), until the day they headed south.  Assuming they don't have any "adventures" tomorrow, they'll see fresh white this year.

Between the increasing snow forecasts for our area and the kids running thru norovirus (some at peak, some all better), the trip will be on Wednesday.  Dealing with Christmas Eve traffic seemed the better choice. 
GYX afternoon added an inch to the above 3-5.  Hoping for nice dendrites and 12-15:1 ratios rather than crummy flakes and 8-9:1.

43 minutes ago, NW_of_GYX said:

Ya the last one that really jacked my area was in February 2017? I think. Great ratios with that one iirc

Feb. 17 was a wonderful month, but if the event you've noted was the storm of 15-16, it was one of the most disappointed 6"+ snowfall in my memory, as it had been forecast as a much bigger dump.  On Feb 11 a forecast 1-3 turned into 8" of 30:1 feathers with single-digit temps.  Then 12-13 brought 21", bringing the pack to 47".  The morning of the 15th, with depth at 44", our forecast was 12-18 - I thought "easy 50s pack, maybe even 60".  As flakes began that afternoon, GYX chopped our forecast to 6-10, with the jack moving to west of Sebago.  That 6.2 was heavier, temps were milder, and it only raised the pack to 46".

My area (wherever I've lived) has been good at dodging IVT.  We did get a surprise 2.4" on 3/21/92, but PWM had 11.4" and parts of Kennebunkport 2 feet.

2 minutes ago, weatherwiz said:

That's a pretty good hit from SW ME into S NH on the GFS...easily warning criteria there

GYX has a watch for the counties just to our south, advisory level here, about 3-5 with high ratio.  Family in SNJ is planning to head up tomorrow and can't start before noon, so may be driving their 15-passenger van in snow from Hartford north.  Last time they were here for Christmas was 2 years ago, and they didn't see a flake, not even a dirty snow pile (4"+ RA at 50-55° wiped everything), until the day they headed south.  Assuming they don't have any "adventures" tomorrow, they'll see fresh white this year.

16 hours ago, Ginx snewx said:

 

At least it appears to be solidly lodged in other trees so not about to fall soon.  We still have several tall (60+) roadside fir trees lodged since 12/18/23.

Finished with 1.26".  Gusts at home got into the 30s, but we were in WVL about 5:30 PM when a blast of RA+ was accompanied by gusts that had to be well into the 40s.  By the time we left Governor's at 6:20, the wind was less, and the rain was nearly done.  Nothing frozen here, beginning or end.  Still have a white lawn, 2" of armorplate, but the nearby fields are almost all brown.

On 12/18/2025 at 9:51 PM, J.Spin said:

 

Interesting graphics.  My shaded lawn holds pack well and though we get less total snowfall, we usually have more SDDs than your spot.  Early snow season is different, with your totals through 12/15 topped mine 12 of 19 years.  Of the 7 where mine were higher, only 3 were significantly above: 

2014-15, 193 (13" pre-Thanksgiving storm)

2018-19, 339 (Snowiest November by far)

Last year, 177 (8" T-Day evening, 9.3" 12/4-5.  The 2 biggest storms that season).
 

Wind arrived about 1 PM, not too strong so far, gusts 30+ but nowhere near the 40-45 forecast for the general area.  And not even close to 2 years and one day ago.

BTV had 44 at 1 PM, down 18 in 2 hours.

56 minutes ago, dryslot said:

That's a pretty sick looking line moving thru Eastern NY.

Was even sharper about 9 AM, with some 70 dbz pixels.  I'm guessing it will be more d9iffuse before it reaches our longitude.  Little wind here so far.

Fog rolled in and the temp jumped 5° (35 to 40) in about 30 minutes. 10 AM at IZG was 36, inversion holding there but it can't last.

2 hours ago, CoastalWx said:

He’s around. But in his defense, the NWS is really getting hosed. It’s a tough situation for all of them and I’ll just leave it at that. 

Always tough to get blamed for someone else's actions.  I enjoy both his AFD's and his posts here.

1 hour ago, ariof said:

95" in 30 days is not only the highest 30-day snowfall in BOS, but more than any 30-day period in any major city in the country. (BUF had 80" in a week in Dec 2001 but very little on either side; Orchard Park has seen more but BUF is a smaller city and the totals are banded mesoscale, not the synoptic 90"+ around BOS.) I think Sapporo has had a couple of 100" months, and it's probably the only large (2m+) city to have ever seen a heavier 30-day snowfall than that 30-day period in BOS.

Not even close to a major city, but Machias Maine, at 20' elev, had 106.3" from Jan 25-Feb 23, 2015.  Meanwhile in the (usually) snowier foothills, we had 52.5" during the same period.

We had 60.1" in 31 days, Feb 10-Mar 12, 2005.  In Fort Kent, tops was 63.0" from Dec 7, 1976 thru Jan 6, 1977.  December alone had 61.5".

1 hour ago, das said:

Good post.  To put a fine point on the synoptic/orographic nature of this year, I am at 14.6" snowfall total here in Charlotte at 285'.  With 4" OTG and a SWE of 0.6"

Exactly the same 14.6" here in the western Maine foothills, but with 6" depth and about 0.8" LE.

1 hour ago, 40/70 Benchmark said:

No, I agree a low first half of a season correlates with a low season in general...what I am saying is that a very low December is a much more dire signal in a cool ENSO season than in a warm ENSO.

One site, only 27 winters, percentage of total winter snow:
             n    Oct-Dec   Oct-Jan
El Nino (8)    24%         51%
La Nina (7)   25%         48%
La Nada (12) 37%        59%

SSS, but the outlier seems obvious.

 

41 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

MVL here is up to 37F and warmest of the month.

-10.1 in December through this point and today might threaten to be the first day to average above normal.

-9.6 thru yesterday, would need +10 rest of month to avoid finishing BN.  12/3 was -0.1, essentially average, so technically today is the 1st AN.  Had a high of 34 on 12/1 so we'll see if that gets eclipsed as well.
 

That was one my one great event...I had 16", but my mom in Wilmington had like 20".

2020-21, the winter in which several NNJ sites had more snow in February than the snowy foothills had for the entire snow season.  

3 hours ago, 40/70 Benchmark said:

Spoken from the guy that doesn't have 4 under the age of 7

No thanks for extended outages.  No one under 7 here, but on Christmas our 3-bedroom, one bathroom home will have 11 people (with 7 ladies) with ages 7 to 79.  
 

Should be taking notes that all of our big storms have been cutters.

All of the big storms have avoided us since April of last year.

5 hours ago, Lava Rock said:

If that were to hurt or kill someone can the owner be held liable

Sent from my SM-S921U using Tapatalk
 

AUG was fortunate that no one got hurt by falling ice in January 2004.  Plumbers had left a dead-end run of pipe on the 9th (top) floor of the Key Bank building.  The temp dropped to -16 overnight, causing the pipe to rupture and pour water into and out of the building, wrecking office furnishings all the way to floor #1.  Icicles 15 feet long and up to a foot diameter were draped on the northerly 1/4 of the building and ice had built up more than a foot thick on the sidewalk, also partially blocking Water Street.  Think of 200-lb icicles falling from nearly 100 feet above.  

Cloud-free this morning.  Low was -1.

Only a few flakes here - too far north. 
Grandkids in SNJ had 4" of clingy beauty, their first snow of the season other than a flurry or two.  

2 hours ago, dryslot said:

I survived Icestorm 98, 2-2.50"+ of ice, That was enough for me.

Most disruptive weather event I've experienced, and we only were dark for 4 days.  2nd place was another ice storm on the hills west/north from NYC, precisely 45 years prior to #1.  Ice on Jan 8-9, 1953 wasn't quite as thick as '98 but almost every tree took damage in our NNJ area.  Some trees on the taller hills became "asparagus" stems, bare poles with all branches lying at the stump.  We lost power for 6 days from that one.  The good effect was to trigger my lifelong interest in both weather and trees.

22 minutes ago, weathafella said:

It was epic!  I was in the 8th grade in NNJ and woke up Sunday 12/11 with “provisional heavy snow warning”.  That was the precursor to today’s winter storm watch.  But more importantly after a mega torch in the early days of December culminating in temperatures near 70 on 12/4.  It was in the mid 40s on the 10th so imagine my surprise (and joy) to awaken to high clouds and 25.  My mother made me sweep the garage that morning and for once I happily complied as I warded off the oak leaves blowing into the north facing garage.  By the time I was done the temperature dropped into the low 20s.   My Giants were playing Washington in DC and at the start of the broadcast the announcer exclaimed “we’re having a blizzard!”   I remember one TD pass from YA Tittle to Del Shofner with Shofner ending up in a snow bank.   
 

It started snowing around 3pm and it was fairly light for the first 6 hours and I was starting to lose hope.   Finally it started picking up and by time I fell asleep it was snowing pretty hard.  I woke up at 5AM Monday and it was raging.  Snow tapered off close to Noon.  Temperatures during the meat of the storm were near 10.  The storm paralyzed the megopolis.  It was the first of 3 big ones that winter. The other 2 were the JFK inaugural storm and the widespread 2 footer February 3-4.   The February storm was the pattern changer and winter was never the same that year but what a 2 month run!

That winter was the best I've experienced, though 83-84 in Fort Kent is close.  After watching the Wash/NY follies in the snow, we had light snow that began to intensify about bedtime.  Woke up to low teens, S+ and 15"+. finishing with 18.  Friend and I slogged thru the powder for a couple hours without seeing anything (NJ's firearms deer season opener) and headed toward home.  There was my dad standing over a nice little buck about 250 yards from the house.  He then schooled me on field dressing the critter - my first snotty thought, fortunately not spoken, was "Why can't he gut his own deer."  Eight years later when I finally dropped a deer, I was very thankful.

The JFK inaugural blizzard dumped 20" with temps about 10, followed by 2 weeks of cold (NYC's 16 consecutive subfreezing maxima is easily its longest) with small snowfalls, then the strongest of them all.  I called it 24" but nearby sites were closer to 30 - impossible to get a firm depth in the howling wind.  Pack climbed to about 45" (up to 52" in NW NJ) but the cold was gone.  Had a 12" paste bomb on 3/23 to cap the season.

60-61 ended the most wonderful 5 years of big snows:  24" on 3/19-20/56; 18" on 2/15-16/58; 24" paste on 3/20-21/58; 18" on 3/3-4/60.   Other than the Magnificent Seven, my NJ career of snow watching (1950-Jan 1973) had only one definite 18", 2/9-10/69, and 3 in the 15-18 range - 1/12-13/64, 12/24-25/66 (first thundersnow) and 2/7/67.

2 hours ago, ORH_wxman said:

I see we have already erased 2020 from your memory. 

Never will happen.  RA+ and 50s ate 5" snow in a flash, would've melted 15" if we'd had that much.  Greatest positive departure for any day here, 1° more than 3/22/12.