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18 Years Ago Today

40/70 Benchmark

By 40/70 Benchmark,
in New England

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ORH_wxman

ORH_wxman

Posted
Posted

Definitely my favorite storm of my lifetime. I was in the 6th grade at the time. The storm started on a Friday morning and didn't end until extremely early Sunday morning. I distinctly remember watching the news the Thursday before...less than 24 hours lead time. Most were calling for a lot of rain and some wet snow in the interior with 2-4" possible. By Thursday night, they had upped the accumulation in the interior to 3-6" or 4-8" depending on which station you listened to.

My mother was away in DC on business so we were staying just 15 minutes away in Holden, MA at my grand parents. They were almost at exactly 1000 feet elevation fairly close to the Paxton line. I woke up Friday morning early to light snow falling and about 1" of new accumulation stuck to everything. It was a wet snow. Barry Burbank was on channel 4 that morning and called for 6-12" in the interior, I was excited. All schools were canceled in the surrounding towns around Worcester except Worcester itself. I was so angry about that. As my grand father drove me down to school in Worcester, it became apparent why there was still school there, my particular elementary school was about 550 ft....the light snow changed to rain once below about 800 feet and there was nothing on the ground. But I knew it was supposed to change to snow later that day as Burbank had said it would start in the highest hills and then slowly come down in elevation. About 10:30 or 11am, I was falling asleep next to one of those loud heaters that they have in public schools blowing really hot air out....just staring out the window....and all of the sudden the wind really picked up and the whole landscape and sky filled with flakes, you could almost see them come down from above. There was a hill across a field from our school and you could see it get obscured first and then the flakes blitzed across the field and right outside the window. This happened off and on for about the next 15 minutes every time there was a wind gust....then it would go back to mostly rain. However, by the end of that social studies period, it was time for lunch and outside had filled with larger flakes that wouldn't go away when the wind died down unlike the previous 15-20 minutes.

During lunch time, I'll I did was look outside. I don't think I spoke more than 20 words all lunch as the snow began to completely take over as the only ptype and began to rapidly accumulate. 2 hours later as school was getting out, there was already 3" of snow on the ground and it was sticking to roads. My grandfather picked me up and we headed back up into Holden. As we drove back, it became apparent how bad this could get...by the time we were just a few miles and 500 feet higher, we arrived back home to 6" of new snow and snowing like crazy. Most news networks upped their forecast to 9-15" by that evening, but when I went outside later that evening, we already had close to 10". By this point, they were just playing catchup. I still wasnt sure just how much we'd get. I had moved back from Texas in 1988 and hadn't seen a single 10" storm yet since being back so it seemed impossible to achieve much more than we already had.

Then power went went out around 10pm. My grand parents seemed a bit worried, but I went to bed happy. I woke up the next morning to the crazy sight of 20" of snow and it was still snowing heavily. We were still without power, but luckily, they had a woodstove and one of those portable battery TVs so we could still watch the local news. The news stations were all saying 2-3 feet for the area by then and they realized what was going on. Despite not having power, it didn't seem abnormal with still heat in the house from the woodstove and being able to keep updated with the portable TV. We were able to see the cause of the power outage...a large pine had feel on a utility pole across the road from the extreme winds the night before combined with the heavy wet snow. By Saturday morning the snow had turned much lighter and more powdery. We snowed steadily the rest of the day, but it never seemed to be quite as heavy as it had been the previous evening/overnight. We were lucky to get power back on Saturday evening as the storm was beginning to wind down. I went outside late that evening as we were just down to light snow and stuck a yard stick in the ground in a few spots....they averaged out to 35". Despite the storm starting on a Friday and ending on a late Saturday night/early Sunday morning, we didn't have to return to school until Thursday of that following week.

This account doesn't even include the absolute devastating coastal flooding that occurred. Definitely a storm for the record books and my personal favorite.

december1992snowfallrev.png

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weatherMA

weatherMA

Posted
Posted

Definitely my favorite storm of my lifetime. I was in the 6th grade at the time. The storm started on a Friday morning and didn't end until extremely early Sunday morning. I distinctly remember watching the news the Thursday before...less than 24 hours lead time. Most were calling for a lot of rain and some wet snow in the interior with 2-4" possible. By Thursday night, they had upped the accumulation in the interior to 3-6" or 4-8" depending on which station you listened to.

My mother was away in DC on business so we were staying just 15 minutes away in Holden, MA at my grand parents. They were almost at exactly 1000 feet elevation fairly close to the Paxton line. I woke up Friday morning early to light snow falling and about 1" of new accumulation stuck to everything. It was a wet snow. Barry Burbank was on channel 4 that morning and called for 6-12" in the interior, I was excited. All schools were canceled in the surrounding towns around Worcester except Worcester itself. I was so angry about that. As my grand father drove me down to school in Worcester, it became apparent why there was still school there, my particular elementary school was about 550 ft....the light snow changed to rain once below about 800 feet and there was nothing on the ground. But I knew it was supposed to change to snow later that day as Burbank had said it would start in the highest hills and then slowly come down in elevation. About 10:30 or 11am, I was falling asleep next to one of those loud heaters that they have in public schools blowing really hot air out....just staring out the window....and all of the sudden the wind really picked up and the whole landscape and sky filled with flakes, you could almost see them come down from above. There was a hill across a field from our school and you could see it get obscured first and then the flakes blitzed across the field and right outside the window. This happened off and on for about the next 15 minutes every time there was a wind gust....then it would go back to mostly rain. However, by the end of that social studies period, it was time for lunch and outside had filled with larger flakes that wouldn't go away when the wind died down unlike the previous 15-20 minutes.

During lunch time, I'll I did was look outside. I don't think I spoke more than 20 words all lunch as the snow began to completely take over as the only ptype and began to rapidly accumulate. 2 hours later as school was getting out, there was already 3" of snow on the ground and it was sticking to roads. My grandfather picked me up and we headed back up into Holden. As we drove back, it became apparent how bad this could get...by the time we were just a few miles and 500 feet higher, we arrived back home to 6" of new snow and snowing like crazy. Most news networks upped their forecast to 9-15" by that evening, but when I went outside later that evening, we already had close to 10". By this point, they were just playing catchup. I still wasnt sure just how much we'd get. I had moved back from Texas in 1988 and hadn't seen a single 10" storm yet since being back so it seemed impossible to achieve much more than we already had.

Then power went went out around 10pm. My grand parents seemed a bit worried, but I went to bed happy. I woke up the next morning to the crazy sight of 20" of snow and it was still snowing heavily. We were still without power, but luckily, they had a woodstove and one of those portable battery TVs so we could still watch the local news. The news stations were all saying 2-3 feet for the area by then and they realized what was going on. Despite not having power, it didn't seem abnormal with still heat in the house from the woodstove and being able to keep updated with the portable TV. We were able to see the cause of the power outage...a large pine had feel on a utility pole across the road from the extreme winds the night before combined with the heavy wet snow. By Saturday morning the snow had turned much lighter and more powdery. We snowed steadily the rest of the day, but it never seemed to be quite as heavy as it had been the previous evening/overnight. We were lucky to get power back on Saturday evening as the storm was beginning to wind down. I went outside late that evening as we were just down to light snow and stuck a yard stick in the ground in a few spots....they averaged out to 35". Despite the storm starting on a Friday and ending on a late Saturday night/early Sunday morning, we didn't have to return to school until Thursday of that following week.

This account doesn't even include the absolute devastating coastal flooding that occurred. Definitely a storm for the record books and my personal favorite.

december1992snowfallrev.png

NIce write up :thumbsup:

Too bad I was born a year later. I can't wait to experience something like this. My best memory of waiting for a snowstorm is 8th grade during 12/13/07, with the horrible traffic situation. I remember it being annouced in band class at like 9 that school would be let out 2 hours early. Then the next two periods everyone was looking for the first flakes. They finally came with 10 minutes before we were dismissed and within a few minutes it was ripping. By the time I got home a half hour later (around 1230) later there was already at least .5-1" on the ground. We ended up getting around 10" IIRC.

The only forum I knew about then was accuweather haha.

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Analog96

Analog96

Posted
Posted

One of the most extraordinary events that I have ever witnessed began it's 3-4 day assault on the area; ~22" IMBY and 3' in ORH.....discuss, especially since the current pattern blows.

I'll never forget that storm. Mostly rain here, but the most vicious rain storm ever. It was the only early dismissal in the last 100 years in Elizabeth. Half the schools lost their power and HAD to let the kids go home!

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ORH_wxman

ORH_wxman

Posted
Posted

Will, just wondering,

how would you compare it to the April 1997 Blizzard?

The snow wasn't too different but Dec '92 lasted longer and had a higher impact here with winds, snow removal, etc. April '97 was a bit easier to deal with given that temps were back in the 50s in the following days.

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free_man

free_man

Posted
Posted

I'm going to guess that map does not account much for elevation in SNH.

Storm was a bust in North Attleboro.    I was a freshman in HS and of course was hoping for at least the 8-15" that the NWS forecasted.    School was cancelled and blizzard warnings were up,  yet  we ended up with around 6.5" of pure cement.     Extremely dissapointing but life on the coastal plain in the winter is exactly that.

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ORH_wxman

ORH_wxman

Posted
Posted

I'm going to guess that map does not account much for elevation in SNH.

Storm was a bust in North Attleboro. I was a freshman in HS and of course was hoping for at least the 8-15" that the NWS forecasted. School was cancelled and blizzard warnings were up, yet we ended up with around 6.5" of pure cement. Extremely dissapointing but life on the coastal plain in the winter is exactly that.

It does account for it. The snow dwindled fairly quickly once north of the MA/NH border as qpf lessened.

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HarveyLeonardFan

HarveyLeonardFan

Posted
Posted

I'm going to guess that map does not account much for elevation in SNH.

Storm was a bust in North Attleboro. I was a freshman in HS and of course was hoping for at least the 8-15" that the NWS forecasted. School was cancelled and blizzard warnings were up, yet we ended up with around 6.5" of pure cement. Extremely dissapointing but life on the coastal plain in the winter is exactly that.

N. Attleboro gets a helluva lot more snow than most SNE coastal areas. Newport picked up a little over an inch of snow from this event despite the blizzard warnings. The NWS offices in the early 90s spit out a lot of horrible forecastss. I remember a storm from Martin Luther King Day 1994 where the NWS was forecasting 5-10 on a south wind and the storm was just about all rain. The consolidation of the offices to Taunton was a good thing for more accurate forecasts in the mid 90s.

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hvysnow79

hvysnow79

Posted
Posted

I was living in Framingham at the time and was a senior in high school. I can remember that storm well, I was working at a Star Market and went into work and not long after getting there they closed the place. We had 1.78" of rain on the 11th, changed over to snow around 2200. I have Hvy snow as the hourly obs from 0700-2300 with gusty winds. Peak was 51mph on the 11th, which was one of the highest if not the highest I recorded while living there. According to my sheet I recorded a storm total of 26.2" of snow. Here is my exact log..."Blizzard!!! Heavy snow all day. Over 2 feet by midnight. Gusty winds and heavy snow led to drifts of 3 to 4 feet. Classic Nor'easter with coastal flooding. The best weather day of my life!!

That certainly was a memorable storm, one of the things that really stuck out was all the heavy rain we got the day before and how much MORE snow it would have been if that was all snow.

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  • 1 year later...
tamarack

tamarack

Posted
Posted

It does account for it. The snow dwindled fairly quickly once north of the MA/NH border as qpf lessened.

Sure did. Eliot, on the NH border and next to Kittery, got 8", but 20 miles to the north SFM got 2" and places north of there got very little but wind.

No complaints about that winter, of course. Having 80" fall in Feb-Mar heals all wounds.

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