12/7-12/8 Observation Thread

[jm1220]

wow, what a wind storm on the coast of CT last night, could here it just above the deck too, very similar to the march 2010 storm where you could tell it was insane a few hundred feet upstairs

had a little sleet at the end too.

Looks like snywx got the screwgy, those soundings were hinting at it yesterday.

March 2010 was the craziest wind and rain storm I've ever lived through, worse even than Irene was here. And the winds weren't a brief shot of high gusts, they lasted for many hours. I've never seen the kind of tree and even property damage that caused before. We lucked out that the water didn't come up along with the storm, as it too was a fairly fast mover and developed quickly, which didn't allow it to pile up a mound of surge like other nor'easters such as 12/1992 did.

I slept through the brief shot of high winds this morning, but saw a bunch of large twigs and branches lying around, so it must have been crazy for a little while.

[TheTrials]

March 2010 was the craziest wind and rain storm I've ever lived through, worse even than Irene was here. And the winds weren't a brief shot of high gusts, they lasted for many hours. I've never seen the kind of tree and even property damage that caused before. We lucked out that the water didn't come up along with the storm, as it too was a fairly fast mover and developed quickly, which didn't allow it to pile up a mound of surge like other nor'easters such as 12/1992 did.

I slept through the brief shot of high winds this morning, but saw a bunch of large twigs and branches lying around, so it must have been crazy for a little while.

my reference was only to the "roaring" sound that could be hear with the higher winds above the surface, no to duration or damage.

[nycsnow]

March 2010 was the craziest wind and rain storm I've ever lived through, worse even than Irene was here. And the winds weren't a brief shot of high gusts, they lasted for many hours. I've never seen the kind of tree and even property damage that caused before. We lucked out that the water didn't come up along with the storm, as it too was a fairly fast mover and developed quickly, which didn't allow it to pile up a mound of surge like other nor'easters such as 12/1992 did.

I slept through the brief shot of high winds this morning, but saw a bunch of large twigs and branches lying around, so it must have been crazy for a little while.

That storm my neighborhood lost 250 trees alone there must of been straight line winds or something because one whole side of the park in my neighborhood lost every single tree on that side, wild JFK gusted to 74 I believe

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

i passed out just after 1am and still didnt smell snow flakes.....i might have heard a ping of sleet or two at one point but that could of just been big drops of rain falling from the tree outside my window. cant really say im disappointed as obs during the day yesterday were not favorable. there was way too much to overcome, esp temp wise. im still ahead of avg seasonal snowfall with October's 17 inches so....

lets look forward to next wknds cutoff traversing across the deep south. prob be too warm as the pattern still is unfavorable but if we can squeeze in some cooler air ahead of the storm while having it take a favorable track, snow may fly.

[nycsnow]

my reference was only to the "roaring" sound that could be hear with the higher winds above the surface, no to duration or damage.

Yeah it was loud, thank god all my Xmas decorations survived! My parents just brought all new stuff cause the boxing day blizzard destroyed everything, I'd so sacrifice the lights for something like that again though lol

[nycsnow]

i passed out just after 1am and still didnt smell snow flakes.....i might have heard a ping of sleet or two at one point but that could of just been big drops of rain falling from the tree outside my window. cant really say im disappointed as obs during the day yesterday were not favorable. there was way too much to overcome, esp temp wise. im still ahead of avg seasonal snowfall with October's 17 inches so....

lets look forward to next wknds cutoff traversing across the deep south. prob be too warm as the pattern still is unfavorable but if we can squeeze in some cooler air ahead of the storm while having it take a favorable track, snow may fly.

I think metfans already on top of that storm

[psv88]

08 02:53 NW 39 G 69 2.50 Heavy Rain Fog/Mist and Windy BKN012 BKN018 OVC024 38 35 89% 29.48 998.4 0.13

Still can't get over this gust from westhampton...69...unreal.

[eduggs]

In my area of Putnam County there was a strong elevational dependence to the snowfall, embedded in a more extreme latitudinal dependence. North and south of the approximate boundaries I drew on the attached image, there was very little accumulation except for a coating or so at the higher elevations. Within the zone, a light dusting extended all the way down to about 150ft. From driving around late last night and this morning (as well as a few snow covered cars), I would guess that some of the highest peaks (Storm King, Mt. Beacon etc...) received in excess of 3 inches of snow. Accumulations dropped off very quickly in southern Putnam, even in the higher spots. It reminded me of a lake effect snow accumulation boundary. I've never seen one town show a vertical snowfall correlation and the next town over show a horizontal one. That was interesting.

The obvious meteorological diagnosis is that some areas experienced extreme dynamical cooling that forced an isothermal thermal profile all the way to the surface, whereas other places to the north and south retained a relatively warm lowest level.

[eduggs]

The isolated dynamic cooling down to the surface shows up really well on the Mesonet network. Stations in the heart of the banding experienced a precipitous temperature drop between 11pm and 1am - generally from around 38-42 down to 32-34. Stations just to the north, i.e., Rhinenbeck, and just to the south, i.e., Peekskill, saw a gentler temp drop and bottomed out in the mid-30s.

[psv88]

The isolated dynamic cooling down to the surface shows up really well on the Mesonet network. Stations in the heart of the banding experienced a precipitous temperature drop between 11pm and 1am - generally from around 38-42 down to 32-34. Stations just to the north, i.e., Rhinenbeck, and just to the south, i.e., Peekskill, saw a gentler temp drop and bottomed out in the mid-30s.

Wow, really interesting. Thanks for the analysis

[rgwp96]

In my area of Putnam County there was a strong elevational dependence to the snowfall, embedded in a more extreme latitudinal dependence. North and south of the approximate boundaries I drew on the attached image, there was very little accumulation except for a coating or so at the higher elevations. Within the zone, a light dusting extended all the way down to about 150ft. From driving around late last night and this morning (as well as a few snow covered cars), I would guess that some of the highest peaks (Storm King, Mt. Beacon etc...) received in excess of 3 inches of snow. Accumulations dropped off very quickly in southern Putnam, even in the higher spots. It reminded me of a lake effect snow accumulation boundary. I've never seen one town show a vertical snowfall correlation and the next town over show a horizontal one. That was interesting.

The obvious meteorological diagnosis is that some areas experienced extreme dynamical cooling that forced an isothermal thermal profile all the way to the surface, whereas other places to the north and south retained a relatively warm lowest level.

in nj you needed to be about 800 ft to get a dusting and over 1oooft to get an inch. i had some snow but bever stuck and im around 400

[WIN]

in nj you needed to be about 800 ft to get a dusting and over 1oooft to get an inch. i had some snow but bever stuck and im around 400

agreed, im in jeff township @ about 800' give or take & a dusting is exactly what we had!

[snywx]

In my area of Putnam County there was a strong elevational dependence to the snowfall, embedded in a more extreme latitudinal dependence. North and south of the approximate boundaries I drew on the attached image, there was very little accumulation except for a coating or so at the higher elevations. Within the zone, a light dusting extended all the way down to about 150ft. From driving around late last night and this morning (as well as a few snow covered cars), I would guess that some of the highest peaks (Storm King, Mt. Beacon etc...) received in excess of 3 inches of snow. Accumulations dropped off very quickly in southern Putnam, even in the higher spots. It reminded me of a lake effect snow accumulation boundary. I've never seen one town show a vertical snowfall correlation and the next town over show a horizontal one. That was interesting.

The obvious meteorological diagnosis is that some areas experienced extreme dynamical cooling that forced an isothermal thermal profile all the way to the surface, whereas other places to the north and south retained a relatively warm lowest level.

On this side of the county you had to be above 700' to see any evidence of snow. Above 1000' had close to an inch.. MBY saw just about 0.5". Drove on rt.6 this morning in Woodbury and at about 1000' there was about an inch as well.. No one saw 2"+ in the area.. Even areas in VT barely saw 2-4"

[Hailstorm]

A few shingles on the roof of the house I am in peeled off and landed on the ground. Tropical Storm Irene did not even take down any shingles; and her wind gusts for my area were 60 MPH. However, the wind gusts for this event did not get past 39 MPH for Central Park. I wonder why.

[eduggs]

There's still some snow up on Storm King and Mt. Beacon, especially the northerly faces.

I bet snowfall in the highest elevations of the Hudson Highlands is under-reported. Reporting stations and data collection is really sparse - Putnam for example doesn't have any NWS obs. Fahnestock State Park has had 3 snow events this year totaling about 24" and there is no record of it.