HalloweenGale Posted June 26, 2013 Share Posted June 26, 2013 When did all of you realize that the winter of '89/'90 was going to suck badly? There were two events in November that really kicked off the winter: the Nov. 21st thunder blizzard across Maine and the Turkey Day storm. December was extremely cold, but that ended after the December 28-31st event, where Newport recorded 9" then it switched to rain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamarack Posted June 26, 2013 Share Posted June 26, 2013 Never thought that way at all. Despite the lack of very cold temps after Dec, Jan-Feb featured 4 storms 8.5" to 11" plus one of 6.8" at my (then) Gardiner, Maine home. Two of those 8"+ events fell with temps in the single numbers, and snowpack - as measured by snow depth days - was 3rd highest of my 13 winters there, over 50% above my avg for SDD. Feb snowpack average was 20.8", pretty decent for 270' elev within 5 miles of tidewater. Any cold season that begins with a thunderblizzard then proceeds to possibly the coldest month (when compared to climo) New England has measured, needs lots more than than a mild Jan (my mildest there, 6.9F above avg) and near normal Feb (+0.3F) to be rated as awful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cold Miser Posted June 26, 2013 Share Posted June 26, 2013 lol. Random, but awesome thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle W Posted June 26, 2013 Share Posted June 26, 2013 December 30th when after all the cold we had we got this storm that came with a pattern change... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORH_wxman Posted June 26, 2013 Share Posted June 26, 2013 It wasn't very obvious it would stink at any point except for perhaps hindsight when we got to latter March. SE areas actually beat their snowfall climo on the winter so I'm not sure they would agree the winter was subpar at all. Back this way, we started off strong but then the terrible January put a stoppage on the momentum but we did have our share of events in late February and early March...just never quite big enough to overcome the poor January and early February. March quit on us quickly too after the very cold/snowy first week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HalloweenGale Posted July 6, 2013 Author Share Posted July 6, 2013 It wasn't very obvious it would stink at any point except for perhaps hindsight when we got to latter March. SE areas actually beat their snowfall climo on the winter so I'm not sure they would agree the winter was subpar at all. Back this way, we started off strong but then the terrible January put a stoppage on the momentum but we did have our share of events in late February and early March...just never quite big enough to overcome the poor January and early February. March quit on us quickly too after the very cold/snowy first week. There was that event in mid to late January, 1990 that dropped three areas of 10 inch accums in Mass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Collinsville Posted July 7, 2013 Share Posted July 7, 2013 Over the last 30 years there is a hefty list of winters that sucked, however 89-90 is not one of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joey2002 Posted July 7, 2013 Share Posted July 7, 2013 Over the last 30 years there is a hefty list of winters that sucked, however 89-90 is not one of them. Wasn't 1989 the epic December at BDL? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORH_wxman Posted July 7, 2013 Share Posted July 7, 2013 Wasn't 1989 the epic December at BDL? Epic cold? That wasn't just confined to BDL...it was widespread in New England. BTV had close to a -20 monthly departure. That is just unheard of. ORH was -14 that month. I think every New England site had their coldest December on record. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CapturedNature Posted July 8, 2013 Share Posted July 8, 2013 Epic cold? That wasn't just confined to BDL...it was widespread in New England. BTV had close to a -20 monthly departure. That is just unheard of. ORH was -14 that month. I think every New England site had their coldest December on record. It is for me and also the second coldest month since '85 behind January 1994. For me I don't think that winter sucked. I was finishing up at Lyndon and after Dec '89 even the mild January couldn't make it seem like a let down. It also looks like we had close to (but less than) normal snowfall surrounded by several below normal winters. When I think back I just think of that awesome month of December and that makes the rest of the winter worthwhile to me. I like the question, but I think the winter of 2012 was kind of one of those winters that always seemed to hold promise in the mid-range and after a healthy boost to early season totals, we all wound up with below normal and mild temps. For me, It was probably the 80 degree temps in March that were a sign of no chance of recovery.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian5671 Posted July 8, 2013 Share Posted July 8, 2013 I didnt live in New England at the time, (SE PA) but it was quite a start to winter there too-numerous 3 inch storms after the big Thanksgiving event...kept waiting for the cold to come back and it never did....I never really gave up-was too young to understand what a historic month that December was and that it was a flash in the pan....Jan/Feb/Mar was fairly warm and snowless after that.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamarack Posted July 8, 2013 Share Posted July 8, 2013 12/89 temps for some Maine locations. Departures are compared to the appropriate 30-yr periods, and to long term (LT in parentheses): .....12/89....Departure PWM: 14.03 -11.73 (-12.54) Coldest month (12.15 in Jan 1971) was -9.26 BGR: 10.26 -12.33 CAR: 3.47 -12.22 (-13.25) Coldest month (-0.71 in Jan 1994) was -10.60. Feb 1981 was +14.60. Farm: 6.23 -13.75 (-15.10) Coldest month (3.39 in Jan 1982) was -11.70. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORH_wxman Posted July 8, 2013 Share Posted July 8, 2013 It is for me and also the second coldest month since '85 behind January 1994. For me I don't think that winter sucked. I was finishing up at Lyndon and after Dec '89 even the mild January couldn't make it seem like a let down. It also looks like we had close to (but less than) normal snowfall surrounded by several below normal winters. When I think back I just think of that awesome month of December and that makes the rest of the winter worthwhile to me. I like the question, but I think the winter of 2012 was kind of one of those winters that always seemed to hold promise in the mid-range and after a healthy boost to early season totals, we all wound up with below normal and mild temps. For me, It was probably the 80 degree temps in March that were a sign of no chance of recovery.... I was ok with the '89-'90 winter...I didn't like the warmth in January, but the cold in December was so ridiculous. We had around 55" of snow which isn't very good but not a total dead-ratter. Snow cover was epic in the early season (we basically went wire to wire snowcover from Thanksgiving through New Years before the melt-off) and we had our moments in late February and early March. One solid wanring storm (esp pike north) in late January that year too. It was a winter of extremes in temps with some decent snow thrown in at times even if on the whole it was a bit below average. But the epic cold and early season snow cover gives it a boost for me. I personally love snow/cold for the holiday season and we had it bigtime that late November/December. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted July 8, 2013 Share Posted July 8, 2013 But the epic cold and early season snow cover gives it a boost for me. I personally love snow/cold for the holiday season and we had it bigtime that late November/December. Hard to get down on constant snow cover from Thanksgiving to New Years...even if the January thaw lasts a whole month (if Nov/Dec are cold/snowy, chances are it can't hold like that through Jan anyway), having the darkest days of winter in December be white not wet is a huge mood lift for like 90% of the population. Even folks that despise snow, usually enjoy it in December leading up to the holidays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted July 8, 2013 Share Posted July 8, 2013 BTV had close to a -20 monthly departure. That is just unheard of. I'm not sure I would want to experience that to be honest...maybe for a week but a month would be hard to take, especially being outside on the mountain at work. Yikes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastalWx Posted July 8, 2013 Share Posted July 8, 2013 I just remember it being such a let down after the big cold and Turkey Day snow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian5671 Posted July 8, 2013 Share Posted July 8, 2013 I just remember it being such a let down after the big cold and Turkey Day snow. and it came after a stretch of relatively awful winters snow/cold wise...I figured good times ala 77-79 were back.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORH_wxman Posted July 8, 2013 Share Posted July 8, 2013 I just remember it being such a let down after the big cold and Turkey Day snow. I wish December had produced more snowfall, but we never lost snow cover that month at least and we did get a semi-decent storm on the 16th. But the pattern got a little too suppressed in delievering that type of cold. Late February and early March was decent...the 2/24-25 and 3/6 events. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HalloweenGale Posted November 20, 2013 Author Share Posted November 20, 2013 This just goes to show my SEMASS bias. We didn't have a KU that winter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weatherwiz Posted November 21, 2013 Share Posted November 21, 2013 I was about 3 months old so it was during a time I was in the middle of breast feeding and I started thinking of the winter and thought to myself, oh fook, this winter is goin to blow". Then I finished my dinner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joey2002 Posted November 21, 2013 Share Posted November 21, 2013 I was about 3 months old so it was during a time I was in the middle of breast feeding and I started thinking of the winter and tonight to myself, oh fook, this winter is goin to blow". Then I finished my dinner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick-02540 Posted November 21, 2013 Share Posted November 21, 2013 December 30th when after all the cold we had we got this storm that came with a pattern change... That's awesome. Love the background sounds...like you have a game on or something. NY filmography at its best. I was in high school over break on December 31, 1989; I remember that New Year's eve in Woodbury, CT with friends at my folks' house... very cold. That December as brutally cold. Burlington, VT's average temp for the month was 7.5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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