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Remembering the Blizzard of 2005


USCAPEWEATHERAF

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Today is the 13th year anniversary of this great New England snowstorm in which Philadelphia, PA, got 12" of snow, New York City got 14" of snow and Boston, MA got over 21" of snow while Salem, MA, Plymouth MA and Falmouth MA got the jackpot of 38" as i in Harwich MA received 35" of snow. Such a wonderful beast with a record of 8"/75 minutes in Taunton MA and one of the best AFD write-ups in NWS history that Saturday the 22nd. Epic storm

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My favorite storm of all time for the Cape. They called the plows off the road at midnight and did not send them back out till the next morning. Cars were stranded all over the place and they even had to use front loaders to pick up cars stuck at the Hyannis airport rotary. I always try to shovel my driveway multiple times over the course of the storm but I couldn't even be outside it was so brutal. I had to wait to shovel till after the storm was over. We had drifts of 6-8 feet and no school for an entire week. It was my senior year in H.S. so we didn't have to make it up either. The biggest thing that struck me was the duration and intensity. It absolutely poured snow from Saturday evening right through to Sunday night and it was solid blizzard that whole 24 hour span.  

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Ray, it was an unbelievable storm for the Cape, even Nantucket pulled away with 24" of snow the island's entirety lost power after an 86mph wind gust hit the island.  Winds could have been near 95mph for a time over the Island after they lost power.  It was not as deep as Juno was, or NEMO, but it was powerful nonetheless, down to 979mb right over the benchmark.  I remember when the center was right south of Nantucket at around 12-14z Sunday morning, Paul Kocin showed the visible imagery, and it had an eye like feature over the benchmark.  The snows were unbelievable during that storm.  We had a foot for snow early on from the start around 4pm to about midnight another foot from midnight to 8am or so and then almost another foot afterwards, missed three feet by one inch in my front yard.  I was a sophomore in high school, we missed school for a week straight.  Just like winter storm, JUNO, the models showed the storm before day 5. and lost it between days 3-5 and then brought it back within 48 hours, the ETA was the only model for a while showing the hit.  It was bone chilling cold before that storm hit that Saturday afternoon.

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14 hours ago, 40/70 Benchmark said:

That was the cape's blizzard of '78.

My sister had a vacation home on Falmouth back then...I always kick myself for not going.

It must have been blizzard of '78 like there.

 I have to say, for me, this storm (2005)might have even beat April 97 as my favorite, at least for the Cambridge/Somerville area. 

Excluding 78 of course. 

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For me personally 4/1/97 is still tops. But this was the real deal Holyfield down on the Cape. I wish Phil would chime in, but he can tell you this thing was an all out tempest there. Up where I was in Marshfield it was great, but for several hours the precip shield fractured a bit so it wasn't quite the hours and hours of whiteout conditions that CC had. The final band was about as worse conditions I've ever been in. 60mph N winds at 8F with whiteout conditions will be tough to beat. Brought me back indoors lol. 

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6 minutes ago, dendrite said:

I'm unfamiliar with this storm. Do tell me more.

probably (albeit briefly) the heaviest I had seen it snow with temps in the mid 0s....for an hour or two we had legit 1-2/hr rates b4 the 7/10 squeeze....even inland it was pretty windy and really tough to be outside for any length of time

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I have a bunch of discos and images of this storm.  It was the best birthday present I ever got.  We got blasted in Scituate pretty good.  I just remember while plowing how damn cold it was.  Here is a post from BOX the morning of the 23rd.

 

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE


National Weather Service Taunton MA
846 AM EST Sun Jan 23 2005

The blizzard of 2005 is now in progress across parts of coastal Southern New England, as those in Massachusetts and Rhode Island endure a storm comparable to the blizzard of 78.

This storm is now blasting Eastern Massachusetts, northeast Connecticut and Rhode Island in all its fury with whiteout conditions, temperatures plummeting into the single numbers and teens, northeast to north winds of 50 to 70 mph creating drifts to at least 6 feet, in exposed areas.

Travel is not recommended until sometime late today or tomorrow, to give crews which in some cases May have stopped clearing roads for safety reasons, an opportunity to clear roads later today when the storm starts moving away.

The storm at 8 AM was still located about 50 miles east southeast of Nantucket and will end up dumping about 16 to 24 inches of snow in the Connecticut River Valley, 20 to 30 inches from Manchester and Nashua New Hampshire through Worcester and Rhode Island. The jackpot will be Eastern Massachusetts where 28 to 38 inch amounts will be common.

Nantucket Will end up with less snow because of its warmer conditions and closer proximity to the storm center but blizzard conditions will arrive there this morning.

This is likely to be a record setting snowstorm in Boston when comparing against data, dating back to 1892. For Providence this should be a top 3 snow event. The 7 AM reports of 17.8 inches at providences TF Green airport and 19.8 inches at Bostons Logan airport makes this the 6th worst snowstorm in Southeastern New England Interstate 95 history dating back to at least 1905, and heading for at least top 3 ranking by days end.

Blizzard or near blizzard conditions will occur along the coast and high terrain this morning and then gradually recede to only the immediate coast during the afternoon.

This is a potentially life threatening situation for those who venture out during the height of the storm this morning.

Again, travel is not recommended until late today.

If you leave the safety of being indoors, you are putting your life at risk. 

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3 minutes ago, ScituateWX said:

I have a bunch of discos and images of this storm.  It was the best birthday present I ever got.  We got blasted in Scituate pretty good.  I just remember while plowing how damn cold it was.  Here is a post from BOX the morning of the 23rd.

 

 

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE


National Weather Service Taunton MA
846 AM EST Sun Jan 23 2005

The blizzard of 2005 is now in progress across parts of coastal Southern New England, as those in Massachusetts and Rhode Island endure a storm comparable to the blizzard of 78.

This storm is now blasting Eastern Massachusetts, northeast Connecticut and Rhode Island in all its fury with whiteout conditions, temperatures plummeting into the single numbers and teens, northeast to north winds of 50 to 70 mph creating drifts to at least 6 feet, in exposed areas.

Travel is not recommended until sometime late today or tomorrow, to give crews which in some cases May have stopped clearing roads for safety reasons, an opportunity to clear roads later today when the storm starts moving away.

The storm at 8 AM was still located about 50 miles east southeast of Nantucket and will end up dumping about 16 to 24 inches of snow in the Connecticut River Valley, 20 to 30 inches from Manchester and Nashua New Hampshire through Worcester and Rhode Island. The jackpot will be Eastern Massachusetts where 28 to 38 inch amounts will be common.

Nantucket Will end up with less snow because of its warmer conditions and closer proximity to the storm center but blizzard conditions will arrive there this morning.

This is likely to be a record setting snowstorm in Boston when comparing against data, dating back to 1892. For Providence this should be a top 3 snow event. The 7 AM reports of 17.8 inches at providences TF Green airport and 19.8 inches at Bostons Logan airport makes this the 6th worst snowstorm in Southeastern New England Interstate 95 history dating back to at least 1905, and heading for at least top 3 ranking by days end.

Blizzard or near blizzard conditions will occur along the coast and high terrain this morning and then gradually recede to only the immediate coast during the afternoon.

This is a potentially life threatening situation for those who venture out during the height of the storm this morning.

Again, travel is not recommended until late today.

If you leave the safety of being indoors, you are putting your life at risk. 

 

16 to 24 in the ctrv was a farce and the sun was out by 852 am Sunday morning back here while folks out east couldn't see across the street....8 to 14 fell ctrv.....

box has gotten better in not broad brushing these statements these days

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5 minutes ago, codfishsnowman said:

16 to 24 in the ctrv was a farce and the sun was out by 852 am Sunday morning back here while folks out east couldn't see across the street....8 to 14 fell ctrv.....

box has gotten better in not broad brushing these statements these days

I think guidance also was too bullish that far west. Definitely more accurate models since 2005. 

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8 minutes ago, CarverWX said:

Great storm, I had just moved to Carver on 1/1/05. What a great house warming gift!

Funny, my wife and I had just moved into our current new house 5mo prior in 2004.  I ended up helping out 2 neighbors snowblow since the snow was so deep.  4-6' in some places where it drifted around but 28-30" was about the norm. 

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Great storm...def the best "true blizzard" I've been in though Feb 2013 is right there with it. Jan 2005 was colder though than Feb 2013. Spent a lot of the storm around 10F and part of it in the single digits. Jan 2015 and Jan 2011 didn't have the wind that Jan 2005 and Feb 2013 had. Dec '92 had the crazy wind and totals, but it was not cold...that one is still my favorite.

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1 hour ago, CoastalWx said:

I think guidance also was too bullish that far west. Definitely more accurate models since 2005. 

agreed but to still have that in there that morning with the sun out in western sections was silly....those of us back here who had half a clue about wx knew by 8 pm Sat evening those crazy high amounts needed to be halved

I will never understand why they never admit being wrong...it was a great forecast for east zones, ok central and kinda lousy west.....just own up to it

 

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