Replies to post #231277 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[F6]

SoxFan -- yup -- the water content per unit of volume of this snow, which fell with surface temps generally in the teens, is less than half that of the snow which fell in '78 with the temps generally just at or only a couple of degrees below freezing -- big difference

[Dale C]

I guess this wasn't you then....People in one Boston suburb faced a unique sight during the winter storm – a Yeti.

The Boston Yeti.

A person wearing a costume of the mythical creature was seen roaming the desolate streets of Somerville, Massachusetts, leaving a trail of footprints in the snow.

https://gma.yahoo.com/blizzard-2015-yeti-seen-prowling-streets-near-boston-090043574--abc-news-topstories.html

[DesertDrifter]

i didn't mean to belittle your snowstorm. if there had been a couple feet of wet snow, i can only imagine the number of collapsed roofs, carports, and damage to trees and power lines.

My personal watershed blizzard event was in 1966 that, when the wind quit, the only egress we had was out a second story window as the snow level was about seven feet on the level (partly because of drifting off the prairie) and a lot of the cattle and wildlife got smothered.

Actually, i think it is great that cooler heads prevailed in the localized problem spots in your area after the politicians got done.

Often, the delayed action big danger is a rain-on-snow event that over-rides the ability of the natural drainage systems to deal with. But given your temps and the dry nature of the snow i doubt that will be a big deal. Is electrical power an issue where you are at?

[F6]

Nor'easter Pounds New England


day-night band
acquired January 27, 2015
[ http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/85000/85166/noreaster_vir_2015027_dnb_lrg.jpg ]


acquired January 27, 2015
[ http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/85000/85166/noreaster_vir_2015027_ir_lrg.jpg ]

January 28, 2015

The U.S. National Weather Service called it a “a crippling and historic winter blizzard.” In late January 2015, transportation systems from Trenton to Portland were shut down, and more than 35 million people hunkered down for extreme snowfall and biting winds. For those in New England, it turned out to be a monstrous storm. For the Mid-Atlantic region, not so much.

Vast swaths of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, and Long Island (NY) were blanketed with 15 to 25 inches (40 to 60 centimeters) of snow as of midday on January 27, 2015, and snow was expected to continue into January 28. Sustained winds reached gale force, with hurricane-force gusts along the coastlines. Storm surges sent ice and water into the streets of Scituate and Nantucket, Massachusetts. Many New England towns, including the city of Boston, were expected to approach all-time snowfall records.

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite [ http://www.jpss.noaa.gov/instruments_interactive.html#viirs ] on the Suomi NPP [ http://npp.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] satellite acquired these nighttime images at 1:45 am US eastern standard time (06:45 Universal Time) on January 27, 2015. The top image, lit by moonlight and city lights, shows a nor'easter off the coast of the East Coast of the United States. City lights are blurred somewhat by the cloud cover. The second image shows the same scene in longwave infrared radiation, with brighter shades representing the colder temperatures of snow-producing clouds.

The map below shows the same storm as observed around the same time by microwave imagers on Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) satellite and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) onboard the GCOM-W satellite. GPM captured the right and left edges of the storm, while AMSR2 captured the middle section of data. These microwave imagers see through the tops of clouds to observe how much and where precipitation occurs. Note that because of the microwave channels used in this image, details of the storm are easier to see over the ocean.



acquired January 27, 2015

State and city governments in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Jersey took the unusual step of banning travel on all major roadways during the storm. Most of those bans were lifted by midday on January 27, though Massachusetts and Rhode Island extended it later. Thousands of airline flights were canceled, and train service was halted in the Northeast Corridor.

While the forecasts were quite good for New England, the New York-to-Delaware corridor saw far less snow because the storm tracked farther offshore than predicted. Commenting on how the media and the meteorological community handled the event, Marshall Shepherd [ http://www.wunderground.com/blog/DrShepherdWxGeeks/comment.html?entrynum=31 ] of the University of Georgia noted:

The models were always more certain that Long Island, Boston, and other parts of the Northeast would be the bullseye. And they currently are...The models were always iffy on the NY/NJ region...There is more risk and nuance in weather forecasts than the public is interested in consuming, so it is a challenge to craft a message that gets attention and is not hype, yet has actionable information. We must continue to have the discussion about how to communicate uncertainty and risk effectively...A historic storm did happen, it just didn't hit NYC hard.

References and Related Reading

Capital Weather Gang, via The Washington Post (2015, January 27) Updates: 21.5 inches of snow in Boston, 30 in eastern Mass. Accessed January 27, 2015.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2015/01/27/updates-noreaster-brings-heavy-snow-blizzard-conditions-to-new-england-long-island/

Capital Weather Gang, via The Washington Post (2015, January 27) Why the snow forecast for New York City was so bad, and what should be done. Accessed January 27, 2015.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2015/01/27/why-the-snow-forecast-for-new-york-city-was-so-bad-and-what-should-be-done/

NOAA National Center for Environmental Prediction (2015, January 27) Storm Summary Message. Accessed January 27, 2015.
http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/discussions/nfdscc2.html

NWS Chat, National Weather Service (2015, January 27) Area Forecast Discussion. Accessed January 27, 2015.
https://nwschat.weather.gov/p.php?pid=201501271912-KBOX-FXUS61-AFDBOX

National Weather Service (2015, January 27) Public Information Statement. Accessed January 27, 2015.
http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=NWS&issuedby=BOX&product=PNS&format=CI&version=1&glossary=1&highlight=off

From the Mind of J.Marsh WxGeeks Edition, via Weather Underground (2015, January 27) Fallout from the Blizzard: Our Take. Accessed January 27, 2015.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/DrShepherdWxGeeks/comment.html?entrynum=31

NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using VIIRS data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership [ http://npp.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ]. Suomi NPP is the result of a partnership between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Department of Defense. Caption by Michael Carlowicz.

Instrument(s): Suomi NPP - VIIRS

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=85166

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