[Dallascaper]

Originally Posted by Cambium

And lets not all forget the sunner of 2010, May to September seemed like it never went below 90s for me. Ugh

IMHO, the brunt of our "summer" lasted 5 weeks this year - late June through July - it was surprisingly hot, and the humidity reminded me of Houston. But May, most of June, and all of August and September were delightful.

Connecticut does have interesting weather - it changes from day to day for no apparent reason. What I mean is no big cold or warm fronts, just a gentle change in wind direction can make a big difference in temperature.

[Cambium]

Originally Posted by Dallascaper

IMHO, the brunt of our "summer" lasted 5 weeks this year - late June through July - it was surprisingly hot, and the humidity reminded me of Houston. But May, most of June, and all of August and September were delightful.

Connecticut does have interesting weather - it changes from day to day for no apparent reason. What I mean is no big cold or warm fronts, just a gentle change in wind direction can make a big difference in temperature.

When someone hears the Earth is 1 degree warmer, they think nothing at all. When someone hears a state is 3 degrees warmer, they think nothing at all. The degree is an average, it means in order to be warmer or cooler by 1 degree, there has to be an extreme either way....

CT was amongst the Top with the Warmest on Record... I will never forget...Like I said...it was like we never went under 80 from May to September!

And I stopped saying "Ever"...I now say "on record"..

NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA: Fourth Warmest U.S. Summer on Record

U.S. Temperature Highlights - Year-to-Date (January through August)

• The Northeast climate region experienced its warmest January-August period with an average temperature more than 3.4 degrees F above the long-term average.
• Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Jersey each had their warmest year-to-date period and all of the Northeastern states ranked in the top ten percent of warmest periods on record. Only Florida and Texas had below normal temperatures for the period

[Cambium]

Im not seeing anything for the 7th but I am seeing something for around the 14th... So enjoy "normal" weather over next 2 weeks. We might get a couple inches here or there and some rain now and then but nothing big until at least mid January right now.

Be back next week to check in. I got a funny feeling we are going to see a lot of snow Feb/March

[wavehunter007]

Originally Posted by Cambium

speaking of Averages....I think jp03 and wavehunter are speechless on this past Blizzard...LOL, havent heard from them since before the warnings came out...

Well, I’m back in Connecticut grasshopper!

I was down in the Miami area for the holidays. The weather was perfect in south Florida…sunny with highs in the mid 70’s. It was nice to get on the beach again and get the board in the water (surf temp was 78 F). Some of the coconut palms had some cold damage outside of Miami (Jupiter), though not too severe. A week before we got down there, Miami had a low of 37 F. That might not sound cold, but coconut palms can’t take more than a few hours of temps in the upper 30’s.

So I missed the big snow. In my neck of the woods (coastal eastern Connecticut), my neighbors tell me we had about 6 – 8 inches of snow. It looks like a lot must have melted, because about 70% of my lawn is showing. My anemometer showed a gust of 51 –mph – so I wish I had been there to see that. My sensor has been mounted at 30 feet on my roof for 21 years. The 51-mph was the third highest gust I have ever measured (Hurricane Bob was the strongest at 72-mph). From what I read, the barometric pressure fell to 970 mb along the Connecticut coast. Although hurricanes have much stronger winds at the same pressure, 970 mb is what many category 1 or 2 hurricanes have.

So what lies ahead? I think the basic pattern looks pretty tranquil in the Eastern USA. The West was cold/stormy in November….the East was cold/stormy in December…now it looks like the action is back in the West for awhile. So we in the Tri-State should see seasonable temps, no real cool or warm shots (after the warmth this weekend)…and a zonal pattern. I would expect that most of the snow cover on the East Coast from Connecticut/Long Island southward will be gone in the next few days/week. As we get deeper into January, the solar angle will become more and more noticeable. The days are getting longer now.

So look at it this way: You got your big snow…and I got sunny 78 F weather – we were just at different ends of I-95 (lol).

PS: I took a nice picture for you to warm you winter heart - deep tropical south Florida (Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, FL):

[Cambium]

Originally Posted by wavehunter007

So I missed the big snow. In my neck of the woods (coastal eastern Connecticut), my neighbors tell me we had about 6 – 8 inches of snow. It looks like a lot must have melted, because about 70% of my lawn is showing. My anemometer showed a gust of 51 –mph – so I wish I had been there to see that. My sensor has been mounted at 30 feet on my roof for 21 years. The 51-mph was the third highest gust I have ever measured (Hurricane Bob was the strongest at 72-mph). From what I read, the barometric pressure fell to 970 mb along the Connecticut coast. Although hurricanes have much stronger winds at the same pressure, 970 mb is what many category 1 or 2 hurricanes have.

So look at it this way: You got your big snow…and I got sunny 78 F weather – we were just at different ends of I-95 (lol).

PS: I took a nice picture for you to warm you winter heart - deep tropical south Florida (Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, FL):

#1. Keep those pictures to yourself. LOL

2. It was one heck of a storm. Once in a decade type characteristic wise. I opened a thread specifically just for the blizzard. Check out the posts as I was updating throughout the storm. Pretty impressive storm. It Started snowing lightly at 11am the 26th...got heavy at 3pm all the way until 3am and ended at 6am the 27th...winds picked up during storm at 5pm on 26th and were wicked until the 28th! Plows were having trouble with blowing snow. It was whiteout conditions the next morning and it wasn't even snowing so imagine during the blizzard with 40mph winds!

Pressure of the storm was 967 close to the one of the March 1993 superstorm at 963.

3. Wait...you have a device that records data while your away? That is awesome. Want to share where I can find something like that?

4. Can I use this storm next year during your whole December no snow theory? Thats 2 years in a row now of over a foot of snows..lol

[Cambium]

DECEMBER 26-27, 2010 BLIZZARD REPORTS, MAPS & DATA.

National Weather Service Forecast Office - Upton, NY

Look at those spotty dark purples indicating over 20 inches. Winds hit 60mph in Greenwich and Danbury

[Cambium]

This one looks nice.

Amazon.com: Honeywell TE923W Deluxe Weather Station with Rain Gauge, Barometer, Thermometer, Wind Data: Kitchen & Dining

[wavehunter007]

Originally Posted by Cambium

#1. Keep those pictures to yourself. LOL

2. It was one heck of a storm. Once in a decade type characteristic wise. I opened a thread specifically just for the blizzard. Check out the posts as I was updating throughout the storm. Pretty impressive storm. It Started snowing lightly at 11am the 26th...got heavy at 3pm all the way until 3am and ended at 6am the 27th...winds picked up during storm at 5pm on 26th and were wicked until the 28th! Plows were having trouble with blowing snow. It was whiteout conditions the next morning and it wasn't even snowing so imagine during the blizzard with 40mph winds!

Pressure of the storm was 967 close to the one of the March 1993 superstorm at 963.

3. Wait...you have a device that records data while your away? That is awesome. Want to share where I can find something like that?

4. Can I use this storm next year during your whole December no snow theory? Thats 2 years in a row now of over a foot of snows..lol

First, as to my "December no snow theory"…that is a bit of a stretch (lol). I never said it could not snow in December…only that the warm sst will make more rain events possible when a marginal event happens (meaning that the rain/snow line is close) We saw that in mid December when the Midwest got heavy snow and we (the East Coast) got rain as the low tracked West of us. In terms of snow totals…remember (and I’m sure you already know this)…measuring snow totals in 50- mph is ripe with over estimates quite often. Some places in Connecticut get less than 6 inches of snow…though some got 14 inches. So I would not take any snow total as 100% accurate.


As far as my station - if there was one thing I splurged on in my minimalist lifestyle in was my little home office weather station (lol). Living along the coast all of my life with the restless ocean, there always seems to be something brewing out there…so I thought that I might as well have good equipment. My wind sensor is a Maximum ($480 – 15 years ago)…it records direction, wind speed, and saves the peak gust (51-mph in the Blizzard). My barometer is an ATCO (used on commercial High Seas ships)…with a range of 26 to 31 inches. As far as the pressure of the recent storm - keep in mind...that even though the pressure might be in the same ballpark as a tropical storm…the winds are normally much stronger in a tropical system at the same pressure. The process that brings the winds down to the surface is not nearly as well developed in a cold core system (snow storm) as in a warm core system (tropical cyclone).


The warm weekend and rain have done a number on snow cover however. Here is the current USA/Southern Canada snow cover. The most recent big snow in the East (NC to Maine) has melted from Connecticut southward (though still some around NYC/Northern NJ it looks like). However, the West still has a lot of snow deep into the Southwestern states: In fact as you can see…near the New Mexico/Arizona area, the snow cover is right to Mexico (though very light I’m sure).




So you have about 4 weeks left to get some snow cover back on the East Coast...after late January, the solar angle starts to become an issue.

[7 Wishes]

Wow, almost no snow cover near the Great Lakes while most of the NYC area still has snow cover, I wonder when the last time that happened!

[Cambium]

Originally Posted by wavehunter007

So you have about 4 weeks left to get some snow cover back on the East Coast...after late January, the solar angle starts to become an issue.

I see...so your argument for our average snow totals around this area is because of warm ocean in November/December and then the Suns angle after January. You leave yourself 1 good month for snow. lol

Analyzing gets me tired sometimes. lol
I was hoping all the snow melted this past weekend just to start fresh again and also because I hate having hard ice underneath fresh snow. But I still have 2 inches left and with highs in mid 30s its going to take a week+ to melt.

Models starting to get crazy again... Euro showing small 2 inch storm on 7th then a Blizzard for Southern New England days later which could include SW CT again. It all depends where it bombs out. I think it bombs out further north then last storm...

It wont be as powerful but its a watch and see event now that models showing something after the 7th. Snow ratios will be really low since it will be in the 30s when this happens. One model suggests 2 inches of liquid. So at 6:1 ratios thats around 12 inches of snow