One Storm To Rule Them All?
Posted by Pete Bouchard
"The board is set, the pieces are moving."
We're on the eve of what could be the biggest snowstorm in almost a decade.
We're drawing comparisons with the Blizzards of 2005 and 2003 (22.5" and 27.5" - greatest all time in Boston). Yes, that much snow will hammer the Commonwealth. Confidence is high, the models are jiving and you need to take this threat seriously.
With such a large, long duration storm, where do we get started? How about the timeline?
Startup: Early morning tomorrow. Pacing is intermittent and light. 2-4 by afternoon. There will likely be mixing - or even plain rain - along the South Shore much of SE Mass. including the Cape and Islands. This is where a lot of us will be standing around saying "what storm?"
Phase two of the storm will then engage after dark tomorrow evening. Heavy bands will erupt from our developing offshore nor'easter/blizzard and snowstorm "feeder bands" (these nor'easters are cousins of hurricanes...sharing some similar characteristics like wind and wave generation) will start wrapping back over New England.
As snowfall rates increase beyond the point where plows can keep up, roads are likely to become impassable near or after midnight Friday night into early Saturday morning. If you attempt to travel, it is possible you may become stranded. Don't be that person.
Snow will continue - intense and unyielding - through Saturday morning and into the late morning hours. Thereafter, we can emerge and start cleanup.
Things we're working on:
Who gets three feet?!? Tough call. In storms like this, the convective (Huh? Think t-storms) nature makes it impossible to tackle ahead of the event. When we're in it, we'll know. Keep in mind folks, there may be multiple sweet spots or bullseyes. That happened in the Blizzard of 2005.
The REAL endgame of the storm. We'll leave it at Saturday afternoon, but the last flakes may not fly until Saturday EVENING.
Cape Cod snowfall. Always a moving target. Mix/rain early Friday will cut down on amounts, but we'll really make hay when the storm cranks on Friday afternoon/Saturday AM.
More later.
Pete
Just In Time
Posted by Chris Lambert
Summer officially starts Friday at 1:04 A.M., and Mother Nature's sending in summer weather for us just in time. Mid to late June averages highs near 80 degrees, and we'll be there temperature-wise over the next few days. Mostly dry too!
That's A Wrap--I Think
Posted by Jeremy Reiner
I hope I'm not jinxing us with this statement.."The recent wet pattern is over....onto sunshine & a more summer- like pattern.." The last time someone from 7 weather called a pattern change too soon we got a blizzard and 3 subsequent nor'easters (looking at you Pete!!--LOL). We don't have to worry about any blizzards or nor'easters but one never knows in the new world order.
Like A Waterfall
Posted by Pete Bouchard
If you were caught in those 'cloudbursts' today, you had more than you could handle in the rain department. Torrents fell in a short amount of time - what we deem 'flash flooding' in the weather biz. Since it happens suddenly, the National Weather Service has adopted the acronym TADD:
Bam! Pow!
Posted by Jeremy Reiner
Bam. Pow! Those were some nasty storms last evening with some towns in metrowest & the city itself blasted with locally heavy rain, hail, lightning and strong wind gusts. A cool front is the culprit and that front will linger across the region again today. That means another round of some scattered showers & t-storms likely.