Still a very strong storm

Look at our storm center as of a few hours ago. Yikes! Very strong center of circulation. Translating to some extremely strong winds on the backside of this system.

In fact, a weather buoy that sits just east of Nantucket measured an atmospheric pressure of 28.48 inches this morning!! That is a pressure level associated with a category 3 hurricane! And this mornings pressure level was just a mere 3/10ths away from an all time record in low pressure at that buoy.

Impressive stuff here. This one will go down in the record books for sure.

Its Over!

Greg is at work! What a shame! But the storm is over. It lived up to expectations for the most part. Snowfall totals were a little less than expected but overall, I ended up with just over 16 inches on my front porch.

The rest of the toatals can be found here

http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=NWS&format=CI&version=1&glossary=0&highlight=off&issuedby=BOX&product=PNS

Scroll down to the wind gust details and you will see that Wellfleet on Cape Cod had a gust of 80mph at 10:52 last night!!! That is extremely strong and shows just how strong our storm got.

It is going to be windy and COLD today. Lots of blowing snow. I will have more info on the storm once I get home and away from silly work. I will say that it looks like nothern New Jersey got hit hard. Snowfall totals over 25 inches in many areas.

Wow. Jersey is getting hit hard.

Look at these snowfall totals from New Jersey. The costal areas got HAMMERED and it is still snowing. I would expect very similar numbers from NYC, through CT and up through MASS.

Update

We are getting into some heavy snow bands now. Since about 6pm this evening, snow has picked up in intensity, banding together. Winds are really starting to whip up as well. This storm is currently sitting off the coast of Delaware and is now measured at 982 mb. This storm will continue to intensify and it will do so fast.

Because of that intensity, these heavy snow bands are going to continue well into wee hours of the morning. Dry slotting is a concern. That could hold snow totals down in certain areas. In the same regard, thunder snow might occur, which would result in huge snow totals in certain areas.

Here is our storm right now. It sure is a beast! Snow totals predictions remain the same for now.

Latest Totals

I am blogging this from work! Light snow already spreading throughout area as we speak. A little earlier than forecasted. Here are the latest QPF totals from the 12Z NAM model.

You can see that heavy band setting up right over Boston and south to Providence. Easily 20+ inches of snow in this corrider. Some spots will be higher.

The battle with the rain/snow line is important but it looks to stay all snow from Brockton northward. There is just too much cold air aloft and the winds are going to be too strong from the North to allow any mixing in the Boston area.

More updates later!

No Joke With This Storm

It's coming folks. For snow lovers, it is a late Christmas gift. I spoke earlier about jet stream phasing and I am sure you have heard it on the news as the local meteorologists have done a good job of an explanation this time around. That phasing is occurring as we speak.

Not only that, starting about 24 hours ago, the models started to come into agreement on a storm track that really put a walloping on the east coast but specifically in Boston. That track was pretty much confirmed this afternoon after the 12Z model runs and that is when you saw the NWS put up a blizzard warning for all of eastern Massachusetts.


Look at this GFS image at 1am early Monday morning. Once this storm hits the coast, it is really going to blow up. 980mb for a low pressure system is a really deep low. That is the equivalent of a category 1 hurricane. So winds are going to be a MAJOR issue tomorrow night. I am talking sustained winds of 35 mph with gusts over 60 mph.

The snowfall rate is serious as well. With the storm passing right over Nantucket, the watch of the rain/snow line becomes important. It is a very close pass to us. Usually, you want these storms to pass south of the islands, anything closer draws in too much warm ocean air. This one will be a troublesome thing to forecast. No models can answer those questions. If the whole area stays snow, expect 12-24 inches with some towns getting close to 30 inches of snow. Yes, 30 inches. There is THAT much moisture with this storm.

But that rain/snow line will be a big factor. I suspect we stay all snow. The overnight timing helps keep temperatures down. And winds will primarily be blowing from the north east, blocking the warmer air from penetrating further inland than Cape Cod.

It starts after noon tomorrow people and it is no joke. Top 10 snowstorm of all time is likely here. The storm will be an out and out hurricane tomorrow night and blizzard conditions will be at their peak overnight into early Monday morning. Monday morning commutes will be next to impossible. Take it very seriously.

I, for one, could not be happier! This is what it is all about. Huge blizzards. This is going to be our biggest storm of the year so enjoy it.

Santa and Storms! What better way to celelbrate Christmas?

It's Christmas Eve! I hope all of you are with your families or are preparing to be with your families for tomorrow. It's the best day of the year!

Now, onto my Christmas gift. Our late weekend storm. Once again, this one is a forecasters nightmare. Now, I am not yet trained in the art of meteorology just yet, but I know enough to read some basic model maps and those models have been pretty much useless so far this winter.

This winter has been particularly difficult for all of our long range models to come into agreement on several systems. Why is this happening? I have no idea and no one does right now. I am sure the NWS will study this and give us an answer when it doesn't mean much to us.

For now, our sights should be set to the sky for Santa and then to the west and south for the beginnings of our storm. For snow lovers, you are hoping that the little piece of energy moving through the upper mid west "phases" or merges with the piece of energy over Texas that is the remnants of the last soaking storm to drench southern California.

This phasing is key. It will allow the northern jet stream and southern jet stream to merge and thus feed our storm some much needed moisture from the gulf AND tilt the upper level winds to a direction running parallel to the east coast.

The models have not come to any agreement on when if at all this phasing happens. It means everything to the track of the storm and the intensity. BUT we are starting to see a little bit of a trend. That trend brings heavy snow to SNE, overnight Sunday into early Monday. It misses the rest of the big east coast cities but nails the Boston area. QPF totals show a storm total of 0.75-1.25 inches spread over the area. Right now that would translate to a wide spread 6-12 inches with very gusty winds Sunday night.

This is likely to change. The next big model run is the GFS at 10:30. After that it is the EURO at 1am. Stay tuned!