10/24/05 New England Nor'easter

[Sam Sagnella]

We are definitely already seeing heavy rains from the impending Nor'easter here in southwestern Connecticut. Not surprisingly, the winds are still on the light side (<10kt) but boy will that change later tonight as the deepening low pushes off to the NNE/NE. I'm noticing that there is an area of greatly enhanced rainfall rates over Nrn New Jersey and my first instinct was to attribute this to the typical orographic influence of the nearby hilly terrain, but a quick check of surface obs shows an area of localized weak convergence (nly winds at several lwr Hudson Valley stations). If this area continues to see the heaviest of the rainfall, the flooding problems from 'the Great Week of Rain' will reemerge and will be another major concern.

I'll keep posting what's going on in Westport (Fairfield County) for the duration of the event.

 

[B Ozanne]

I'm just down the road from Sam. Here's a link to my weather station via Weather Underground:

http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation...sp?ID=KCTDARIE1

We just had a period of rain, but the heavy stuff stayed just inland. Literally less than a mile inland from my location. Don't look too much at the wind data. I am heavily sheltered to the northeast. Anything above 30 would be impressive for my station. Pressure will be fun to watch drop. 'm going to hold off on driving to the Cape. I expect some hurricane force gusts up there, but hit and miss. I'd rather watch from home.

Edit: Sam, watch out for some of those radar estimates. They seem really high for this storm so far. Central Park is reporting .11, but the radar is over 1". Same thing at my house. I have .09 and the radar is around .40. Bright banding? I don't know.

 

[HAltschule]

Judging by the ooz OKX sounding, it seems reasonable to me that a lot of this may be sleet. If so, the precip. accumulations on the doppler may be falsely adding up the rain amount where it is ectually sleeting. In fact, there were some hint of a gravity wave in the models down there so this could be causing very rapid upward motion...and in turn sleet or some snow in the columnn.

 

[Rockwell Schrock]

Hey all. Finally, The Cape is getting some action. I just went down to Nauset Light Beach here in Eastham (at about 10:30 on Monday night) and found none other than TWC reporting live. Since nothing is open on Cape Cod this time of year, I ran home and brought them back some dinner. That was fun. They'll be here until Wednesday, so anybody traveling out here might want to check it out.

http://static.flickr.com/25/55827753_aff4e7e83e_o.jpg

Anyway, the wind is definitely picking up. Maybe school will be canceled tomorrow! :lol: We can practically see the ocean from our school, but then again the dunes are very high.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Nice steady moderate snow falling now in central West Virginia, starting to cover cars. Roads are still clear as temps are still ranging from 33-40F, but that should change later tonight.

Video clip and a few frame grabs here:
http://wvlightning.com/oct242005.shtml

Going to sleep for a while, then thinking about heading up to the central mountains for some daytime photo ops. Snow on fall foliage is not something you get every year around here.

 

[B Ozanne]

We lost power last night for a few hours. Very large tree fell, down the road from me. Haven't seen much action since then. Pressure continues to fall, we are at 995mb right now. We really need some heavier rain showers to mix down these winds.

 

[B Ozanne]

For Fairfield County this has shaped up to be a very dissapointing storm. My lowest pressure was 991mb with a peak wind gust of 28mph. Precip has also been on the low side, just under an inch.

Not everyone is being left out though. The Cape did see some 60mph winds and heavy rain. Mount Washington is poised to break their all-time monthly precip record set back in February, 1969 with 25.56". They are also significantly adding to their monthly snow total which beat the previous October mark over a week ago.

 

[HAltschule]

7:30pm Tuesday:

Currently Wet Snow in Albany, NY with a temperature of 35F. No accumulation as of yet.

If the 18z ETA is right, and based on current trends, we may be in line for a 1-3" slushy snowfall tonight. If precip. lingers around longer than that, then we may see higher amounts. One thing is for sure, the Adirondacks and Green Mtns. are going to get a lot more snow tonight.

 

[Joe Guerra]

yep, it was a very uneventful day in Trumbull, I got a gust of 26mph at 7:00am or so, but that was about it. The rain was also alot less than I expected. But, on the bright side, the prospect of snow is really surprising!

 

[HAltschule]

Update:

Many areas in The Binghamton, NY area have seen anywhere from 2-10" of snow so far today. Winds there are breezy as well. Numerous reports of trees and powerlines down because of the heavy wet snow and leaves on the trees. The same in Vermont and Upstate NY...2-7" of snow with trees down.

On a side note: LGA had a peak gust of 48mph...so not everybody saw lighter winds.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Crazy day so far! Heavy snow now starting to descend to 2,500 feet and below in the WV mountains. Bridges are icing over, I never thought I'd see sights like this one in October:

http://wvlightning.com/oct252005.shtml
(Video clip is also at the above link)

 

[Joe Guerra]

Well, my great-grandmother said "Always count the days from the first snow to Thanksgiving and that's how many storms you'll have this winter!"

 

[MClarkson]

nothing here in boston. a few gusts to perhaps around 30 and light rain. A "tree" fell on the train tracks and city "workers" took a few hours to clear it.

 

[B Ozanne]

Its official. Mount Washington has broken their monthly precip record.

From the summit:

8:30 PM Update:
Heavy snow over the last few hours have led to a storm total of 19.5 inches for the storm!!! This snow melted to 3.07\" for the storm, now breaking the record for the wettest month ever (rain and melted snow). The mark of 26.44 inches breaks the infamous February, 1969 of 25.56 inches!

This brings the new record snowfall for the month to 64.0 inches!

And the summit crew rejoiced....

From left to right: Kyle (intern and measuring stick holder), Melanie (chef), Jim (canmeister), Tim (wearing the funnel on his head), and Mike (with a bright look on his face).