March 2010

A review of the unusual winter weather which continued throughout March 2010...

March started out with a huge storm looming off the New England coast and a deep trough over Texas.
On March 8th, a polar high pressure cell of 1035 mb was located over the British Isles:
A similar pattern developed on January 26th and was noted in this post.

The Midwest had a very persistent and deep snow cover lasting well into March.
On February 2nd, the National Weather Service in Des Moines issued this statement:

...RECORD CONSECUTIVE DAYS OF 5 INCH SNOW DEPTH AT DES MOINES AI...

AS OF MONDAY FEBRUARY 1ST...THE OFFICIAL OBSERVING SITE AT THE DES MOINES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT REPORTED AT LEAST 5 INCHES OF SNOW ON THE GROUND FOR A RECORD 55 CONSECUTIVE DAYS. THE STREAK BEGAN ON THE 9TH OF DECEMBER 2009 AND BROKE THE PREVIOUS RECORD OF 54 CONSECUTIVE DAYS SET FROM 12 DECEMBER 1961 TO 3 FEBRUARY 1962. THE LAST TIME WE CAME EVEN REMOTELY CLOSE TO A STRETCH THIS LONG WITH AT LEAST 5 INCHES OF SNOW ON THE GROUND WAS 43 CONSECUTIVE DAYS FROM 12 DECEMBER 2000 TO 23 JANUARY 2001.

THE CURRENT SNOW DEPTH IS 10 INCHES...SO EXPECT THIS NEW RECORD TO BE EXTENDED MANY MORE DAYS.

The streak of at least 5" of snow on the ground was extended all the way to March 8th - 90 days - beating the old record of 54 days by 36.

On March 13th an East Coast storm of 992 mb produced an extremely tight pressure gradient across southern New England.
The New York City area had winds gust up to 78 mph causing widespread damage and at least 5 fatalities. A 75 mph gust was recorded right at JFK Airport. The Boston area received up to 10.35 inches of rain.

On March 21st, this late season snowstorm hit Shreveport, LA with measurable snow.
Winter storm warnings (pink) can be seen into northeast Texas:
Northwest Arkansas had up to 13 inches of snow and northeast Texas had up to 10.1 inches. Palestine, TX - about 50 miles further south than Shreveport - got a half inch.

There were very few tornadoes reported in March, and a major factor was the cold water in the Gulf of Mexico.
The water temperature anomalies in the Gulf of Mexico which were approaching -5C, were the largest in world at the time. Buoy 42035 near Galveston was recording water temperatures of 53.1F as late as March 4th and 58.1F as late as March 22nd.

On March 30th, this Nor'easter dumped up to 9.97 inches of rain on Rhode Island.
On March 31st, a very late season snowstorm hit northern Ireland with heavy snow and high winds, cutting power to 20,000 homes. Details here.

February 2010

A review of the brutal winter weather of February 2010...

On February 5th, a storm which became known as "snowmageddon" was bearing down on the Mid-Atlantic.
The Baltimore area received up to 38.3" of snow, and the 32.4" at Dulles International Airport shattered the previous two-day record of 23.2" set on January 7-8 1996. See storm summary here, and a good time lapse of the storm here.

Satellite image from about the same time as the radar image above:
But as impressive as this storm was, a much stronger storm off Newfoundland is what caught my eye - a little wider view:
This storm had a hurricane-like eye which is seen clearly in water vapor imagery:


Higher resolution loop here.

Here is a high resolution image from the polar orbiting Aqua satellite taken at 1625Z on February 5th:
Even higher resolution available here.

Perhaps the most revealing comparison of all is a surface analysis chart:
At 1800Z, the North Atlantic storm is 60 mb deeper than snowmageddon.

24 hours later, snowmageddon was at 984 mb as it moved off the East Coast.
It later deepened to 976 mb by 6Z on the 7th.

As if snowmageddon wasn't enough, the Mid-Atlantic was hit by another huge snowstorm just a few days later. One unusual feature of this storm was how quickly it wrapped arctic air around to it's south side as it went through Minnesota.
Notice that while Fargo, ND is still at 23 degrees, Sioux City, IA has already plunged to 0.

This storm then went on to dump up to 27.5" of snow on Pennsylvania, and produce new seasonal snowfall records for Baltimore, MD, Washington, DC, Wilmington, DE, Philadelphia, PA, and Atlantic City, NJ. Storm summary here and another time lapse here.

Water vapor imagery from this storm:
On the morning of the 12th, I noticed an unusually large area of heavy rain moving through the Florida Panhandle area:
Later that day, a storm headed for the Gulf of Alaska hit 952 mb:
On the 13th, a well defined spiral structure seen:
On the 17th, a spectacular 960 mb storm is just east of Kamchatka:
As a result of polar airmasses repeatedly penetrating so far south over the winter, Gulf of Mexico waters were very cold in February. Station 42035, just east of Galveston, recorded water temperatures as low as 50F on the 17th and 18th.

And despite Moscow's mayor promising this winter would be without snow, Moscow had the snowiest February since 1966 after a 53 centimeter (20.9 inch) snowstorm hit on the 21st.

Even in late February, the strong El Nino enhanced subtropical jet stream was still as far south as Taiwan.
This huge 972 mb storm hit upstate New York with up to 53 inches of snow from the 23rd-27th. Storm summary here.

On the 26th, this North Pacific storm hit 950 mb, and by the 27th, it was one of the best I've ever seen:
On February 26th-28th windstorm Xynthia hit western Europe causing major damage and killing 63. The storm bottomed out at 967 mb, and produced winds up to 150 mph in France, where it was described as the worst storm since 1999.