Mega Nor'easter slams NE States: Web Cams from area posted

[Stephanie]

Look at the center of the storm Hurakan! Wow!

[HURAKAN]

Look at the center of the storm Hurakan! Wow!

yes, very impressive



Snow continues to accumulate

[HURAKAN]

Continues to pound the area while looking amazing

[wx247]

Those are some very impressive images and snowfall totals. Quite an amazing storm indeed. This area is also going to deal with a warm-up later this week and I am sure flooding may become a concern... as if they didn't already have enough to deal with.

[HURAKAN]

image courtesy of NASA!

Jeff Masters: http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1716

Code: Select all

An unusual Nor'easter for a La Niña year
This winter, we are experiencing La Niña conditions in the Equatorial Eastern Pacific, meaning that cold waters have upwelled from the depths off the coast of South America, cooling a huge region of Pacific waters to below-average levels. In most winters, the presence of La Niña acts to deflect the jet stream in such a way the the predominant storm track takes winter storms into the Pacific Northwest, then down through the Upper Midwest and Ohio Valley. According to Dr. David A. Robinson, the New Jersey State Climatologist and Chairman of the Department of Geography at Rutgers University, this sort of flow pattern keeps New England safe from Nor'easters, as storms tend to move from the Ohio Valley northeastwards into Canada, keeping New England in a warm southwesterly flow of air. However, today's storm defied climatology, and gave the mid-Atlantic and New England one of their worst poundings on record for a La Niña Nor'easter. It was the first storm in at least ten La Niña winters, dating back to 1970, to bring 10" of more of snow to New Jersey, according to Dr. Robinson. In Philadelphia, which got 12.4" from this storm, the National Weather Service stated that only one La Niña winter in the past century has had a storm that dumped more than 10" of snow on city--a December 1909 Nor'easter. The reason for the unusual Nor'easter this year is that it happened to get started right when the atmosphere was transitioning from one major flow pattern to another. Since late November, we have been locked into a pattern featuring very weak low pressure over Iceland, and weak high pressure over the Azores--a strongly negative North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and Arctic Oscillation (AO). This pattern, which has allowed a lot of cold air to spill out of the Arctic and into the Eastern U.S. and Western Europe, is now breaking down and transitioning to a very different winter pattern. This new pattern will feature a more typical configuration for winter, with the Icelandic Low and Azores High close to their usual strengths. Today's Nor'easter managed to sneak in just as the atmosphere was transitioning from one major flow pattern to a new one, resulting in the rare La Niña snowstorm for New England. The new winter flow pattern looks to stay in place for at least the first two weeks of January, resulting in warmer than average winter weather for both the U.S. East Coast and Western Europe.

[cycloneye]

image courtesy of NASA!

Very impressive image Sandy! That is why I titled it as Mega.

[srainhoutx]

HPC selected snowfall totals to date...

http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/discussions/nfdscc1.html

[cycloneye]

The strong winds are now the biggest problem for the airports and the blowing snow around.

[JBG]

image courtesy of NASA!

Jeff Masters: http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1716

Code: Select all

An unusual Nor'easter for a La Niña year
This winter, we are experiencing La Niña conditions in the Equatorial Eastern Pacific, meaning that cold waters have upwelled from the depths off the coast of South America, cooling a huge region of Pacific waters to below-average levels. In most winters, the presence of La Niña acts to deflect the jet stream in such a way the the predominant storm track takes winter storms into the Pacific Northwest, then down through the Upper Midwest and Ohio Valley. According to Dr. David A. Robinson, the New Jersey State Climatologist and Chairman of the Department of Geography at Rutgers University, this sort of flow pattern keeps New England safe from Nor'easters, as storms tend to move from the Ohio Valley northeastwards into Canada, keeping New England in a warm southwesterly flow of air. However, today's storm defied climatology, and gave the mid-Atlantic and New England one of their worst poundings on record for a La Niña Nor'easter. It was the first storm in at least ten La Niña winters, dating back to 1970, to bring 10" of more of snow to New Jersey, according to Dr. Robinson. In Philadelphia, which got 12.4" from this storm, the National Weather Service stated that only one La Niña winter in the past century has had a storm that dumped more than 10" of snow on city--a December 1909 Nor'easter. The reason for the unusual Nor'easter this year is that it happened to get started right when the atmosphere was transitioning from one major flow pattern to another. Since late November, we have been locked into a pattern featuring very weak low pressure over Iceland, and weak high pressure over the Azores--a strongly negative North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and Arctic Oscillation (AO). This pattern, which has allowed a lot of cold air to spill out of the Arctic and into the Eastern U.S. and Western Europe, is now breaking down and transitioning to a very different winter pattern. This new pattern will feature a more typical configuration for winter, with the Icelandic Low and Azores High close to their usual strengths. Today's Nor'easter managed to sneak in just as the atmosphere was transitioning from one major flow pattern to a new one, resulting in the rare La Niña snowstorm for New England. The new winter flow pattern looks to stay in place for at least the first two weeks of January, resulting in warmer than average winter weather for both the U.S. East Coast and Western Europe.

Thanks for posting. But what about the March 19, 1956 La Niña KU storm? And isn't there a good chance that the blocking pattern reloads?

[Portastorm]

Don Sutherland, a meteorological statistical guru in my opinion, has posted some information on the American weather forum which would lead one to believe that a re-load of the block is a distinct possibility.

[brunota2003]

Here is the National Snow Depth imagery as of this morning:

[TwisterFanatic]

Awesome time lapse from the storm.

[HURRICANELONNY]

Don Sutherland, a meteorological statistical guru in my opinion, has posted some information on the American weather forum which would lead one to believe that a re-load of the block is a distinct possibility.

GOT A LINK?

[Portastorm]

Don Sutherland, a meteorological statistical guru in my opinion, has posted some information on the American weather forum which would lead one to believe that a re-load of the block is a distinct possibility.

GOT A LINK?

Check out post #257 at this link:

http://www.americanwx.com/bb/index.php?/topic/2882-ao-forecast-to-plunge/page__st__240

And post #288 at this link which implies increased snowfall (i.e. blocking on some sort)

http://www.americanwx.com/bb/index.php?/topic/2882-ao-forecast-to-plunge/page__st__280

And in his defense, if I have somehow misquoted Don, please correct me. Don himself will sometimes post on S2K.

[HURAKAN]

nice loop of the system moving away from the US

[HURAKAN]

Nice image of the extratropical cyclone (top) and the stratocumulus clouds over the Atlantic Ocean due to the cold air (bottom)