Veteran's Day 1987

[WEATHER53]

Went over to my mother in laws house to rake leaves. It was cloudy in late morning and very cool, low 40's, with forecast of rain possibly mixed with wet snow. The dewpoints were lower than progged and the air had the feel of something possibly up plus early afternoon temps had fallen a degree or two. Soon a great surprize storm was upon us, all snow around here with 8-11" the general range, the greatest November snow for DC metro.

[tropicana]

NOV 11th 1911 IN OKLAHOMA CITY

ON NOVEMBER 11TH 1911...THE AFTERNOON TEMPERATURE IN OKLAHOMA CITY
REACHED A RECORD HIGH FOR THE DATE OF 83...BEFORE PLUMMETING TO A
RECORD LOW OF 17 AT MIDNIGHT THAT EVENING. NINETY-TWO YEARS
LATER...BOTH DAILY RECORDS REMAIN UNBROKEN AND UNTIED.

RECORD HIGH AND LOW TEMPERATURES OCCURRING ON THE SAME DAY ARE
RARE...BUT THE PAIR OF RECORDS FROM OKLAHOMA CITY ON 11/11/11 IS NOT
TOTALLY UNIQUE. THE CHANCES OF REACHING...AND MAINTAINING...BOTH A
RECORD HIGH AND RECORD LOW TEMPERATURE ON THE SAME DAY WILL DECREASE
AS THE LENGTH OF RECORD INCREASES. IN OTHER WORDS...THE LONGER
RECORDS ARE KEPT AT A GIVEN LOCATION...THE LESS LIKELY THAT A RECORD
HIGH AND LOW WILL OCCUR THERE ON THE SAME DAY. STILL...WE HAVE BEEN
ABLE TO LOCATE AT LEAST 16 OTHER SUCH PAIRS OF RECORDS THAT
CURRENTLY EXIST AT STATIONS WHERE OFFICIAL RECORDS HAVE BEEN KEPT
FOR 35 YEARS OR MORE. MOST OF THESE RECORD PAIRS HAVE BEEN SET IN
THE LAST 7 YEARS OR SO.

-justin-

[wxid]

I could be wrong on this, but i think we had school to start and got out early.... Went home and raided my parents liquor cabinet with some friends since they wouldn't be home til 7pm! We watched through the front picture window and cranked up the tunes ( i hate to speculate WHAT we were listening to ....those were the days of the MULLET ). I was a bad boy back then, but they were good days...boring, but good....

PS-FWIW , I never had a MULLET!

[Stormsfury]

Weather53, I did some reanalysis maps for that storm a while back

They are on this thread

http://www.storm2k.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=17677

[Colin]

Wow...that's awesome. I'm sure that was quite a surprise for everyone living in that area, and unfortunately, I bet nobody was prepared! :o

[therock1811]

Here's Kingofweather's story of the 1987 Vet's day snowstorm:

http://www.storm2k.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=4729&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

[tropicana]

Some other interesting stats on the Veteran's Day snowstorm of 1987.

That snowstorm dumped record early snows over the Mid-Atlantic with up to 17inches of snow in portions of suburban Washington DC. This amount of snow is rare in winter..let alone the middle of Fall. Thunder and lightning accompanied the snow for several hours.
Snow amounts on that day;
Bridgeport CT 0.1in, Central Park NY 1.3in, Boston MA 3.0in, Hartford CT 5.0in, Dulles Airport MD 5.3in, Baltimore MD 6.0in, National Airport MD 11.5in.

The snow ranged from shoe-top height in the moutains of North Carolina to 9in in NE Pennsylvania.
Sections of major highways in the metro areas of Baltimore, New York and Richmond VA were shut down to allow highway crews to sand and salt bridges and overpasses.
The NY Sanitation Dept called in 800 workers on their day off.
In the Washington DC area, where temps reached a recrod 72F just 2 days before... snow blanketed the sites of Veteran's Day activities at the Arlington National Cemetery and at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
The cold weather also reached into the deep south. It was 'quite cold' in Mississippi, with many readings near freezing.
At least 6 people died in weather related accidents.

By the time the snows ended on Nov 12 1987.... Boston's Logan Airport saw 7in snow..the greatest snowfall so early in the season, and the 9.7inches at Providence RI was a record for a Novemeber storm.
Up to 14inches of snow fell in plymouth CO MA.

-justin-

[JCT777]

Nice early season snow event on 11/11/87. My area received 2 inches of snow and I got my very first experience with driving on snow and ice. Luckily, I did not wreck my car!

However, this event did not bode well for the rest of winter. As I recall, my area had below normal snow during the winter of 1987/88.

[donsutherland1]

Weather53,

Thanks for sharing these memories. This was a truly remarkable storm and the amount of exceptionally cold air that was drawn into the region was exceptional for the season.

[Guest]

A storm i wont forget as well for reasons stated in that link the rock posted..................

[ColdFront77]

By the time the snows ended on Nov 12 1987.... Boston's Logan Airport saw 7in snow..the greatest snowfall so early in the season, and the 9.7inches at Providence RI was a record for a November storm. Up to 14 inches of snow fell in plymouth CO MA.

I have a very good long term memory and vaguely remember this snowstorm. I lived in northern Plymouth county, Massachusetts, bordering Bristol county. Probably because of my three winters away from the Northeast.