The months of January and February were certainly a wild ride, especially for those within the mid-Atlantic. After a mild start to the winter, January hit fast and hard (except for northern New England and the northern extent of the Hudson Valley) with the Blizzard of 2016. While northern New England missed out on the January 22nd-23rd storm, they still had a couple of snowfall events, mainly during the first half of January. The month finished off with well above normal high temperatures, also resulting in a significant melting of the snowpack. February featured a roller-coaster of seasons, to boot. The first half of February saw a very complex and active weather pattern from February 7th-12th, followed by the coldest temperatures of the season to welcome in Valentine's Day. Temperatures began to warm back up toward the end of the month, with two main inland tracking storms bringing heavy rain and thunderstorms, one of which produced an EF-2 tornado in Lancaster County, PA.
One of our meteorologists, Sean Rowland, measuring the snow during the blizzard here in Hackettstown, NJ! Our office recorded 28.5" of storm total snowfall.
The Blizzard of 2016 was a monumental event, allowing majority of the mid-Atlantic to exceed their normal seasonal snowfall just from one storm, not to mention breaking numerous single storm snowfall records! It was certainly a difficult system to forecast though, as evidenced within New York and Massachusetts. While the rest of the region was ready for one to two feet of snow or more, a sharp gradient was expected in northeastern PA, northern New Jersey, New York, and into New England. Just 25 miles would have made or break these regions. As the storm loomed, it was evident that the system would take a more northern track, resulting in LaGuardia and JFK to break records by receiving 27.9 and 30.5", respectively (Central Park was just shy of tying, by a tenth of an inch), while parts of Poughkeepsie barely saw a few flakes. Similarly, in Massachusetts, the Cape saw 10 - 15" of snow, while toward the New Hampshire border just a few flakes were witnessed. Boston-Logan was in the middle of this eastern New England snowfall gradient with 6.1". The highest snowfall for this event went to Mount Mitchell, North Carolina, with an incredible 66 inches! Not only did the storm bring heavy snow, but it brought gusty winds and moderate to major coastal flooding along the Delaware and New Jersey shores. Some of the hardest hit areas were Cape May and Atlantic counties in New Jersey, in which Cape May recorded 9.26' for their tide heights, breaking the Hurricane Sandy record of 8.67'. People had to be evacuated in parts of Atlantic City and several feet of water innundated streets in Stone Harbor and Ocean City. Significant beach erosion was seen in Rebohoth Beach, DE and Long Beach Island, NJ. The highest winds recorded from this storm were 57 mph, with gusts up to 85 mph on Assateague Island, MD, though 30 - 50 mph gusts were experienced across much of the mid-Atlantic, resulting in blowing and drifting of an already heavy snow reducing visibilities.
While Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City did not achieve their first measurable snowfall this season until just before the blizzard on January 17th from snow squalls, New England had a fairly active first half of the month. Most notably were the January 4th-5th ocean effect snow down in Plymouth and Cape Cod, the 12th-13th event where bands of heavy snow fell especially Worcester, Middlesex and Norfolk counties, and the 17th-18th event that affected most of New England. Between these events and the blizzard, Boston was still below their average snowfall for the month with a snowfall departure of -3.4 inches. Out in western Massachusetts it was even worse: Springfield only reported 0.6" for the month! In terms of temperatures, it was still slightly above normal for areas north of the Mason-Dixon line, especially the last week of January. Boston-Logan Airport was three degrees higher than normal for the month, while Richmond International was almost 2 degrees below normal. Temperature departures for the rest of the Northeast for January 2016 can be seen in the table below. And if you think we've been having a relatively warm winter so far, you are right: check out our blog 2015-2016 Winter Stats for more.
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February featured a seasonal "sandwich" of sorts, in which a busy week of multiple threats followed by bitter cold, a significant ice storm, and severe weather during the middle part of the month were sandwiched between mild, spring-like conditions at the beginning and end of the month. The period from February 8th-11th saw the deepest trough of the season, which ushered in multiple, nuisance disturbances over a short period of time across the Northeast. It was then followed by a brutually cold Valentine's Day weekend, with many areas seeing lows in the negative to positive single digits. Boston-Logan dipped to a low of -9 degrees on the 14th, while Central Park reached into the negatives (-1, to be exact) for the first time since January 19th, 1994! Though temperatures would eventually become milder as the result of a low pressure system, the preceding cold resulted in a snow and ice storm Valentine's Day night into the 15th. Even with a strong sun angle and temperatures in the mid-to-upper 30s, many places were still icing as pavements were having a tough time warming. Although the accumulated snowfall graph may fool one into thinking a quiet stretch of weather persisted for the second half of February, it was still active; just not as snowy! Another strong low pressure system moved through the 4th week of February, resulting in a brief period of snow in northern New England and patchy ice as it arrived during the overnight period from the 23rd-24th. By the evening of the 24th, heavy rain and thunderstorms wracked the entire Northeast, even resulting in an EF-2 tornado in Lancaster County, PA.
Cumulative accumulated snowfall for Boston (blue), Newark (black), and Washington D.C. (green) for the month of February, courtesy of SC ACIS.
Temperature graph with observed daily temperatures (blue bars), normal February temperature range (in orange), and record maximum and minimum temperature (in red and blue, respectively), courtesy of SC ACIS.
