Why it Sucks to be a Weatherman in New England
By Mike WankumMike Wankum explains why Massachusetts received so much snowfall
March storm dropped 2 feet of snow in some areas
BOSTON —Everyone is asking, “where did all this snow come from?”
It was a fascinating set up in our atmosphere. Something we rarely see and no doubt will be study by meteorology students for years to come.
Low pressure over the Midwest traveled east
ward and threatened Washington D.C. with a rare March snowstorm. With marginal temperatures it turned into a mainly rain event for our nation’s capital. As the low pressure system moved way off shore it appeared to be heading to far out to sea to have a significant impact on New England. To get major amounts of snow we usually look for low pressure to track just south of Nantucket. In this case the low pressure area was tracking nearly 500-miles out to sea.
At the same time an upper air low pressure area was plunging through the Great Lakes. It traveled near the Mid-Atlantic region and instead of joining up with the powerful ocean storm or following behind it, it set up in just the right location to help channel unbelievable amounts of moisture toward us. And this wasn’t just surface moisture this was deep Atlantic moisture through all levels of the atmosphere. We’ve seen this in tropical systems but I cannot remember seeing it in a northern latitude Ocean storm. These two systems working together set up a conveyor belt of moisture aimed straight at us.
The only thing missing was the cold air.
Most of Thursday it was rain or mix with little accumulation. It was just too mild. However as the sunset temperatures cooled a bit. As the heavy moisture fell, it forced cold air aloft all the way to the ground. As long at the snow fell hard it would stay all snow. If it had let up even a little, the snow would have turned to rain.
So there you have it. Just the right temperatures and unbelievable amounts of moisture.
bla bla bla bla bla bla blashit!
Good Morning Gloucester 
Oh My God! Fox News is so giddy about the loss of another home on Plum Island. Time to think out where to rebuild your house.
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Channel 7’s weather forecaster apologized as well saying “it didn’t even appear on the radar” when he looked at it… and it was like a “missile of moisture that just came through the area so unexpected” oh man… . I felt bad for him lol
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Channel 7’s apology in his blog: LOL
“There are a lot of places I could start this blog. The missteps, where the forecast went off track, my personal thoughts on the weather models, but the bottom line is…
…I busted.
Bigtime.
Every forecaster has his/her flub, but I can’t recall one this bad in a long time. I was hoodwinked into believing a storm scooting into the Atlantic wouldn’t produce nearly two feet of snow across the Commonwealth. And in my defense, that is true in many respects. How many times has a storm darted southeast of Nantucket leaving us unscathed? And who would call for those amounts with a storm hundreds of miles offshore?!?
This one was different. We were lulled into believing the storm played its best hand yesterday: snow fell and melted on contact. Big gaps opened up and the sun briefly poked out. Stay the course, we thought.
But the storm stalled. Then it hooked into a batch of moisture – perhaps subtropical – and catapulted it back into Mass. The curtain closed around 5-6am, the curtain closed, and we were doomed.
Not since Dec. 2005 (a much stronger storm mind you that hit in the evening rush with gusts near 100mph on Cape Cod) did I scramble to move the numbers, figure out what was going on, and figure out when it would end.
Been quite a season.
Anyway the bottom line is the evening drive is much better (but not perfect) than the AM drive. Snow shuts down from north to south, and we might even see some sun before it sets.
Weekend is looking much better (give it until noon Saturday before the wind shut down along the coast/Capes) with sun and milder temperatures.
Stop in and visit me under my rock.
Pete”
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I have lived in places, Florida for one, that all summer is the same forcast sunrise at – , hot followed by a 4;00 pm shower starting at the gulf. humid this evening. Winter is a little different, bring the temp down 10-20 degrees maybe, you could actually make two tapes for the year. So that when unsettled wheather like a possable hurricane comes around they just love it. You weathermen should be proud of working this adventure. Live it.
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