Sunday, January 03, 2010

Bizzaro Storm

Burlington Free Press photo of the record snowstorm being cleared up this Sunday.

It has been a very interesting 24 hours with this major coastal storm. The western edge of the precipitation has been falling quite steady in Montreal for about 24 hours with over 20cm in the region. This storm has produced heavy snow in some very odd places with very little elsewhere. Here are just a few anomalies with this storm. In Burlington, Vermont, over 32 inches (77cm) of snow has fallen, making it the biggest snowstorm in that city in 120 years of weather records. The previous record was 29.8 inches in December 1969. Meanwhile just a few exits down Interstate 89 in Stowe they have received only 4 inches. Plattsburgh, New York just a stones throw across Lake Champlain had only 6 inches. Meanwhile in our region, normally frigid Quebec City went above freezing at 3am last night and stayed there most of the day. They went from -1C to 4C in less than one hour with snow changing to rain. Meanwhile we did no better than -5C and Drummondville just down the 20 from Quebec City was -8C while Quebec City was at plus 4C. Other storm stats: Yarmouth, Nova Scotia had 33cm of snow, and Woodstock, Nova Scotia 45cm. In the wind department, Grand Etang, NS had 163km/h winds, Quebec City 107km/h winds and Montreal gusts of wind in the 50km/h range with the lowest pressure recorded at 997mb. It is still snowing lightly in Montreal, but winds have eased somewhat and visibilities are on the rise.

No comments: