Tuesday, December 30, 2008

FINAL CALL: NYE Snow Blitz

FINAL CALL (12/30/08 @ 7PM): I am making my final call on this one tonight. This storm looks mighty explosive once it gets south of Long Island and gets its toes wet in that December bathwater off our coastline (Lower 40s). This storm is going to explode all the while and be bombing out near ACK (Nantucket) going sub 980 in a short 3 hour time frame. This will allow for winds to crank in excess of 50 mph, if not higher gusts. There could be 2-3 hours of blizzard conditions on the South Shore and Cape later tomorrow afternoon and evening as this thing gets going SE of NE. A good analog for this one may be December 9th of 2005. If you remember that one, a low pressure took a similar path this one will take and bombed out near Newport, RI, giving the Cape 100 mph wind gusts. A 105 mph wind gust was reported on Block Island that day. That was accompanied with a nice CCB band of snow (backlash) that dumped snow at the rate of 2-4"+ per hour! I am not saying this will happen, but there sure are signs that at some point tomorrow afternoon around 1PM or so, snowfall rates could be exceeding 2"/hr. with winds gusting over 30 mph here in eastern Mass, creating near blizzard conditions. I have two bullseye areas for the heaviest of snow. One is for the BOS metro area where I think a solid 7-12" of snow will fall. Lower if we do not get those intense snow bands move in, but higher if we do. Down on the Cape is where I think true blizzard warning criteria snows/winds could occur along with the heaviest of snow. Right now, it would not shock me if some on the Cape came in will over 10" of snow, not fluffy snow as in BOS, but heavy wet snow that will cake onto most everything and likely cause some power outages, along with winds of 55+mph. We will have to see and NOWCAST this storm as it unfolds to see if we do indeed get that bombing right off our shorelines. If we do, WATCH OUT! It will be BRIEFLY INTENSE with near blizzard conditions and white outs all across SNE, eastern SNE especially. Keep atuned to the forecast tonight before bed. Start time on the snow is around 8AM for eastern zones, more like 6AM west of ORH. Enjoy the evening.

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