Current page: 2010 Storm Summaries
2011 Storm Summaries
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December 26-27 Blizzard
Storm Updates during blizzard
A historic blizzard affected the NYC area during this time frame, bringing over 20 inches of snow to the immediate NYC area and strong wind gusts over 50-60 mph. Thundersnow was also associated with this storm. Smaller snow amounts fell further east, with generally 10-20 inches in Long Island, and anywhere between 4 inches to 2 feet of snow in the western parts of the area. New York City had its 6th biggest snowstorm in recorded history.
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December 1, 2010 Rain/Wind Event
An approaching cold front from the west drew in an unusually mild air mass, with high temperatures peaking in the lower to mid 60s in parts of the area. A wave of low pressure developed along this cold front and started to become negatively tilted, resulting in heavy rain and strong winds affecting the area. Winds gusted over 50 mph at times, with some wind damage a result of this storm, and heavy rain combined with the wind resulted in low visibility at times. Rainfall amounts were the lowest in the far eastern parts of the area, with anywhere between 0.35 and 0.60 inch of rain, with 3/4 to 1.5 inches of rain in the rest of the area.
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Thanksgiving 2010 Wintry Mix Event
Storm Updates during storm
A low pressure moved through the Great Lakes in this time frame, however with a high pressure in place earlier, cold air was trapped in the region, and as the front end of the storm moved through, with a small pocket of sub-freezing 850 mb temperatures, heavy snow developed from central to eastern Pennsylvania, where as much as 2-3 inches of snow were observed. Light to moderate snow fell west of NYC, with some sleet mixing with the rain in the immediate NYC area.
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November 8 Snow/Sleet Event
Full Storm Summary
A retrograding storm that was first expected to mainly affect Maine ended up southwest enough to affect the area, taking an unusual path by moving west towards Boston, then west southwest through Cape Cod and towards the waters off New Jersey, and with cold air trapped in the southwestern parts of the storm, it was able to produce snow and sleet in most of southern New England with some accumulations, and some snow and sleet even fell in the NYC area with marginal temperatures.
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Sept 30-Oct 1 Heavy Rain Event
A low pressure related to the remnants of Tropical Storm Nicole moved up the East Coast, and with a lot of tropical moisture available, produced extremely heavy rain from the Carolinas through the central Mid Atlantic into central New York State, bringing as much as 10 to 15 inches of rain in some places. The storm was expected to bring over 5 inches of rain to most of the NYC area, however it ended up being too far west, with amounts only between 2 and 4 inches in the immediate NYC area. Eastern Long Island ended up with less than 1 inch.
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July 19 - 25 Severe Weather Events
Up to the middle of July, other than a few days, 2010 has been relatively inactive in terms of severe weather, being hot and dry, with drought conditions already observed in parts of the area. During this time frame, however, several storms affected the area, which brought a very active week of severe weather.
The first event was on Monday, July 19, as a cold front moved through the area. During the morning hours, an intense, fast moving strong thunderstorm dumped heavy rain stretching from northeastern New Jersey, through southern Connecticut and into Cape Cod. A shelf cloud was observed in places that this storm affected. During the afternoon, strong thunderstorms affected the northern parts of the area, most notably in Orange County, NY, where storms dumped up to 6 inches of rain according to radar observations, and in northern Bergen county and southern Rockland county, where a severe thunderstorm caused strong wind gusts, heavy rainfall and hail.
Friday, July 23: Drier conditions returned once again on Thursday, however Friday once again continued with the activity, as a warm front moved through, resulting in a severe thunderstorm which brought a Tornado Warning to New York City. During the morning, a round of light rain moved through the northern parts of the area, where temperatures stayed in the mid 70s, while southern New Jersey quickly heated up, reaching the mid-upper 90s. By the late afternoon, an area of storms in northeastern Pennsylvania formed, with one of these storms producing a tornado in northeastern PA. The storm continued producing tornado warnings as it moved through northern New Jersey, moving southeast just south of the NJ/NY border. While no tornadoes were confirmed in that area, there was a long stretch of damaging wind reports sent from that area. The storm then entered southern Bergen county, as well as New York City and JFK before it moved offshore, when the tornado warnings were cancelled. This storm produced a lot of lightning, with as much as over 2,440 strikes in one hour, along with small hail and damaging wind gusts. Many places ended up without power from that storm from NW NJ to NYC.Saturday And Sunday, July 24-25: On Saturday, as the warm front stayed to the north of the area, temperatures quickly warmed up to the mid to occasionally upper 90s across the area, which combined with humidity, led to very hot conditions. The only relief came in the late overnight hours in the form of thunderstorms, however the line of storms split in northeastern PA, with one area of strong storms affecting southeastern NY and southern CT, and some light rain from western NJ to NYC.
The active pattern came to an end with yet another round of severe thunderstorms, this one also producing a tornado. The cold front that produced a very active Saturday for western NY/PA as well as the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes area moved through the area, temporarily ending the heat and humidity. The cold front's timing was a little too fast, placing the severe weather risk from NYC and further south, focusing in southern Pennsylvania, Maryland, the Delmarva peninsula, and southern New Jersey. A strong thunderstorm formed in northwestern New Jersey, moving southeast towards northeastern New Jersey. This storm cell intensified as it moved southeast, producing very heavy rainfall, with over 1 inch in less than 1/2 hour, as well as damaging wind gusts. Widespread wind damage was observed in northeastern New Jersey as wind gusts were as high as 60 mph, with widespread power outages. The storm was at its worst when it reached southern Westchester County, NY, as well as the Bronx, where an EF-1 tornado was confirmed by the NWS. This storm, however, was not tornado warned until it reached Long Island, and the tornado was only confirmed the following day. This storm later moved into Long Island, producing heavy rain and strong wind gusts in its path.Storm updates were posted for most of these storms while they were active, with links to these storm updates below:
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June 24 Severe Weather
After several days of warm to hot conditions, with temperatures in the 90s for several non-consecutive days, a cold front approached from the west, which temporarily ended the heat and the humidity. Conditions ahead of this cold front were favorable for a severe weather outbreak, including high CAPE and LI, and the higher wind shear was over the best parameters, something that was not seen many times this year. There were only a few clouds in the morning, which allowed for the atmosphere to destabilize, along with temperatures rising into the mid to upper 90s.
By the afternoon, two areas of storms from the west approached the area, which would cause most of this day's severe weather in the area. The first area of storms at first affected northeastern New Jersey with heavy rainfall and gusty winds around 2 PM. As soon as this storm crossed through Bronx and moved into Queens, it exploded into a severe storm producing hail up to 1.75" in size. From the severe weather reports observed that day, several hail reports were sent from this area, as well as damaging wind reports.
Not only was there widespread activity in the NYC area, but the rest of the region also saw severe thunderstorms, also focused on major cities. A severe storm moved through Philadelphia in the afternoon, bringing wind gusts up to 75 mph and hail. Boston and northern Massachusetts were also hit with severe thunderstorms, where many wind reports were observed. Overall, a total of 203 severe weather reports (possibly 204 depending on the possible Bridgeport tornado) were observed in the region on this day, an unusually high number for the Northeast.
Below I posted this day's reports, from the SPC website. As the map indicates, green represents hail reports, blue is wind reports, and red is tornado reports.
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April 24-27 Heavy Rain / Severe Weather
The first significant rainstorm of April affected the area during this time period, with rain amouts over 1.5 inch of rain across the area, some places seeing over 2 inches of rain. This also became a notable storm across the region, producing severe thunderstorms in the central and southern Mid Atlantic, with up to 2 feet of wet snow in the mountains of New England.
As the low pressure approached from our west, rain began picking up in intensity late on Saturday (April 24) night, with heavy rain falling until Sunday morning, when the first round of rain ended, bringing over an inch of rain to parts of the area. The warm front stalled to our south, keeping chilly conditions with rain and some thunder in the area, while severe thunderstorms affected the rest of the Mid Atlantic, most notably in Maryland, which had a large number of hail reports. Another round of rain affected the area on Monday afternoon, bringing up to an additional 1/2 inch of rain. The storm's rainfall exited the area on Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile, in the Northeast, the storm moved in on Monday night to Tuesday, and lasted until Wednesday the 28th, bringing heavy rain and mountain snow to the area. Even the lower elevations of that area reported accumulating snow. Snow amounts were generally in the 10-20 inch range in the higher elevations, though a few areas reached 2 feet of snow.
Below is a radar image of the storm on the night of April 25, when the rain entered the area, along with selected rain totals.
New York:Central Park: 2.34"
JFK: 2.37"
Islip: 2.08"
Newark: 1.85"
Teterboro: 2.08"
Caldwell: 2.39"
Connecticut:
Bridgeport: 1.54"
New Haven: 1.21"
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March 27-30 Rain Storm
Widespread heavy rain fell on the area during this time period, with rainfall amounts between 2 to as much as 7 inches out of this storm. Widespread rain began affecting the area on Sunday (March 28) night, with heavy rain falling across parts of the area. By Monday morning, rainfall amounts were between 3/4 inch to 2 inches. The heavy rain band then stalled over Long Island and Connecticut by the Monday afternoon, with those areas getting 2-4 inches of additional rainfall. Places further west, meanwhile, only had light rain, with rain totals less than 1/2 inch.
By Tuesday morning, the storm rapidly intensified offshore while moving towards the area. As a result, a widespread band of heavy rain affected Long Island and Connecticut along with the rest of the area in the morning and early afternoon hours. An additional 1 to 3 inches fell during the day on Monday. By Monday night, the rain ended across the area, with clouds starting to clear by Tuesday.
Below are some rain totals out of this storm, from NWS Upton's list of observations:
New York:
Lynbrook: 6.18"
Central Park: 4.38"
Harriman: 3.60"
Carmel: 3.15"
JFK: 4.52"
Riverhead: 8.83"
White Plains: 4.83"
New Jersey:
River Vale: 3.87"
Verona: 3.97"
Kearny: 3.79"
Hawthorne: 3.59"
Connecticut:
Shelton: 4.78"
Clinton: 5.67"
Wallingford: 5.75"
Mystic: 8.60"
