Snow Returns to New England- Winter ...

Snow Returns to New England- Winter Summary

BHO_Iacono_22Jan2011Blue Hill Observatory
Winter Summary, Dec-Feb 2012-2013:

The meteorological winter of 2012-2013 (Dec-Feb) was significantly warmer and
snowier than average. Although it started generally warm with little snow, the
winter turned colder during late January and early February, and February
included one of the greatest snowfalls on record at the Observatory.  The average mean temperature for winter corrected to 24 hours was 31.5 deg F, which was 2.5 deg warmer than the recent 1981-2010 30-year normal and 4.2 degrees warmer than the long-term 1891-2010 120-year mean. This was the 12th warmest winter on record and the warmest only since the winter of 2011-2012, which was the second warmest on record. The warmest daily maximum temperature during winter was 59 deg F on December 10th, January 14th and January 30th, and the coldest daily minimum temperature was 0 deg F on January 24th. Winter precipitation totaled 14.91 inches, which was 2.33 inches more

bho after march stormthan the 30-year normal and 1.61 inches more than the long-term mean.  This was the wettest winter only since 2010-2011, when 15.64 inches     was measured.  Winter snowfall got off to a slow start with only 15.5 inches total in Dec-Jan though it finished with 39.7 inches in February.  The winter total of 55.2 inches was about 10 inches more than the 30-year normal, and about a foot more than the long-term mean snowfall.

The February snowfall total was the fifth largest on record for the month, and this included a single snowstorm of 26.6 inches on the 8-9th, which was the third greatest snowfall on record in February and was, at the time, the fifth largest snowfall on record for any month.  The mean  wind speed for Dec-Feb was 13.7 mph, which tied for the third slowest mean speed for any winter on record. This wind speed is 1.4 mph less than the 30-year normal and 3.0 mph below the long-term mean winter wind speed. The peak wind gust during winter was  74 mph SSE on January  31st during a brief warm spell, and this included a peak fastest mile during winter of 62 mph SSE on the same day. Winter bright sunshine averaged    44 percent, which was about three percent less than average.