From my location in North Haven, I received just over 9 inches of snow on Saturday.  The precipitation started off as some graupel but then quickly turned over to snow for the remainder of the storm.  During the afternoon, the intensity really picked up and I received over two inches in just one hour!  There was a report of 11 inches in Wallingford, just one town north of me.  I ventured out in the snow to take my children sledding in North Branford and the roads were very slick. 

I have a weather station at my location and I monitored the temperature throughout the storm.  When it all began, the temp was 33° and then it dropped throughout the afternoon where it settled at 30°.

Not much melting happened on Sunday as the high temperature only reached 35°.  Luckily it was just enough so that the steps and walkway could be cleared and later melted down with some salt and sand.

I had a live feed from one of my webcams that captured the storm in great detail.  In fact, there was a wxedge member from Scotland that was watching the cam!  Any time there is a snowstorm or severe weather event, I will have my webcam live for the world to see. 

Bring on the next snowstorm!

Christmas morning becomes even more magical for our children if we get to see snow falling and a nice coating of white on all the trees and grass.  So the big question is will we get a white Christmas this year?  The answer is leaning towards yes as of right now!  If you are inland the chances are much higher that you'll see about an inch or two of snow Christmas morning.

For the shoreline it will depend on the temperatures.  If the temps are above freezing the snow won't stick and the white Christmas will be a no show.  The shoreline may also see rain mixing in with the snow in the morning which would also limit the accumulation.  

Please feel free to tweet me some photos Christmas morning if you received snow in your locale.  My twitter handle is @ctweathergeek.  

I just wanted to let everyone know that its going to be stormy tonight and tomorrow.  Heavy rain and strong winds are expected late tonight through tomorrow morning.  Minor flooding is possible with this storm so watch out in those poor drainage areas.  There will also be a chance for some thunderstorms.  1-2 inches of rain is expected.
The Winds are going to be very strong with gusts over 40 mph at times!  

ME?  I'll be geeking it up and monitoring the weather stats with my weather station.  I hope to be able to record some high wind gusts and rainfall rates from this system.  It's nights like these that are a little slice of weather geek heaven.  

Cheers!

1776 – During the American Revolution, Washington invaded Trenton NJ in a snowstorm where over 2 ft of snow fell in parts of Virginia and Maryland.  In Trenton, sleet and freezing rain was falling. 

2004 – Moderate to heavy snow fell in Connecticut on Christmas Eve.  The town of Killingly received 7 inches of snow.

1969 – A winter storm stalled over New England from December 25-28 and blanketed the Northeast with snow.  Albany received 26 inches and Burlington VT received 30 inches of snow!

1987 – Tucson AZ received 3 inches of snow giving them their first white Christmas since 1916!

1989 – Jacksonville, FL received several inches of snow on the 23rd and it stuck around long enough to give everyone a white Christmas in 1989!

The Geoff Fox story will be told on the Dr. Phil Show on Wednesday December 12th at 9:00AM on WTNH channel 8.  Don't miss it!

Why I Bought a Weather Station

Next month will be the 1 year anniversary of when I purchased my first weather station.  I started out buying a very economical one because I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy having one or not.  I never had one before and didn’t know what to expect.  The station was an Ambient WS-1090 which cost about $129 and had most of the same features as some of the $600 ones I’d seen while doing research.  Last January I set it up and started tracking the weather data from my home in North Haven, CT.  Working as a data analyst as my full time job, I work with numbers and data on a regular basis.  The data is much different but I found that collecting the weather data was an instant obsession. 

Setting up the station required a lot of research and care.  I needed to make sure that wherever I set it up, that it was securely in place so that any strong winds wouldn’t knock it over.  I also needed to make sure that it was facing the correct direction and that the temperature sensor was in a location that wouldn’t be affected by any extra sources of heat (like from a roof top). 

I had the Ambient station for about 8 months and during that time I was able to collect some remarkable data.  From high rainfall rates during strong thunderstorms to extreme high temperatures during the summer, I collected and saved this data and summarized it every month on this blog and on wxedge. 

While a lot of the data was great, there were also a lot of times that I needed to make adjustments to the station.  Comparing my data to other stations in a 5 mile radius of me, I noticed that my high temperatures were running about 3-5 degrees higher.  Also every week or two the software I was running to collect the data would malfunction and I would have to reset the station.  Sometimes I even had to go into my data logs and manually adjust readings because the malfunction would cause it to give outlandish readings such as 137° and -40°.  

In early September I decided that I was fed up with all the modifications and all the corrections I had to make in the data logs.  I wanted a station that I wouldn’t need to make constant adjustments to and one that would last me a very long time.  I also wanted one that would give me very accurate readings most importantly.  Now I have a Davis Vantage Pro 2 and I couldn’t be happier!  This station has never let me down once!  It was more costly than my old station but I think it was worth it. 

The data is very accurate and the product is made with top notch quality.  So far it survived super storm Sandy and the foot of snow that fell during the November 7th Nor’easter.  I always enjoy comparing my data with the data presented by the National Weather Service for locations close to my area. 

Comparing data isn’t the only use I have for the weather station.  I use it to notify local meteorologists of current conditions in North Haven during active weather.  They can then use my information to better inform the public of conditions in northern new haven county.  I have tweeted out rainfall rates, wind readings, rainfall totals and other specific details about the current conditions going on at my home.  Its fun to see in real time what is happening. I encourage anyone interested in the weather to go out and look into purchasing a station.  

The "weather experience" presented by NBC Connecticut was a blast last night!  There was a good turnout of weather enthusiasts who showed up to hear how NBC creates their weather forecasts.  Ryan Hanrahan and Brad Field were excellent hosts and shared amazing stories and taught us about their "exact track" weather forecasting models. 

There were also many youngsters who had the chance to stand in front of a "green screen" and do forecasts.  We also learned why the screen is green and what the technology is behind that.  I learned several things I didn't know and found the whole presentation very well organized and thought out.  

There was a trivia segment which was very fun.  Questions were asked about historic flooding, historic blizzards, and tornadoes!  Prizes were handed out for correct answers and NBC also gave out some free promotional material at the end.  

After the show concluded, Brad and Ryan stuck around to chat with weather geeks like myself and took pictures with fans and signed autographs.  It was a very fun night and encourage anyone interested in weather to check out the next show whenever that may come.

Here are some pictures I took at the show...

Attention weather geeks!  Tonight is your chance to see how NBC Connecticut makes forecasts, learn about the radars they use, and meet some of their meteorologists who broadcast! There will be trivia, prizes, and a green screen where you can pretend to give a forecast!  

I'll be there (@ctweathergeek) and I'm very excited to meet some of the meteorologists in the field.  Connecticut is not an easy state to forecast and there are many challenges when doing a forecast here.  For example, a winter storm is very complex and in a state like Connecticut you have several different regions that can see very different conditions.  The shoreline can see rain, inland might see significant snow, and other locales could see a mix.  One of the things I'll be looking forward to learning about is the dual polarization radars that they use!  

If you aren't busy tonight, then I invite you to come out to East Lyme High School at 30 Chesterfield Road and join me for a weather geek night of fun!  For more information on the event please click on this link for the NBC Weather Experience.  

My drive into work this morning was a lot foggier than I had thought it would be.  It wasn't bad enough to be dangerous but just enough to snap some really cool pictures.  Check out a few that I took on my way in to work this morning!  

November of 2012 will do down as one of the driest Novembers on record in Connecticut.  All .89” of precipitation was measured as snowmelt from two separate snow events last month.  Having two snow events so early in the season is also quite rare in Connecticut.

At my station in North Haven, I picked up 12 inches of snow from the Nov. 7th Nor’easter!

Last month was also the first time we had a month with below average temperatures in 20 months! The streak has ended! Check out Ralph Fato’s article about historical cool Novembers in Connecticut to really get a good idea as to how rare this November was!

The average high temperature for November is 52° and the average last month was 49.7° putting me over 2 degrees below normal for the month.  Average lows were right at the normal level at about 32°.

The warmest day of the month occurred on the 12th when we reached 67°.  The coldest day was on the 27th when it was only 35°.  The temperature failed to reach 50° for the last 7 days of November which helped push the average for the month into a net below normal range.

Here is a summary:

Montowese Station - 2 Mi SSE from North Haven Center

Temperature (°F):
Average Low       32.5°
Average High      49.7°
Monthly Low      22° on 11/08/2012
Monthly High     67° on 11/12/2012

Rainfall (in):
Total .89
Wettest day      .49”    11/08/12

Wind (mph):
Highest Gust     27 mph 

Barometric Pressure
Monthly High     30.70”    11/18/12
Monthly Low     29.52”     11/01/12    *was still recovering from Sandy*