Please note that this will be my last post until January 9th, barring some unforseen storm as I will be in Disney World from Monday to Saturday next week.
On that note...we get to do our annual recap post today as the sands of time continue to roll through the years. Farewell to 2016!
First things first though- the actual forecast for the next week. Stay safe this morning- black ice has developed overnight and the roads are a mess- take it slow! For the most part, it's really not too bad but...there could be some mixed precipitation in the area right as the ball drops tomorrow night. It won't accumulate at all but...it will make standing in Times Square a bit miserable. I cannot rule out some snow showers today but I am not too worried about them- maybe an inch can accumulate in the heaviest ones. Beyond that, Monday is the trouble spot as icy weather is expected with some freezing rain in the morning hours...before it transitions to just regular rain by the afternoon. Tuesday looks to be a total washout but Wednesday looks stunning, with highs in the 50s(!) and sunny skies. The next chance for a significant snowstorm doesn't look like it falls until around 1/10, so enjoy the next bit of time with limited frozen precip!
Now to look back on 2016-
We were bone dry this year...although we have made some progress since mid-October, most of the state is still in a significant drought.
The most notable event of January was without a doubt Blizzard Ana, the biggest snowstorm of the calendar year. Although this was much more significant in areas just to our south- New York got nearly 3ft(!), it still proved quite a mess, added to by the fact that it was not expected to have a major impact until about 12 hours before the snow started. The result was that much of southern Connecticut picked up around a foot of the white stuff. Otherwise, the month was a great indicator of the snowless, mild winter of 2015-16. Also noteworthy was the formation of Hurricane Alex in the Azores- the furthest northeast hurricane ever recorded- and it happened in the dead of winter. That's just weird.
February was much the same, though one significant snowfall was experienced thanks to Winter Storm Barbara on the 6th, which dropped roughly 10" of snow on our area. Another system struck the following Monday with around another 6", but then the active pattern ended with some record cold- temperatures dropped to -15(!!!) the following weekend- and then the snow dried up for another month and a half.
March was a very routine month here in Connecticut, again notable for its' extreme lack of precipitation and modest temperatures. Despite that, there was a roughly 2-5" snowfall on the Vernal Equinox...as well as pretty nice weather for Easter with temps in the low 60s.
April started with quite the shock, with back-to-back 2-4" snowfalls resulting in the snowiest April since 1997...but we quickly moderated things beyond that and continued to have a dry spell. It rained some to be sure- but not nearly as much as it should have been for that time of year.
May was highlighted by unseasonably cool temperatures and a brief threat around Memorial Day from what would ultimately become Tropical Storm Bonnie, but a rain event caused the hot dogs of the holiday itself to be quite wet.
June was also a routine month in the weather world, with perhaps the most notable event being a moderate rainfall at the end of the month. As can be expected that time of year, there were several days with pop up showers, but those were few in nature and scattered widely...not doing much damage to the drought, which by this point had exceeded 6" for the state.
July featured some hot weather as you would expect, with a few days nearing or touching 100 in the beginning of the month, which would prove to feature above average temperatures for the majority of the month, but also included a severe outbreak of sorts on July 3, but the bark was worse than the bite that time...alarmingly, the month was still dry...expanding the drought.
August proved to include a very noteworthy event in which a tornado struck North Haven, downing a number of trees and power lines on an otherwise rather stormy but not severe day...it was essentially that one cell that wound up with a quick spin-up, illustrating the difficulties of forecasting severe weather.
September's most notable event was the impacts we felt from Hurricane Hermine, which crossed Florida and moved up the coast, prompting Tropical Storm Warnings for our area for the first time in five years...but the system jogged just far enough to our east and spared us the most significant impacts. By the end of the month, we finally began to dent the drought but not nearly to the extent we needed to, and water levels were approaching record low levels here.
October's most notable event meteorologically was a storm that will long live in infamy...not here necessarily (although it certainly gave us mets quite a fright in the early part of the month) and that of course was Hurricane Matthew, which killed over 1,000 people in Haiti before paralelling the Florida coast within about 20 miles, finally making landfall in South Carolina at category 1 intensity, but it had once been the first category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic in nine years. Undoubtedly, this is one name that will be retired from the basins name list...with Earl being another possibility...we'll know in the spring. Also, Hurricane Nicole struck Bermuda directly at category 4 intensity, but the sure recipe for disaster never really materialized to the extent feared. The seasons' first snowfall occurred on Halloween for many.
November was highlighted by a bit of drought busting rain- not nearly enough to erase the whole thing, but we did make a dent in it- as well as parts of Litchfield County picking up a foot of lake effect snow, a remarkably strange and rare event on November 20. Thanksgiving here was quite wet as well, causing some travel difficulties.
Finally, December will go into the record books as the most "typical" December in recent years, breaking the warm streak of the last two years, which included Winter Storm Albie, the first December named storm since Ashford in 2013. Several other wintry precip events occurred as well, including a close call to a monster storm yesterday, while Christmas Day proved to be pretty nice but not quite white for most as much of Albie's snow melted in a rainstorm on Xmas Eve.
All in all, with the exception of a very few events, it was a forgettable year here, which is not necessarily a bad thing by any means. Overall, it has been a crazy year worldwide overall, but this is the time of year to look forward as well. It's been a pleasure to be blogging here for my third year, and I will continue as well as we begin our 2017. Have a very, very happy new year and first week of '17. See you on the 9th!
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