Sorry for not updating lately, but there was nothing to talk about. Homework and school have been really tough this semester and I apologize for not having updated nearly as much as I have in the past. For far more regular updates, I highly recommend that you follow me on twitter- @stevectweather.
No storms are on the immediate horizon at this time, but certainly the odds look to increase by next weekend. Obviously that's still way, way out there and things will change, but the pattern looks to be locked and loaded for about a month and a half once we get through a week or so.
Thus, I'll do this for my winter snowfall predictions as we head into meteorological winter
BDL: 78.5"- this total would be 33" above average and the 7th snowiest winter on record
BDR: 56.5"
I'm going with these bullish forecasts because of the pattern setup. The winters that compare most to the current pattern are 2005-2006, which featured 69.9"...and 2010-11 which had 86.4" (and is the second snowiest on record). Thus, I'll go with a blend of the two results and obtain this value. Even if the 05-06 result verifies, we'd be knocking at the door of a top 10 year, so the outlook is promising for snow lovers.
Today...November 30, 2017...marks the end of what has been a downright historic and devastating hurricane season that will be remembered forever alongside the other great hurricane seasons of 1995, 2004, and 2005. The final totals for this hyperactive year were (barring some December weirdness) 17 named storms...10 hurricanes...6 major hurricanes...and 2 category 5's (this is just the 6th year ever recorded that this has happened). Also, Jose was literally 1mph shy of cat 5 intensity as well, so we were extremely close to having this become just the second year ever to have three category 5 storms.
Needless to say, the most memorable storms this year were Harvey, Irma, and Maria. All three of these names will undoubtedly be retired and replaced by the time this list is reused six years from now in the 2023 Atlantic Hurricane Season. Here in CT, we were impacted indirectly by Tropical Storm Philippe, which ended up producing a powerful hurricane-type storm over CT and did a massive amount of damage on October 29.
Many records were set this season including: Most damaging season on record by USD ($369 billion), 2nd longest time consecutively spent as a category 5 hurricane (Irma, 3 days), strongest hurricane over the open Atlantic (Irma, 914mb), strongest April tropical cyclone (Arlene, 990mb), 2nd highest windspeed in the Atlantic basin in a hurricane (Irma, 185mph), fastest time from a tropical depression to a category 5 hurricane (Maria, 30 hours), tied for the 9th most active season on record by named storms (17), longest time a hurricane has had sustained winds greater than or equal to 185 mph (Irma, 37 hours), and the big one that many (myself included) thought would never fall- costliest tropical cyclone on record: Harvey ($198 billion), passing Katrina by a wide margin.
What a year. Let's hope 2018 is significantly less active. As for my preseason prediction review, I went 15-7-4...that actually was pretty close! I'll take it!
Today we say goodbye to meteorological fall and hello to winter. Have fun with the snow. I'll update here when a significant storm is on the horizon. Until then!
