Welcome to the end of the snow season. The first half of November was very warm, and while I got some snow after then, it didn't last long.
The first third of December was warm, the second seasonable but brought me a substantial storm with temperatures right around freezing. The result was wet snow that caused extensive power and airline problems. The last featured a storm that brought me snow that changed to heavy rain, wind and a 51°F high temperature on the 23rd but only 14°F the next day. Weather maps as the storm reached us were very similar to the Midwest's Blizzard of January 1978. Nationally, the storm brought more power and airline problems for people traveling for Christmas. I had to shutdown my computer for the first time in 15 months during a 2.5 hour outage.
January was warm, ten days with highs 40.0°F and just one below 10.0°F. The last third brought eight snow events, but two near the start of the last third brought most (20.8") of the month's snow. The rest were less than 3.5". Bare ground on the 19th set the stage for a short period of continuous snow cover
Early February brought a day or so of frigid temperatures with lows near -17°F, but it also brought two warm days that were in the 50's. The eight snow events were all smaller than 4.5". Ultimately, only 11.2" of snow. Bare ground on the 19th-21st reset the stage for a short period of continuous snowcover.
March featured a couple decent snowfalls, one in mid-month was wet, heavy, and knocked out my power for 5.7 hours.
Last year I transplanted many daffodils and bought a bunch of crocuses. The daffodils are on a south facing hillside behind a new retaining wall. One variety that is a late bloomer but has multiple flower heads appears to be an early sprouter and sprouted early in December. They managed to be under a snow blanket for the sub-zero days and have pretty much survived a little browsing by a deer and physical damage by deer feet and wet snow. The rest of the daffodils waited for a more sensible time to sprout, as did the crocuses. After the big mid-March snowstorm I was ready for spring to see those flowers enjoy spring too.
The crocuses bloomed near the end of March, the daffodils started in mid-April after a few hot days. Then cool and very wet weather kept the blooms out for quite a while.
| Location | October | November | December | January | February | March | April | May | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Snow | SDD | Snow | SDD | Snow | SDD | Snow | SDD | Snow | SDD | Snow | SDD | Snow | SDD | Snow | SDD | |
| Ashland MA | ||||||||||||||||
| Fairhaven MA | 0.1 | 0 | 3.7 | 5 | 5.3 | 5 | 0.2 | 2 | ||||||||
| Pepperell MA | 1 | 0 | 5.8 | 10 | 19.9 | 85 | 12.9 | 62 | 22.4 | 100 | ||||||
| Bow NH | 1.6 | 1 | 10.2 | 43 | 32.8 | 195 | 11.3 | 276 | 31.9 | 495.5 | 0 | 36 | ||||
| Bristol NH | 2.1 | 2.5 | 16.3 | 83.4 | 26.7 | 164.5 | 13.8 | 193 | 23.4 | 168.5 | 2.5 | 2 | ||||
| Sutton Mills NH | 1.9 | 2 | 15.6 | 73 | 29.9 | 161 | 11.2 | 148 | 28.6 | 212.5 | 0 | 0.5 | ||||
| Location | Snowfall | Depth Days | Persistence Quotient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ashland MA | 0 | 0 | ... |
| Fairhaven MA | 9.3 | 12 | 1.3 |
| Pepperell MA | 62 | 257 | 4.1 |
| Bow NH | 87.8 | 1046.5 | 11.9 |
| Bristol NH | 84.8 | 613.9 | 7.2 |
| Sutton Mills NH | 87.2 | 597 | 6.8 |
The CoCoRaHS column is the "station number" registered at Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network, an organization founded to create a much denser network of precipitation data than the National Weather Service entities can provide. One of these years I might look into downloading CoCoRaHS data each month and add that data here.
| Name | Location | CoCoRaHS |
|---|---|---|
| Dennis Bollea | Fairhaven MA | |
| Steve Gunn | Bristol NH | NH-GR-1 |
| Jim Hilt | Bow NH | NH-MR-4 |
| Jot Ross | Ashland MA | |
| Paul Venditti | Pepperell MA | |
| Ric Werme | Sutton Mills NH | NH-MR-63 |
I think depth days is a great statistic, and I'm surprised that it is catching on slowly outside of the NE Weather Spotters mail list. I never expected that the NWS would embrace it quickly, but I had hoped that TV meteorologists would start using it, in monthly summaries, if nothing else. It would be nice if ski areas would use it, but they may not wish to if they are not likely to be #1 consistently. (And if only one area reports depth days, it would not be a good comparative statistic.)