Eastern New England Snows One For the Record Books?

The current "view" out a window near
Acadia National Park, Maine.  

Until mid-January, southern and eastern New England were having a rather lackluster snow year this year.

No more. As anybody who has glanced at the news knows, since January 24 or so, this has been one incredible snow year.

Maine is particularly impressive.

The state had been sort of on the snowy side earlier this winter,  but other than a very odd and early season snowstorm in early November, it wasn't anything special.

Some areas near Bangor have around 40 inches of snow on the ground. (Much more has fallen, but snow on the ground always settles quite a bit.)

As far as measuring the snow, Bangor has had 87.2 inches of snow so far this winter, as of yesterday. That's a full,   incredible 50 inches more than they normally have by February 2. Since January 24,  -- just nine days-- Bangor has had 43.6 inhes of snow.

It's even more impressive up in Eastport, on the far eastern tip of Maine. That city has clocked in with 76 inches of snow since January 24. That's more than six feet of snow in nine days. I bet snow shovelers in the fine city of Eastport have really, really sore backs.

The National Weather Service in Caribou, Maine says these and other snowfall totals are in record territory. 

Thankfully, in Maine, the snowstorms have featured light and fluffy snow, not wet and heavy, so there have been few if any reports of roof collapses, the Bangor Daily News says. 

South of Maine, down in Massachusetts, there's less snow, as you would expect, but things are impressive for them.  Boston has clocked in with its snowiest seven-day period on record, with 34.2 inches. Wakefield, Mass. has had 53.5 inches of snow since Jan. 24.

Boston's snowfall for the week might be a record, as far as detailed climatological data goes back into the 1880s.

Heavy snow falling on Portland, Maine again on Monday.
Photo by Robert Bukaty/AP  

But the huge Boston area snows might not be unprecedented. The New England Weather Book, written by the late David Ludlum, mentions a similar weather pattern to this one way back in 1717.

Two very large snowstorms, and two midsized ones hit eastern New England between February 27 and March, 7, 1717, says Ludlum.

Precise measurements aren't available, but reportedly accumulations reached four feet deep in Andover, Mass and three feet in what is now Dorchester, Mass.

Snow was five feet deep, with drifts to 14 feet on the Post Road to New Hampshire and Maine, Ludlum writes. Since they didn't have Interstate highways and giant snowplows in those days, nobody went anywhere for weeks.

Nowadays, things are inconvenient, but they've managed to remove enough snow to allow for the New England Patriots Superbowl Championship parade in Boston tomorrow. Though it was delayed a day because of the weather. 

There have been pockets of incredible snowfall in different parts of the nation this year. Areas south of Buffalo, New York had that epic lake effect snow in November that dropped up to six feet of snow in less than a week.

At one point in January, Amarillo, Texas had had twice as much snow at that point in the winter as normally Arctic Fargo, North Dakota.

But most areas have had, so far, not an epic snow winter. Even places not far from Boston and Bangor, like western and northern New England, aren't exactly drowning in snow.

Through midnight last night, Burlington's snowfall this season is 59.6 inches. That's 14 inches above normal, but far from a record pace.

Snow depth in the mid and upper elevations of northern Vermont is now generally between 15 and 30 inches. That's pretty good, but certainly nothing out of the ordinary for early February.

Of course, the weather pattern remains extremely active in the Northeast, with frequent bouts of very cold weather and frequent snows through mid-February at least.

It's hard to predict which ones, if any, of the constant parade of Alberta Clippers coming in from the west will blow up on the New England coast into major snowstorms like recent ones have, or will just drop a trail of light snow as they pass through.

The next Alberta Clipper to come through will do so Wednesday and Thursday. Yesterday, the European computer models suggested this will develop into a pretty good snowstorm in eastern New England. The American models said, nah, just a few flurries.

Today, the American models are coming around to the idea of a few to several inches of snow in eastern Massachusetts on Thursday.  At this point, Thursday doesn't look like a blockbuster in terms of snow.

But where do you put a few inches of snow, when there's already several feet on the ground?