Blizzard Is Biggest Snow Producer in Six Years
BOSTON (CBS) -- 18.2 inches…The official tally at Boston's Logan Airport.
This storm immediately becomes the biggest snow producer in nearly six years! The last time Boston had more snow in one single storm was January 22-24th in 2005, which just happens to be the last time we had an official blizzard in Boston.
Boston turned in one of the highest totals of any city or town from this storm, beaten only by some towns like Lynn and Saugus on the North Shore who will top out close to 20 inches. Just about everyone got somewhere between 10 and 20 inches except for some spots well to the north and west where snow fell a bit lighter and in southeastern Massachusetts where the snow mixed with and changed to rain.
Forecast: What's Next?
But it will not be snowfall that this storm will be remembered for. This was perhaps one of the worst episodes of coastal flooding since 1978.
Many folks up and down the coastline in locations such as Hull, Quincy, Gloucester, Rockport and Scituate remarked that they had never seen flooding this bad before.
The early morning high tide, just after 3 a.m., had somewhere in the vicinity of a three-foot storm surge with waves just offshore between 20 and 30 feet. Many were forced to evacuate their homes as the ocean rushed in and washed out many shore roads.
The seas were churned up by a very deep ocean storm, in fact the pressure was so low it resembled that of a hurricane. The extreme low pressure caused the oceans to come alive with unreal waves. That combined with hurricane force winds to wreak havoc along our shoreline. Winds gusted to 80 mph Wellfleet and 79 mph in Orleans. Even locations well inland could not escape the winds, nearly everyone experienced gusts of 40 to 50mph.
View Gallery: Your Storm Pictures
The snow may be ending but there are still some concerns, this storm is not done with us yet. First we have a high tide around 4:45 p.m. We are not as concerned with this high tide mainly because the winds have shifted to an offshore direction. There will still be very large waves and some coastal flooding, especially in the inner Cape Cod Bay.
Winds continue to howl and will do so through this evening. A high wind warning remains in effect until midnight for winds gusting from 25 to 50mph. We will see a gradual decrease in winds overnight and much more reasonable winds on Tuesday.
I think when all is said and done this storm will rank among the most intense and destructive of our lifetime, especially for those along the coast. A storm of this magnitude only comes around once every five to 10 years as far as snow is concerned and perhaps once every 25 years in regards to the coastal flooding.
