Blizzard may be one for the record books

Fred Campagna

12 years ago

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The potentially paralyzing blizzard of 2013 was already taking shape over the Mid-Atlantic states on Thursday night. It will move north toward Southern New England before turning east and passing south of Nantucket on Friday night. The storm will slow near Nantucket and may wobble a bit before heading out to sea late Saturday. The conditions are ripe for an epic snow storm in Southern New England. Winds will likely gust to hurricane force near the coast, and snowfall rates of 2-3″ per hour are possible. Some of the snow bands may be so intense that thunder and lightning occur Friday night.

The combination of a very intense, slow-moving storm with a copious moisture feed from the tropics means that most of Southern New England will see one of the all-time great snowstorms in the past 100+ years. 18″ final totals will be widespread, and some places may top 2 feet! The snow will be wind-driven and difficult to measure. Drifts of five feet or more may occur. Power outages are likely due to the combination of strong winds and very heavy snow.

Snow will develop by late Friday morning, and it will get heavy by mid to late Friday afternoon. The heaviest snow in RI is likely to occur between sunset Friday and sunrise Saturday. 16-20″ of snow could fall in that roughly 12 hour period.

It appears the only chance for a prolonged period of mixed precipitation or rain is on Cape Cod and the islands Friday afternoon and evening. Even in those areas, the backlash snow late Friday night into Saturday should pile up to about a foot. Initially, the temperature will be marginal for snow in all of Southern New England, with highs on Friday in the low to mid 30s. As the storm progresses, and particularly by late Friday evening, colder air will start to wrap into the storm. That will drop the temperature into the 20s near the coast, and possibly all the way into the teens inland by dawn on Saturday. The temperature will not warm much at all during the day Saturday.

The strongest winds from the storm will occur Friday night into Saturday morning, but it will be windy near the coast by mid to late afternoon Friday, and it will stay windy near the coast into Sunday night. The temperature will drop into the single digits Sunday night as skies clear.

Peak wind gusts by location

70-85 mph Nantucket
70-85 mph Cape Cod
60-75 mph Block Island
55-70 mph New Bedford
50-65 mph Newport
50-60 mph Boston
50-60 mph Providence
45-55 mph Northern RI

Storm Impacts

Travel will be treacherous from late Friday afternoon through at least mid-morning Saturday in RI. The poor travel conditions as a result of snow/wind will continue most of the day on the Eastern MA coast. Because of the huge snow totals, road crews may have a difficult time clearing even the main highways before Sunday morning. Airports in Boston and Warwick are likely to be shut down Friday night through at least midday Saturday.

The snow storm that is bearing down on Southern New England may not be the biggest on record, but it has strong potential to be in a select group near the top of the list. Of course, the Blizzard of 1978 is widely regarded as the biggest Southern New England snow storm of the past 100 years, and it paralyzed the region for days when it dumped a widespread two to three feet of snow. The second storm on the list for Providence was not that long ago. The January 2005 Blizzard produced nearly two feet of snow, with hurricane force winds and drifts that were several feet high. Third on the Providence list of top 10 all-time snow storms was in January of 1996, with nearly two feet in Providence. After that, there is not a single storm that has dropped more than 20 inches on Providence since 1905.