If you were up late last night, you might be wondering what the heck happened.

For much of the evening, heavy rainfall drenched the Bay State, while winds out of the east gusted between 45-55 MPH. Here in Hingham, our peak gust was 46 MPH just before 11 PM. Then, during the 11 PM hour, the winds sort of backed off, and the rain rapidly decreased in intensity. Why the sudden change? The center of a very powerful low was moving nearby.

Anyone watching the radar saw the “eye” of the storm coming, and anyone watching their barometer’s CERTAINLY saw it coming. Just before 11 PM, pressures sank rapidly to 28.72″ in Hingham. That is similar to pressures observed in a category 2 hurricane! The last time the pressure was so low locally was in 1995. Within about 30 minutes, however, the barometers started to climb back up, and winds again were gusty.

The surface map above is from 11:43 PM, showing the low centered across Southeastern Massachusetts (remember, winds around lows spin counter-clockwise, and the barbs above point in the direction from which the wind is blowing).

The storm then continued to push westward, until it landed and stalled in New York, dumping heavy snow in New York, Northeastern Pennsylvania and parts of New Jersey. In fact, the foot-plus snow from this storm that blanketed Central Park helped push the Park into its snowiest month since records have been kept (dating back to 1869).

The bottom line is that this storm was, in a sense, a winter hurricane. It will remain stalled to our west for the next few days, leading to more scattered, hit and miss rain and snow showers before it eventually spins itself out over the weekend.

Storm 1 Review: The first storm of this unsettled week moved in with showers late Tuesday, and continued to bring periods of heavy rain into Eastern Massachusetts on Wednesday. While rain fell here at the coast, heavy snow fell well inland before also changing to rain. Snow totals in the highest elevations of Western Massachusetts reached 10-20″. The wet snow led to at least 14,000 power outages.

Storm 2 Review: The second storm moved in right on the heals of the first, spreading rain into the area during the day on Thursday. The rain became very heavy during the afternoon and evening. At the same time, winds became very gusty. Here in Hingham winds gusted to 46 MPH, knocking down a tree at the intersection of Main and Friend Streets. Power was also knocked out for a time in South Hingham. At Logan Airport, gusts briefly reached as high as 60 MPH! The other major story was the very low barometric pressure. Pressure dropped to 28.72″ late Thursday night as the center of the storm passed just to our South. That is equal to the pressure in a category two hurricane!

The storm that moved up from New York on Tuesday arrived early in the morning with periods of snow. The snow slowed down a bit by mid morning, and even mixed with rain for a time in Eastern Massachusetts.

Heavier snow spiraled through the region during the afternoon, giving us most of our accumulating snow. Overall, the forecast played out well across most of the state, although the 6-9″ forecast zone should have extended farther East as opposed to West.

This winter has been anything but normal so far. While most of New England has experienced a snow drought since the New Year, the Mid-Atlantic has been creamed by several record breaking snowstorms. In many Mid-Atlantic cities, seasonal snowfall totals are 4-5 times what one winter typically brings! The scary thing is that winter is not over yet. Here’s a summary of how much snow has fallen so far, compared to the average snowfall values through February.

January 2010 began on the chilly side, with highs only in the 20s and low 30s through mid-month. The chill retreated for a January thaw thereafter, allowing temperatures to soar well into the 50s for a bit. In fact, a daily record high of 58 was recorded by National Weather Service observer Robert Skilling in North Hingham on the 25th. Just as it looked like winter may not return, it came rushing back in to end the month with some of the coldest air of the season to date.

In the end, the average afternoon high this month was 36.3. The average high for January is 36.2, so the big warm and cold swings basically cancelled each other out to create an average month on paper.

For nearly 62 years Mount Washington has boasted about it’s record 231 MPH measured wind gust. However, the World Meteorological Organization declared last week that a 253 MPH wind gust on Barrow Island, Australia now holds the official record.

The 253 MPH gust took place back in 1996 during Typhoon Olivia, and has only now been officially verified.

Mount Washington’s gust was recorded on April 12, 1934.

Monday’s storm certainly delivered on its warm, wet, and windy potential. Here is a full recap of the storm.

The Rain: Showers advanced into the area Sunday evening, and remained fairly light and scattered into Monday morning. The heaviest rain came in around midday through the mid-afternoon hours. During that time, pockets of street and small stream flooding developed. Most locations picked up 1-2″ of rain as expected, with a few locations seeing a tad more due to passage of embedded heavier downpours.

The Wind: Gusty winds brought down a few trees and power lines, with isolated outages reported just outside of Boston. Gusts generally ranged from 45-55 MPH in Eastern Massachusetts.

The Temperatures: Record, to near record, temperatures were also drawn into this storm. The high in Hingham was 58, the warmest for this date in at least 50 years here in town!

General Storm Recap: The weekend storm that moved up from the Gulf of Mexico was a quick mover, and was loaded with tropical moisture. Rainfall began during the late afternoon hours of Sunday, continued heavily at times overnight, and changed to snow before ending during the midday hours of Monday.

Rain: The precipitation with this storm started as rain everywhere late Sunday, but transitioned to snow overnight and during Monday morning. Before that transition nearly 1.80″ of rain fell in Hingham. The heavy rain caused some flooding on area roads as many storm drains are still snow covered, but also helped to reduce our snowpack.

Snow: Cold air worked in to change the rain over to snow. The snow was of the heavy and wet variety though, as temperatures hovered around freezing. The near-freezing temperatures also allowed sleet and freezing rain to mix in with the snow at times. Snowfall was heaviest well North and West of Boston, while hardly any snow fell to the South and East of the city (just 0.5″ in Hingham, for example). Actual snowfall totals are shown below in black, on top of the forecasted amounts indicated in white. All in all the snowfall forecasted worked out well in most locations.

Wind: The storm’s close pass to us also brought gusty winds early Monday. Peak gusts reached 39 MPH in Hingham, but gusts in the 45-55 MPH range were found in spots from Boston right on down through the Cape and Islands. Scattered power outages were reported due to the combination of high winds and heavy snow, especially in the in the Merrimack Valley, but a few power lines were also reported down in Hingham (on Lazell Street).

The National Hurricane Center is increasing the lead time for Tropical Storm and Hurricane advisories. The tropical advisory lead time will increase 12 hours this year, making the lead time for a Tropical Storm or Hurricane Watch 48 hours and the lead time for a Tropical Storm or Hurricane Warning to 36 hours. Forecasters attribute the increase to advances in track forecasting.

At its peak, this weekend’s powerful ocean storm had barometric pressure of 28.72″. That is about the pressure found in a Category 2 hurricane! Although we missed the “heart” of the storm, we still found ourselves with a foot of snow. Here is a full review of the storm.

Sunday Storm Review

Snowfall: Another 3-5″ of snow fell across Eastern Massachusetts during the day, including 3.5″ here in Hingham. That brought weekend snowfall totals to nearly a foot in many towns. See the map below for accumulations near your town versus the forecasted totals.

Coastal Flooding: Another astronomically high tide just before 1 PM on Sunday led to more minor to moderate coastal flooding from Salem down through Hingham and Weymouth. As was the case Saturday, Rockland and Kilby Streets in Hingham were closed for a time as the tides came in.

Saturday Storm Review

Snowfall: Snow fell at a light to moderate clip for much of Saturday, and piled up to 4-6″ in most parts of Eastern Massachusetts. A few locations, including us here in Hingham, picked up closer to 7-9″ as heavier snow bands set up across portions of the South Shore early in the morning.

Wind: The huge coastal storm sitting offshore started to strengthen rapidly late in the day, and winds picked up as a result by evening wind gusts reached 41 MPH in Hingham. Those gusts brought down some limbs, including one which fell on South Pleasant Street in Hingham. That limb landed on some wires which required attention from Hingham Light.

Coastal Flooding: Midday tides were astronomically high, and the high surf from the storm offshore ensured minor to moderate coastal flooding from Salem to Weymouth to Hingham, Hull, and Scituate. Here in Hingham Rockland and Kilby Streets were both closed to high water around noon. See pictures of the flooding here.