The storm that was much to do about nothing for most of New England (parts of Connecticut did get over a foot of snow) this past week did get its act together eventually. The storm continued to strengthen after zipping to New England's south.
By Wednesday morning, the storm's central pressure had dropped to around 950mb. For comparison, a 950mb central pressure is common in many category 2 and 3 hurricanes. At this time, the storm was lashing the Canadian Province of Newfoundland, just northeast of Nova Scotia.
The storm once again brought blizzard conditions and very heavy snowfall to Atlantic Canada after a storm stalled out the previous week, lashing parts of Nova Scotia with up to 60 inches of snow. As the most recent storm raced by the province on Tuesday, up to 20 inches of snow fell. Parts of Cape Breton in Nova Scotia have been reported to have seen nearly 80 inches of snow over the past two weeks.
The storm continued to move away from Nova Scotia, strengthening as it did. The storm slowed down and lashed Newfoundland with blizzard conditions over the course of about two and a half days. By Friday afternoon, the storm had dropped a total of 34 inches of snow on the town of Gander. Winds peaked at 90mph during the storm.
The train of major storms isn't done with Atlantic Canada yet. A storm system passing well south of New England this morning bringing the south coast a quick dusting to 2 inches will strengthen and hit Newfoundland tonight into Sunday, bringing up to 10 additional inches of snow to the area by tomorrow night.
Forecast animation showing a storm passing to New England's south today before strengthening and working toward Newfoundland by Sunday:
Coming back to New England, what much of Atlantic Canada is dealing with in 2024 is similar to the 2015 snow blitz that hammered New England with four major snowstorms in a three week period. The 2015 snow blitz occurred from January 26 through February 15.
The four storms that struck during this time dropped a total of 77 inches of snow on Boston over the course of just under 3 weeks. The city smashed its previous 30 day snow record after seeing 94.4 inches. The previous record was 58.8 inches. The snow blitz would go on to give Boston it's snowiest winter on record.
After Boston's Logan Airport picked up just 0.1 inches of snow on February 13th, we wanted to see just how long it's been since the city's official measuring station picked up a decent snowfall. We looked through daily records from the National Weather Service and found that the city's last 6 inch snowfall came 723 days ago, on February 25th, 2022.
The last time the saw city saw at least a foot was on January 29, 2022 during the Blizzard of 2022. The city saw nearly 2 feet during this storm and broke into the top 10 biggest snowfalls on record. That was exactly 750 days ago as of February 17th, 2024. Nearly 4 inches of snow fell on the city earlier this year. This has led to quite a gap between the last time the city saw at least 3 inches and 6 inches.
For this weekend, the weather will be unsettled for New England as the region remains under broad cyclonic flow. This will create scattered snow showers Saturday afternoon. While the setup isn't great for widespread snow squalls, some snow showers could become heavier, resulting in a quick dusting and briefly reduced visibilities.
Expected weather around mid-afternoon Saturday:
Sunday will be quieter, but the breeze will return. Another disturbance will cross to New England's north Sunday night, bringing another round of scattered snow showers. Much of next week will be quiet and seasonable for states that are on school vacation week.