Snow-Gripped in New England, Wet in the West, and Toasty in Between

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2913

By: Bob Henson , 3:44 PM GMT on February 09, 2015

The pincers of a warm-west/cold-east pattern took hold of the nation once again this weekend, and the contrast should only intensify over the next few days. The most dangerous weather unfolded across the far West to Northwest--with high wind and heavy rain--and over New York and New England, where the latest in a procession of winter storms is adding to snowfall totals measured in feet, not inches.

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A relentless string of snowy storms is giving New England a midwinter of accumulations that could crush numerous records. Boston set a new mark on Monday for the most snow observed in a 30-day period. The city’s Logan International Airport recorded 61.6” from January 10 through 7 am EST on February 9, beating the previous 30-day record of 58.8” that fell from January 9 through February 7 during the infamous winter of 1978. The 2014-15 season needs to exceed 73.4” to make the city’s top-ten snowiest winters. As of 7 am EST Monday, Boston's seasonal total stood at 66.3". With another 2.5" of snow from Sunday's storm, the snow depth at Bangor, Maine hit 53 inches at 7 am EST Monday morning, which ties their all-time snow depth record set on Feb. 27 - Mar. 1, 1969. Bangor's average snow depth for February 9 is just 8.5 inches.

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The contrast between the Northeast and the rest of the contiguous U.S. was especially sharp on Sunday, as many states from the mid-Atlantic to the Rockies basked in unseasonable mildness. Record daily highs were set or tied from Washington D.C. (68°F) to Salt Lake City (64°, its fourth daily record in a row). Salt Lake City is running close to 20°F above average for the first eight days of February, and hit 68° on both Friday and Saturday--by far the their earliest-in-year 68-degree highs ever recorded, and just one degree shy of their all-time February record of 69°, set on February 28, 1972.

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While the temperatures above are far more pleasant than the brutal conditions in New England, they’re actually more extreme when set against local averages for early February. The latest statistics from NOAA bear out the fact that 2015 has been on the mild, dry side for the lower 48 as a whole. Last month was the 24th warmest and 18th driest January in 121 years of record-keeping, according to NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center. Record highs and lows paint an even more stark picture. NCDC’s records page showed on Sunday that for the year to date, the nation had seen 2040 daily record highs but just 360 daily record lows. The ratio is even more lopsided for monthly highs (198) vs. monthly lows (4).

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