President’s Day 2003 Major Snow Storm SKYWARN Activation Report
President's
Day Major Snow Storm SKYWARN Activation Report from February 17th and 18th,
2003
by:
Robert Macedo, KD1CY, ARES SKYWARN Coordinator for NWS Taunton
The
President's Day Snow Storm was one of the more historic major snow
storms
to hit Southern New England in the past few years. The storm
was
well forecasted by NWS Taunton Meteorologists and its impact was
felt
from Virginia and Washington DC through Philadelphia, New York
City,
Hartford CT, Providence RI, Springfield, Worcester and Boston,
Massachusetts.
The storm brought a period of blizzard or near blizzard
conditions
to coastal areas and brought snow drifts of up to 4 feet to
the
region. Winter Storm Warnings were posted Sunday Evening and on
Monday
Morning, East Coastal Massachusetts including the Greater Boston
Metropolitan
Area was upgraded to a Blizzard Warning due to strong winds
expected
to reduce visibility significantly.
NWS
Taunton SKYWARN Operations were coordinated with MEMA Framingham
Operations
and began between 1-1:30 PM. Delilah Maldonado, KB1IQC and
myself
were the operators through the early-mid afternoon. At approximately,
6:30
PM, Phil Mclaughlin, KB1CYO, joined us at NWS Taunton until we
secured
operations at 10:30 PM on Monday Evening. SKYWARN Nets
were
activated across the region at 1 PM. With the President's Day holiday,
many
Amateur Operators were home to give reports of snowfall and any other
potential
disruptions to the region.
For a
historical snowstorm, historical SKYWARN Operations were put
together
using IRLP. Ray Weber, KA1JJM, from Western Massachusetts
SKYWARN
utilizing a IRLP reflector, had 12 IRLP nodes linked together
to
provide coverage across large portions of Southern New England,
the New
York City-Long Island area, Connecticut and Eastern New York.
A node
from Chesterfield, Virginia, which was in an area hard hit by
the
storm, monitored the event, as did nodes in Indianapolis, Indiana
and
California. Local nodes in the area that were linked included the
145.39
Scituate, Mass. Repeater run by W1QWT-Bob Callahan and the
Barrington,
RI Simplex Repeater run by Jed Barton-N1JBC.
With
this IRLP net, we had advanced warning of heavy snow bands from
the New
York City, Long Island area as well as Connecticut. This was
important
since the NWS Taunton Radar was down during the entire event
and we
had to rely on radars from NWS Brookhaven and WCVB-TV5 to know
where
the heaviest snowfall bands were in the region. Also during
the
event, solid communication was established between NWS Taunton,
Massachusetts
and NWS Brookhaven, New York was realized during this
event.
Scott Reynolds-KC2JCB, one of the forecasters at NWS
Brookhaven,
NY, was on the air during the event as he accepted
snowfall
reports and wind information from spotters on the IRLP
network
from the NWS Brookhaven, NY area. He also coordinated with
NWS
Taunton during the event for a couple of hours. W1AMF-Bob Munro,
the New
London County SKYWARN Coordinator, gave numerous snowfall
reports
from New London County SKYWARN and these snowfall reports
were
forwarded to NWS Brookhaven utilizing the IRLP Net. Since Scott
Reynolds
is also one of the forecasters for NWS Brookhaven, he went
back to
forecasting later in the event.
The
Massachusetts RACES HF Net was established on 40 Meters (7255 Khz)
and 75
Meters (3955 KHz). NWS Taunton coordinated with the RACES HF Net
with
MEMA Framingham and with the net controls running the HF Nets.
Coordination
with MEMA Framingham was also done on the 6 Meter Wachusett
Repeater
on 53.31 MHz. Due to radio limitations at NWS Taunton, we could
not
monitor both HF and 6 Meters at the same time and this is something
that is
hoped to be addressed in future activations. Liaison was made
with
the HF Net and on 6 Meters periodically during the event.
SKYWARN
Nets in Western Massachusetts were activated at 1 PM with
Ray
Weber, KA1JJM, Jim Bernotas, N1VMH, Eric Tuller, N1QKO, and WB1EHD,
Dennis
Malone, were active running nets on the 146.94-Mount
Tom,
146.985-Greenfield and 145.13-Amherst Repeaters. Nets were
run
every 2 hours with many reports gathered through 10:30 PM when
the
SKYWARN Net was secure. Reports of snowfall and snow drifts
were
the main pieces of information. In several areas, reports of
3-4"
per hour snow occurred including in Deerfield, Massachusetts where
this
occurred for 2 hours resulting in a 13" snowfall report increase
to
21" in just 2 hours! While there was some wind, the wind and snow
did not
cause any infrastructure damage to trees and power lines
but did
significantly hamper travel in the region.
SKYWARN
Nets in Connecticut were active on the 147.000 Soapstone
Mountain
CT and 147.225-Killingly, CT Repeaters. Roger Jeanfaivre-K1PAI,
CT
SKYWARN Coordinator for Hartford and Tolland Counties of CT and
Bernard
Dubb-KB1DGY, Windham County CT SKYWARN Coordinator, were active
forwarding
snowfall reports. Roger utilized the IRLP link while Bernie
utilized
the 146.76-Scituate, RI Repeater. Snowfall reports were
forwarded
through 10:30 PM. No damage was reported but snow drifts and
significant
impediments to travel were reported.
SKYWARN
Nets in Eastern and Central Massachusetts were active across
the
area. SKYWARN was active on the 146.97-Paxton Repeater where
reports
of snowfall were obtained. W1SEX-Paul Topolski was also on
6
Meters and forwarded snowfall reports from the Templeton Repeater
into
NWS Taunton and these nets covered much of Worcester County. Tom
Pratt,
N1KKY, was also giving reports from this region as well. In
Eastern
Massachusetts, SKYWARN Nets were active on the 146.64 Waltham
and
145.47 Danvers Repeaters. Bill Ricker, N1VUX, handled net control
on the
Waltham Repeater with a quasi-formal net running through until
10:30
PM with numerous snowfall reports forwarded to NWS Taunton. Also,
along
East Coastal Massachusetts, reports of visibility below a 1/4
mile
with near whiteout conditions were also reported both in Dorchester
and
Quincy Massachusetts. Jeff Arnold-N1FWV did occasional call-ups
on the
145.47 Danvers-Repeater.
Continuing
in Eastern Massachusetts, the 146.895-Walpole Repeater's
Norfolk
County SKYWARN Net was active with Dave Doe-K1HRV and Roger
Turner-W1ZSA
active on frequency. Reports of snowfall were forwarded
from
across Norfolk County through 10:30 PM. Significant impediments
to
travel were reported but no damage to trees or power lines and this
was the
trend with this storm across much of the area. SKYWARN was
active
on the 147.18-Bridgewater Repeater, where reports of snowfall
were forwarded
from the South Shore. The 145.49-Fairhaven Repeater
was
active with SKYWARN through the day with Tony Duarte-N1XRS active
on the
frequency. The 8 PM Fairhaven Repeater Weather Net had
numerous
reports of snowfall forwarded to NWS Taunton with Louie
Whitlow-WA1GDE
active as net control. Reports from this net resulted
in an
upscaling of snowfall totals across South Coastal Massachusetts
and
Cape Cod and the Islands as the predicted mix to sleet and rain
was
less than expected with only a mix of sleet reported in some
areas
and only a mix of sleet and rain across Nantucket and the
extreme
Outer Cape. SKYWARN was also active on the 146.955-Barnstable
Repeater
with reports forwarded from the Cape Cod area. We also
monitored
the 146.655-Falmouth Repeater and obtained snowfall
reports
from Cape Cod shortly after their weekly net.
SKYWARN
Nets were active in Rhode Island through the efforts of Eddie
Cayer-WX1USA
and Rhode Island SKYWARN. Snowfall reports came in every
1-2
hours with numerous reports during each net. No damage to trees or
power
lines were reported but several reports of poor visibility and
impassable
secondary roads were reported. One report of very strong
winds
were received from Little Compton, RI with sustained winds of
35 MPH
with gusts to 49 MPH. This corresponded well with a wind
report
received from George Allen, N1NBQ on Nantucket Island where
ther
was a peak wind gust to 46 MPH. These winds occurred in the mid-
afternoon
hours from 2-5 PM but then subsided to a threshold of 20-30
MPH
with gusts of 35-40 MPH.
SKYWARN
Nets were also active in Southern New Hampshire with snowfall
reports
forwarded from Cheshire and Hillsborough County into NWS
Taunton.
In New Ipswich, NH, Hillsborough County, snowfall of 30" was
reported
by Bill-KB1EOI. 14" of snow had falled by 8:30 PM and then
in a 5
hour period an additional 16" of snow fell as 3-4" per hour
snowfall
rates occurred during the event in New Ipswich, NH and this
was
reported in other parts of Southern New England. In Cheshire County
NH,
reports were relayed from Bruce Bohannon, WA1YZN, and the
146.805-Keene,
NH Repeater through W1SEX-Paul Topolski.
During
the event, Coastal Flooding was also monitored on SKYWARN
nets in
East Coastal Massachusetts and Cape Cod and the Islands but the
combination
of winds backing around to the North and Northwest and
slackening
a bit along with iced over harbors dampened the waves
across
coastal communities preventing a moderate coastal flood event
along north
and east facing beaches of the shoreline. Had winds
remained
stronger and stayed out of a more Northeasterly or Easterly
direction,
there would've been more issues and the ice that actually
mitigated
wave action could've caused more damage. Luckily, this
scenario
did not occur during this storm.
SKYWARN
was secured at 10:30 PM on Monday Evening and a brief
reactivation
was done from 9-10:30 AM to cover final snowfall reports
across
the region. WB1CHU-Mitch forwarded final snowfall reports from
the HF
New England Weather Net and reports via email and Amateur Radio
were
collected during this period. The 146.955-Barnstable Repeater had
the
usual 6 AM collective of the Cape and Island WX Net and final
snowfall
reports from this net were forwarded.
When
the event was over, 1-2 feet of snow was recorded across much of
the
region. Isolated amounts of 25-30" occurred across portions of
East
Coastal Massachusetts from Glocuester to Plymouth. Boston broke
their
record 24 hour snowfall set during the Blizzard of 78. Isolated
25-30"
amounts also occurred in sections of Southern New Hampshire
and
Western and Central Massachusetts particularly in the higher terrain
and
where the slopes of the mountains enhanced snowfall. In terms of
impact,
since the storm did not have the hurricane force winds or severe
coastal
flooding that the Blizzard of 78 had, it falls far short of having
that
kind of impact. In terms of snowfall, this storm rivals the April
Fools
Day Storm of 1997, the Blizzard of Jaunary 1996 and the
Blizzard
of 78 in some areas. Its impact was along the lines of the
Blizzard
of January 1996 and probably a stage lower than the April Fools
Day
Storm as the President's Day Storm did not have a heavy wet snow
that
caused some infrastructure damage in some areas. The storm will
be
known for creating blizzard to near blizzard conditions across
portions
of the area, particularly along the coast, very heavy
snowfall
rates and snow drifts of 4 feet causing travel to be totally
avoided
and causing state workers to stay home the next day and many
closures
of colleges as the storm passed and as people dug out from
the
storm.
While
it is impossible to list all of the Amateur Operators and SKYWARN
Spotters
who gave snowfall reports and information forwarded for
this
event, there were 20 pages of log sheets used for reports and a
HUGE
thank you goes out to the ARES, RACES and SKYWARN people who
assisted
in this event and gave reports, manned nets for many hours
and
kept the National Weather Service informed of what was happening
during
the President's Day Storm.
Respectfully
Submitted,
Robert
Macedo (KD1CY)
ARES
SKYWARN Coordinator
SEMCARES
Emergency Coordinator
Pager
#: (508) 354-3142
Home
Phone #: (508) 994-1875 (After 6 PM)
Home/Data
#: (508) 997-4503 (After 6 PM)
Work
Phone #: 1-800-445-2588 Ext.: 72929 (8
AM-5 PM)
Email
Address: rmacedo@rcn.com