20 Years Since the Blizzard of 1996

I'm officially starting to feel old. It was 20 years ago today January 6, 1996 that a blizzard hit the northeast burying us in close to two feet of snow! 

I actually remember this storm pretty well. I was only 8 at the time but I remember it being the very first snowstorm that gave me not one but two days off from school! In fact, school was cancelled the night before! Knowing snow was on the way and school was already cancelled was one of the best feelings a kid could have! 

I wish I had some time to dig up some old pictures from the storm because I'm sure they're great ones. My siblings and I were still young, so the snow depth was quite impressive compared to our small frames. 

I even remember my dad having to snowblow a path through our backyard gate so we could open it. This way we were able to slide down the hill in our backyard, through the gate, down the side yard, over the 4 foot snow banks on the curb and go airborne into the street!! Before you freak out about anyone getting hit by cars, it was a dead end street and all the neighborhood kids were having fun while the parents kept and eye out for traffic. It was an AWESOME time! 

Here's a cool graphic of the weather pattern that the storm formed in. 

The Historic Connecticut Flood of June 4-7, 1982

It's the 33rd anniversary of a historic flood in Connecticut. Between the days of June 4 - 7, 1982, a low pressure stalled off the New England coast, drenching coastal Connecticut with rains up to 16 inches! It still stands as the wettest storm in southern Connecticut's recorded history. 

The National Weather Service released this graphic below with stats from the storm. The most rain fell on June 5th, when nearly 10 inches flooded the area. The floods cost upwards of 230 million dollars! 

Below the graphic is a video with a series of news reports from the New Haven, Connecticut area during and after the storm. 

Although I wasn't alive, I do remember my dad talking about a storm around this time, flooding City Hall in Milford, Connecticut. City Hall is right on the Wepawaug river. My dad, who was a police officer at the time, said that old paper records kept in the basement of town hall were ironically floating down River Street. Below is a photo of Milford's city hall along the Wepawaug river. 

photo source

Blizzard of 2005: Jan 20-23

As I checked Accuweather.com site this morning for any news on the possible snowstorm tonight in Southern New England I was disappointed to find that the NORLUN trough (which will bring the most accumulating snow) will be up near Boston, if not in Maine.  However before I switched to another website I noticed a snow map on the side of the page. It's the same one I have posted below.  It is the Blizzard of 2005 from January 20-23.  It's nice that Accuweather posts historic storms in the side banners, especially since I remember this storm pretty well.

The reason why I remember this blizzard so well is because I missed it completely!!!  Although my home town in southwestern CT saw between 16-24 inches of snow, I was living in Vermont at the time at Lyndon State College, where we saw nothing more than a few flurries!!  This was very disappointing for me to watch (and study in class) the storm moving through southern New England, as my parents shoveled out and I just sat in the cold semi overcast fringe of the storm.  The Northeast Kingdom of Vermont didn't see much snow that year.  So when I saw this map posted on Accuweather  I flashed right back to sitting in my dorm room watching the reports of heavy snow in my hometown while it was just cold outside.  Even on the map you can see that the accumulating snow didn't get much farther north than White River Junction (Lyndon State was just north of St. Johnsbury.