Friday, December 8, 2006

Joe 'Big Snows' D'Aleo

The Gloucester Daily Times in Gloucester, MA published an article with some quotes from Dr. Joe D'Aleo today called... "Despite mild weather, a bear of a winter is in the forecast."

What caught my eye in this general interest story was Dr. Joe/s hefty snowfall forecast for parts of eastern Mass. Riding this winter/s moderate el Nino...he/s going 200% climo with 70-76" for the area.

Dr. Joe likens this winter/s potential to the '02 / '03 el Nino where Cape Ann picked up almost 120" (50" is average) and Boston saw 71.3". That winter ranks as the 4th best MEI analog this year but PDO E flipped W by late summer (the opposite of this year) and QBO ended its positive run in December which won/t happen this year. This analog may be illustrative as to how el Nino years can produce good snows...but it isn/t one of the better matches.

He also noted the snows from the '04 / '05 el Nino when Boston got 86.6". That winter is the 6th ranked MEI analog for '06 / '07. PDO ranks 9th and QBO 11th. Not a terrible analog...but there are better ones.

For each of his analog years...BOS almost picked up its normal yearly snowfall (43.3") in one month/s time. In '02 / '03...a big dump of 41.6" came in February...more than half coming from from the PD2 storm (23.6"). During '04 / '05...43.3" of snow came in January...22.5" over two days on the 22nd and 23rd.

So...what about '57? Near normal with 44.7"...most of it (23.9") falling in February.

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