Heavy snowfall and high winds marked the first official day of winter in Lincoln County as a Nor’easter moved into the area on Sun. afternoon for an overnight visit.
Lincoln County should wake up on Mon. morning to snowfall accumulations in the 12-17 inch range inland and the 10-15 inch range along the coast, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
Scattered snowfall is forecast to continue through the day, and accumulated snowfall will be blown about by 20-30 mph winds from the west-northwest, according to the NWS.
But even with the blowing snow and frigid wind chill, Mon. will be a welcome respite from the winter storm that first started dropping snow on Lincoln County Sun. in the late morning hours and continued through the night.
Snowfall rates of 2 inches per hour were reported by the NWS, which combined with winds gusting to 40 mph created “blizzard conditions”, according to the NWS.
The NWS also issued a rare warning for “thunder snow” for areas near the coast during the Sun. evening hours.
Thunder snow — also known as a winter thunderstorm or a thunder snowstorm — is a rare thunderstorm with snow falling as the primary precipitation instead of rain, according to Wikipedia.com. It commonly falls in regions of strong upward motion within the cold sector of extratropical cyclones between autumn and spring when surface temperatures are most likely to be near or below freezing.
Thunder snow is a rare event, with an average of three reported incidents per year in the United States. No reports of thunder snow were received at the the time of this posting. The Lincoln County News will be checking additional sources on Mon., and report any findings here and in the print edition of The Lincoln County News.
Snowfall began in Lincoln County on Sun. in the late morning and by 12:47 p.m. the National Weather Service (NWS) reported that snowfall totals in Bristol were already at the 4-inch mark. The Bristol total was the highest in the state at the time of the NWS report.
High winds were a significant factor during the snow storm, whipping up fresh fallen snow to reduce visibility and endangering power lines and tree limbs. During the day on Sun. winds were forecast for a sustained velocity of 15-25 mph from the east-northeast. After nightfall, the winds were forecast to increase to 20-30 mph sustained with gusts of 40 mph from the north-northwest.
For a full list of cancellations and closures on Mon. morning, just go the home page of The Lincoln County News website, lincolncountynewsonline.com, and click on the link provided by special arrangement with WCSH channel 6.
The storm was courtesy of two low fronts that tracked in from the west, one with plenty of moisture from the south and the other with plenty of cold air from the north. The southern low arrived Sat. night – just in time to set up off the mid-Atlantic coast and begin tracking north.
The two fronts then worked together to create one humdinger of a weather system – with one low front over the Great Lakes contributing chill Arctic air and another low front near the Gulf of Maine feeding off a line of moisture that stretches all the way down the Atlantic, over the north Florida Peninsula, and into the Gulf of Mexico.
NWS issued a notably early Winter Weather Advisory on Fri. regarding this storm. The Winter Weather Advisory was later upgraded Fri. night at 8:22 p.m. to a Winter Storm Watch, and then further upgraded to a Winter Storm Warning on Sat. at 3:28 p.m.
The Lincoln County News website will continue to monitor the progress of this storm and post any additional information here as soon as it becomes available.
