| March 22 2024 |
Midwest to Northeast Winter Storm: (3/21 - 3/23)
By: Peter Mullinax & Allison Santorelli, WPC Meteorologists
Meteorological Overview:
This late-March New England winter storm originated in the Northern Plains where a potent mid-level disturbance exiting the northern Rockies spawned a surface low pressure system east of Wyoming. Strong 250-500mb jet stream winds provided strong synoptic-scale lift while southerly 850mb winds led to warm-air advection (WAA) out ahead of the storm. As a result, a narrow band of moderate-to-heavy snow took shape to the north of the 700mb front positioned from northern South Dakota on east through central Minnesota and central Wisconsin. Farther east, a cyclonic flow on the backside of a storm delivered cold-air advection (CAA) that was locked in place thanks to 1032mb high pressure as depicted on the March 22nd 12Z surface analysis. This cold Canadian air-mass would remain in place long enough over northern New England and Upstate New York for exceptional snowfall amounts and significant ice accumulations to ensue starting March 22 and lingering into March 23.
One of the reasons for this winter storm’s impressive footprint of heavy snow and hazardous ice accumulations across New England was its interaction with a storm system in the southern U.S. As a southern stream disturbance tracked over the Mid-South during the day on March 22, a neutrally-tilted 250-500mb mean trough worked in tandem with the northern stream system to increase PVA and WAA along the East Coast, allowing for an acceleration of low level southerly winds ahead of the trough. A couple nights before the storm arrived, NAEFS guidance showed meridional 1000mb and 850mb wind components off the East Coast would be anomalously strong and directing moisture with origins as far south as the Caribbean Sea into the Northeast on March 23. This stream of moisture was directed ahead of the aforementioned northern stream disturbance that was placed beneath a robust 250mb jet streak over the St. Lawrence River Valley. The jet streak’s divergent right-entrance region located over the Northeast maximized upper-level ascent, while 925-850mb frontogenesis via increasing low-level WAA and isentropic ascent occurred late March 22 and into March 23.
The same low-level frontogenesis banding would advance into northern New England by March 23 with impressive snowfall rates of 1-2”/hr. By 00Z March 24, the surface analysis depicted a 998mb low pressure system near the eastern tip of Long Island. Heavy snowfall continued through the night of March 23 before ending shortly before sunrise on March 24. While the expectation for heavy snowfall on the order of 1-2 feet was realized from central New York on north and east through much of northern New England, the intense banding that set up over central VT/NH led to more subsidence over the Champlain Valley and New York’s North Country. This meant less snow than was originally forecast in these areas, while southern VT was closer to the more intense frontogenesis banding and thus overperformed on snowfall totals.
Impacts:
Occurring on the heels of what was the warmest meteorological winter on record for the 2023-2024 season, this early spring storm packed quite a punch, with some areas seeing the most snow they had seen the entire winter season! WPC’s final Storm Summary for the event mentioned that over 24 inches of snow fell across parts of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Upstate New York. West Windsor, VT reported the single highest snowfall amount in the Storm Summary with an astonishing 33 inches. There was also a wide swath of destructive ice accretion across central New England and along the Maine coast with anywhere from a half-inch to three-quarters of an inch of ice in these areas. This storm brought widespread travel disruptions with numerous traffic accidents and hundreds of flight delays and cancellations at area airports reported. The combination of heavy snow, sleet, and freezing rain also downed power lines, leaving almost half a million people in total without power from upstate New York to Maine, with some in the dark for multiple days. The Maine Emergency Management Agency opened up 14 warming centers, and the New Hampshire Department of Safety activated an emergency operations center to aid with storm clean up and power restoration efforts. One positive impact from this storm was that it was a huge benefit to ski resorts across the Northeast, given the overall below average snowfall for the season prior to this storm.
Link to NWS Burlington, VT's Storm Summary: https://www.weather.gov/btv/March-23-2024-Late-Season-Heavy-Snow
Link to NWS Albany, NY's Storm Summary: https://www.weather.gov/aly/March2024SnowIceEvent
Link to NWS Gray, ME's Storm Summary: https://www.weather.gov/gyx/WinterWeatherArchive
Link to WPC's final Storm Summary for this event: https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/storm_summaries/2024/storm11/stormsum_3.html
