Blizzard in a forest. Credit: Alex Stemmers

Winter snow storm Juno hits US East Coast

27 January 2015 14:05 UTC

Region

USA

Satellites

Metop-B

Instruments

ASCAT, AVHRR

Channels/Products

Visible channel, ASCAT winds, Natural Colour RGB

A winter storm pounded parts of the US East Coast in late-January, bringing more than 30 inches of snow to some areas.

Last Updated

11 October 2023

Published on

27 January 2015

The 10m-winds derived from ASCAT on Metop-B around 14:05 UTC on 27 January show the centre of the violent winter storm (nicknamed Juno) south of Cape Cod.

The strongest winds were found off the coast of New England, with the island of Nantucket recording maximum gusts of 125km/h. These types of winds are known as 'New England Nor'easters', the direction the wind is coming in from the storm.

Figure 1: Metop-B visible with ASCAT winds overlay, 27January 14:05 UTC

Copious snow amounts accumulated along the coast — Lunenburg, Auburn and Hudson in Massachusetts recorded around 36 inches of snow. The strong winds led to blizzards, large snowdrifts and severe coastal flooding in some areas.

29 January (Post Juno)

Metop-B and Suomi-NPP captured the first glimpses of the snow cover, post Juno, on 29 January. The snow is best seen (cyan colour) on bare ground or grassland areas, and is not seen very well in forested areas (a well-known problem of snow detection by satellites).

Sea ice can be seen in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of St Lawrence.

Metop-B, 29 January 2015 15:05 UTC — Figure 2: Metop-B Natural Colour RGB, 29 January 15:05 UTC

Suomi-NPP, 29 January 2015, 17:30 UTC — Figure 3: Suomi-NPP Natural Colour RGB, 29 January 2015, 17:30 UTC

Addendum

Constant blizzards, starting with Juno on 24 January, meant Boston had its snowiest month, with 58.5 inches, and third snowiest winter ever. After Juno brought 22.1 inches of snow, snow fell on the subsequent days — 16.2 inches fell on 2 February, 22 inches on 9 February and another 16 inches on 14/15 February.

In just seven days in January it had 40.5 inches, breaking the previous seven-day record of 31.2 inches set in January 1996.

By the end of the winter, the Massachusetts city had its snowiest season ever with 108.6 inches of snow — the previous recorded was 107 inches in 1995/96 and the average snowfall for the whole winter is 47 inches.