One of the grossest climate years in current historical past is lastly within the rearview.
Some of probably the most memorable climate occasions that impacted the Bay State in 2023 included nasty wildfire smoke, a number of tornadoes, and relentless rain all through the summer time that sparked main flooding.
Parts of Massachusetts even needed to shovel out from greater than 3 toes of snow after a whopper of a mid-March nor’easter.
The most uncommon climate of the 12 months was the smoke from the Canadian wildfires, which prompted the air high quality to plummet throughout the area. The hazardous haze and smoke impacted the world at instances for a lot of weeks as a result of the distant wildfires had been uncontrolled.
“During the summer, we got caught in a persistent pattern where we had winds coming out of Canada, bringing that smoke into the area,” Bill Leatham, meteorologist on the National Weather Service’s Boston workplace, informed the Herald this week.
While the wildfire smoke was a serious story of the summer time, so was the rain that by no means appeared to go away.
It was the second wettest summer time in Boston recorded historical past, with 20.33 inches of rain. A traditional summer time within the metropolis is 10.39 inches of rain.
In Worcester, it was the fifth wettest 12 months within the metropolis’s historical past. Worcester recorded 63.1 inches of rain for the 12 months, which was 15 inches greater than regular.
July was extraordinarily moist, with a number of flash flood and extreme climate occasions. On July 16, for example, thunderstorms produced flash flooding throughout a lot of southern New England and some cases of wind injury, together with a twister in North Brookfield.
In jap Massachusetts, rainfall totals of two to three inches fell inside an hour. Videos went viral of rain flowing down the steps in Fenway Park.
The lively sample continued later within the month with a spherical of extreme thunderstorms on July 27. Some of the strongest wind gusts reported had been 66 mph in Westfield and 61 mph at Blue Hills in Milton.
The closing July storm occasion occurred simply two days later and featured wind injury and a twister in Foxboro. Also, this line of storms sparked microbursts in Easton and Brockton.
Then in early August, a spherical of thunderstorms introduced flash flooding to metro Boston and two tornados to the state. The first twister touched down in Mattapoisett, and the second twister touched down in Barnstable.
On Aug. 18, there have been tornadoes in North Attleboro, Stoughton and Weymouth.
“It was very active with a number of tornadoes across the region,” Leatham stated, noting that there have been eight recorded tornadoes in Massachusetts, nicely above the standard variety of two tornadoes a 12 months.
On Sept. 11, a storm system introduced scattered thunderstorms and widespread flash flooding to the area, particularly in Leominster. Up to 9 inches of rain fell in a short while. There had been many streets closed, vehicles stranded in flood waters, and a number of other homes with flooded basements or first flooring.
Hurricane Lee then handed offshore on Sept. 15 and 16, with its winds inflicting tree injury. There was additionally minor coastal flooding and erosion.
The closing large storm of the 12 months was every week earlier than Christmas, as sturdy winds knocked out energy for a whole bunch of hundreds of Bay State households. Blue Hill Observatory in Milton had the best recorded wind gust of 90 mph. More than 4 inches of rain fell in spots.
Overall, it was a fairly heat 12 months. Boston’s common temp was 54 levels, making it the third warmest 12 months on file for the town. Worcester was in line for its warmest 12 months on file, with a mean of 51.6 levels as of Dec. 27.
Because it was so heat, snow was down for the Boston-area. Only 11.6 inches of snow fell in Boston, which was the fourth least snowy 12 months in recorded historical past.
There was one extraordinarily chilly stretch, nevertheless. An arctic blast in early February introduced file chilly to the area. Many places plunged into the adverse teenagers. It was the primary time Boston had reached -10 since January of 1957.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”