Three nor’easters in twelve days March 14, 2018

Three nor’easters have come through Long Island in a 12-day period. The first came back on March 2, as I wrote in my guest reading post:

While I was inside Giblyn, a nor’easter was raging outside. A mix of rain and snow fell as coastal flooding affected streets around the school, at least in the morning at high tide. I didn’t grasp how bad the storm was until riding home and then arriving home. A few small tree limbs were in the driveway while a bigger one fell in my neighbor’s backyard. Power went out twice around 3PM, based on my mother’s DVR recording of General Hospital and the time flashing on the stove clock.

The second nor’easter hit five days later – last Wednesday, March 7. Those ever-changing computer forecast models wavered back and forth from a little wet snow to a lot of wet snow, back to a little, up to a moderate amount, and back to a lot again. The deciding factor was the point when the rain would change to wet snow and how much of it would accumulate. At least the wind wasn’t as bad.

Anticipating the worst, I periodically took pictures outside my bedroom window in Wantagh.

I took the first at 12:08 PM:

2:36 PM:

4:48 PM:

7:23 PM:

The end result was “a little.” I didn’t measure how much fell, but it must have been two inches at most.

The next day at 7:13 AM:

With a strong March sun and air temperatures in the 40s, I didn’t need to shovel the driveway. But I was impatient. So, around 10AM, I shoveled what hadn’t melted, mostly what was brushed off the three SUVs.

I took this at 10:25 AM, a few minutes after I’d finished:

The last shot was taken at 2PM:

The third nor’easter clipped Long Island yesterday, March 13, the 25th anniversary of Superstorm ’93, also known as the Storm of the Century. (I detailed my experience in a March 2013 post.)

The initial forecast called for a wintry mix, but then those pesky forecast models intervened and the threat of significant wet snow loomed. As the storm approached, it became clear that Suffolk County would get more snow than Nassau, where I live. In the end, just 2.7 inches accumulated in Wantagh, according to a trained spotter for the National Weather Service. (More totals can be seen here.)

I spent the day in Freeport and took the pictures below on the way there and at my final destination.

We start at 8:12 AM before leaving the house:

On the road between 8:21 and 8:34 AM, at the intersection of Island Road and Wantagh Avenue:

Wantagh Avenue:

Park Avenue:

Old Mill Road:

Sunrise Highway from Bellmore to Freeport:

8:47 AM, looking south at a general parking lot and the side of Our Holy Redeemer Roman Catholic Church:

10:25 AM:

Noon, shortly after snow ended:

The winds picked up as the snow tapered off, but again, nothing like the first nor’easter.

3:13 PM:

When I got back home at 4:56 PM, I took a parting shot from my bedroom window:

A fourth storm is due to arrive next Tuesday, the first day of spring. If we even get it, I will dedicate a separate post to it.