Old Man Winter Strikes Back With Record Snowfall For Northeast US and Japan, Could Europe Be Next?

Written by Mark Vogan on December 22, 2020 in Asia, Rest of World, United States of America with 0 Comments

With the help of a -AO releasing polar air south and connecting with an active/stormy mid latitude pattern, we have seen two areas of record breaking snowfall.

The snow starved Northeast US has barely seen any snow in the last 2 winters but the storm last week changed that.

Snow has finally ended. Updated snowfall reports and top amounts by state:
NY-Newark Valley 44"
NH-Croydon 44"
PA-Alba 43.3"
VT-Landgrove 42"
ME-Acton 28"
MA-Florida 24"
CT-Winsted 16.5"
RI-Glocester 14"
NJ-Highland Lakes 12.3"
MD-Sabillasville 12"
WV-Hambleton 12"
VA-Basye 11.5" pic.twitter.com/g1apfmn8FT

— NWS Eastern Region (@NWSEastern) December 18, 2020

We compiled a list of the biggest December snowstorms since 1869 at Central Park. The recent storm with 10.5" ranks 13th largest in the month of December. The largest December storm occurred in 1947 on the 26th-27th with 26.4" which is the third largest snow storm overall. pic.twitter.com/mlUjlxHbCJ

— NWS New York NY (@NWSNewYorkNY) December 19, 2020

Across the Pacific and although home to some of the world’s biggest snowfalls, the northern Japanese Alps bore the brunt of some incredible snowfall lately. All thanks to bitter Siberian winds sweeping over the relatively warm Sea of Japan and meeting the lofty mountains falling in the form of sea effect snow.

The season's coldest air is blanketing #Japan, bringing significant sea-effect #snow. Hijiori has had 106cm (3.5feet) of snow in 48hours. An additional 200cm (6.6feet) is possible in Hokuriku into the next 48hours. Japan tends to have heavy snow during #LaNina years☃ pic.twitter.com/kWBEUjB7yz

— Sayaka Mori (@sayakasofiamori) December 15, 2020

RECORD-BREAKING!! #Snow has been piling up at an unprecedented rate in #Japan. Fujiwara had 162cm (5.3feet) in 48hr. This is due to the combination of unseasonably cold Siberian air and unseasonably warm ocean temperatures. 150cm (4.9feet) is still possible into the next 48hr. pic.twitter.com/aTR6L7hGev

— Sayaka Mori (@sayakasofiamori) December 16, 2020

Some very cold air slipped in following the record dump of snow!

#Cold spell in northern #Japan.

-25.7°C Kimobetsu (monthly record -27.3°C)
-23.2°C Etanbetsu (MR -30.5°C)
-21.8°C Horokanai (MR -28.9°C)
-21.7°C Rikubetsu (MR -27.6°C)
-20.5°C Shumarinai (MR -29.7°C)
-20.4°C Otaki (MR -22.0°C)@extremetemps @geoclimat @EKMeteo @ExtremeMeteo pic.twitter.com/B8zn4suhWg

— Thierry Goose (@ThierryGooseBC) December 20, 2020

December 2020 couldn’t be more different to last year. While the polar vortex was ramping up to record strength this time last year, this time around it’s weak and struggling with all signs pointing to an SSWE in early January.

In some of the big winters of the recent past, we’ve seen heavy or record breaking snowfall in the US and Japan and often this is followed by significant winter weather for Europe. More or less all models point to considerably colder and snowier times for Western Europe.

Here’s the day 1-11 mean 2m temp anomaly!