December 2010 North American blizzard
The December 2010 North American blizzard was a major nor'easter and historic blizzard affecting the Contiguous United States and portions of Canada from December 22–29, 2010. From January 4–15, the system was known as Windstorm Benjamin in Europe. It was the first significant winter storm of the 2010–11 North American winter storm season and the fifth North American blizzard of 2010. The storm system affected the northeast megalopolis, which includes major cities such as Norfolk, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Newark, New York City, Hartford, Providence, and Boston. It brought between 12 and 32 inches (30 and 81 cm) of snow in many of these areas.
Category 2 "Significant" (RSI/NOAA: 3.27) | |
Visible satellite imagery of the nor'easter offshore Cape Cod at peak intensity, on the morning of December 27 | |
| Type | Extratropical cyclone Winter storm Nor'easter Blizzard European windstorm |
|---|---|
| Formed | December 22, 2010 |
| Dissipated | January 15, 2011 |
| Lowest pressure | 960 mb (28.35 inHg) |
| Maximum snowfall or ice accretion | 36 inches (91 cm) at Brick, New Jersey |
| Fatalities | 7 total |
| Damage | $60 million (2010 USD) |
| Areas affected | Western United States, Central United States, East Coast of the United States, Eastern Canada, Bermuda, Northern Europe, Russia |
Part of the 2010–11 North American winter | |
The storm had many similarities to the North American blizzard of 2006. The storm also generated a rare meteorological phenomenon known as thundersnow in which thunder and lightning occur concurrently with the falling snow. Several synoptic factors contributed to the intensity of this blizzard. The storm was difficult to predict due to disagreements between models; it wasn't until about two days prior when the most models anticipated a major snowstorm. The National Weather Service's Hydrometeorological Prediction Center and many other private forecasters were skeptical of the storm impacting the Northeastern states until about 24 hours of the storm's arrival as well; although, some models depicted the storm delivering a full-blown blizzard to the New York City metropolitan area as early as a week in advance. The Hydrometeorological Prediction Center even issued a statement on Christmas Eve, 48 hours prior to the storm, that they suspected the American models of having model initialization errors; thus, they believed these errors may have forced the storm to be erroneously modeled to come up the Northeastern coast.