Winter Storm — Northern New Haven, Connecticut

2011-02-01 to 2011-02-02 · Northern New Haven, Connecticut

Event narrative

In Cheshire, the 174 East Johnson Street Church roof collapsed Wednesday February 2nd, causing a back wall to cave in and two other walls to bulge out. In addition, a partial collapse to a roof of a building at 1701 Highland Ave. and the rear of a 136 yr. old George Keeler Stove Shop at 166 S. Main Street occurred Wednesday morning.

A building at 505 Main St. in Middletown collapsed on the morning of February 2nd after the roof and 3rd floor caved in due the excessive weight of snow and ice.

A storage barn at 91 Library Road in Southbury came crashing down early Wednesday afternoon under the weight of snow and ice.

Wider weather episode

A complex low pressure system tracked northeast from the Lower Mississippi River Valley into the Ohio Valley Tuesday, February 1st into Tuesday Night , with a secondary low pressure developing over the Delmarva region and tracking southeast of Long Island on Wednesday February 2nd. With a polar high locked in place across Ontario and Quebec, this slow moving storm system brought a mixture of snow, sleet and freezing rain to the region. A bought of light snow, sleet and freezing rain occurred early Tuesday morning into Tuesday afternoon ahead of an approaching warm front, with a second heavier round of freezing rain and sleet for the region Tuesday Night into early Wednesday afternoon. This later episode caused numerous road closure and roof collapses across the region.

Generally 3 to 5 inches of snow and sleet fell across interior portions of Southern Connecticut during this 2 day storm, with 2 to 3 inches across southern portions. Between 1/4 and 3/4 of an inch of ice accreted across Southern Connecticut, with the highest amounts across far Southwestern Connecticut and interior Northeastern Connecticut.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 287565. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.