High Wind — Barnstable, Massachusetts

2005-12-09 · Barnstable, Massachusetts

Wider weather episode

A low pressure system centered near the Delaware coast intensified rapidly as it tracked quickly northeast across southern New England, producing near-blizzard conditions across Massachusetts around mid afternoon. Damaging winds, whiteout conditions, and approximately one hour of thunder snow occurred across most of the region. In addition, snowfall amounts ranged from around 2 inches across south coastal locations, to as much as 16 inches across northeast and north central Massachusetts. The combination of high winds and snow caused approximately 150,000 electric customers to lose power.Damaging wind gusts between 50 and 60 mph were common across Cape Cod and the rest of southeast Massachusetts. These high winds brought down numerous trees, telephone poles, and wires. The Westport Fire Department reported numerous trees and two telephone poles down around town. One tree fell down on a building, causing damage to that building. A widow's walk was blown off of a house on Nantucket as a result of high winds. A tree was reported blown down on a car on the corner of Bakerville and Gulf Roads in North Dartmouth. A fallen highway sign closed Route 3 on the Duxbury-Kingston line for a short time.Cape Cod received widespread wind damage during this storm; trees, limbs, and wires were reported down in Chatham, Marstons Mills, Dennis, Falmouth, Orleans, and Centerville. Measured wind gusts include 64 mph in Bourne, 59 mph in Falmouth, 75 mph in Chatham, and 64 mph in Marstons Mills. In addition, a house boat came apart and was blown onto the shore in Buzzards Bay. In Wellfleet, oyster farmers discovered that their steel rebar beds used to cultivate oysters were churned and twisted by the storm's high winds and seas. Nearly 12 farmers each lost between $50,000 and $100,000, and many other farmers each experienced a few thousand dollars loss from these damaging winds.Whiteout conditions caused Boston's Logan airport to close for approximately 2 hours beginning around 3:30 PM EST. Before the airport closed, a lightning bolt struck Comair Flight 5437 Canada regional flight just before landing. This flight was traveling from Baltimore International Airport. The lightning bolt caused damage to the airplane's left wing tip, but the plane landed safely with 3 crew members and 35 passengers aboard.In addition, this powerful winter storm also produced coastal flooding in Wareham, closing three roads.This rapidly-moving low produced near-blizzard conditions across the eastern half of southern New England as it moved across southeast Massachusetts during the afternoon of 9 December 2005, however, no known injuries directly resulted from this event.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5485165. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.