Heavy Snow — Western Plymouth, Massachusetts

2020-12-16 to 2020-12-17 · Western Plymouth, Massachusetts

Event narrative

Heavy snow generally ranged from 8 to 14 inches across western Plymouth County, with the highest amounts closest to eastern Norfolk County. Some specific snowfall amounts included 14.2 inches in Whitman (trained spotter), 13.6 inches in Rockland (trained spotter), 11.2 inches in Pembroke (CoCoRaHS), 9.0 inches in East Bridgewater (amateur radio), 8.5 inches in Hanover (amateur radio), 8.0 inches in Lakeville (amateur radio), and 8.0 inches in Middleboro (Twitter report). Winds generally were gusting to 35 to 40 mph.

Wider weather episode

A storm system produced heavy snow, strong to damaging winds, and minor coastal flooding in southern New England. This was a tough storm to forecast. Although it was not deep low pressure and although it passed just south of the 40N/70W benchmark, its precipitation shield was expansive because of a broad 700 mb low over southeast New England, abundant moisture, and a very cold air mass in place. By far, the heaviest snow fell to the north (Laconia, NH) and west (Binghamton, NY), where more than 3 feet fell. But amounts ranged from 10 to 20 inches across much of southern New England. There was some minor coastal flooding at the time of high tide and also a flash freeze in eastern Massachusetts as the storm pulled away to the northeast.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 928216. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.