Heavy Snow — Eastern Plymouth, Massachusetts

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

Event narrative

Heavy snow generally ranged from 6.5 to 14 inches across eastern Plymouth County, Some specific snowfall amounts included 14.1 inches in Kingston (CoCoRaHS), 11.4 inches in Hingham (CoCoRaHS), 9.5 inches in Marshfield (CoCoRaHS), 8.7 inches in Duxbury (NWS Employee), and 6.6 inches in Plymouth (CoCoRaHS). Winds generally were gusting to 40 to 50 mph. In Marshfield at 155 PM EST, the ASOS at the Marshfield Airport (KGHG) recorded a gust to 43 mph. In Plymouth at 152 PM EST, the ASOS at the Airport (KPYM) recorded a gust to 41 mph. In nearby Wareham at 253 PM EST, a CWOP station had a gust to 47 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 928221. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.