The Blizzard of 2022 is official. Boston got 23.5 inches of snow Saturday at Logan Airport, making January 29, 2022 the second largest January storm every recorded in the city. This is now the seventh biggest snowstorm of all time in Boston’s recorded history.
The record is still 27.6 inches set back in February 2003.
Our first blizzard in four years was officially verified late Saturday afternoon by the National Weather Service in Boston and several other parts of Massachusetts, including Worcester, Beverly, Hyannis, Marshfield and Martha’s Vineyard.
It was also a blizzard in Providence, Westerly, Newport and Block Island in Rhode Island.
That’s not to say that a blizzard didn’t occur in other locations, it certainly did. These are just the locations at which the National Weather Service has official recording stations (known as ASOS) that registered blizzard conditions.
To qualify, you must record visibilities equal to or less than quarter of a mile from either falling or blowing snow along with frequent wind gusts to 35 mph or more. And, all of this has to occur for at least three consecutive hours.
Many of the NWS stations stopped reporting mid-storm (likely taken out by the wind). Had that not happened, we may had recorded an official blizzard in Chatham, Falmouth, Provincetown and Smithfield, Rhode Island as well.
RECORD SETTING DAY
While we didn’t break any of the big records in Boston, this storm does have a place in the record books:
- Record snowfall for January 29. The old record was 3.7 inches in 1928 (kind of a lame record, I know)
- Second biggest snowstorm in January history in Boston. It was just shy of the Jan. 27, 2015 storm which dropped 24.6 inches.
- Seventh biggest all-time snowstorm (of any month) in Boston. It was 4.1 inches shy of the 27.6” that fell in February of 2003, the top dog on the list.
- With 35.9” this month, January 2022 will go in the books tied with January 1978 for the fourth snowiest January on record
Boston now sits at 36.3” for the season, more than a foot above the average snow to date. This winter has been absolutely crazy – 97% of the total snowfall for the entire season has fallen on two days, January 7th and January 29th.
Breaking it down even further, you could say 97% of our snowfall this season in Boston has fallen in about 15 hours! Incredible!
WHO GOT THE MOST
The jackpot with this storm was just south of Boston thanks to a semi-stationary, intense snow band which dropped 1-to-3” per hour for most of the day. Places like Sharon, Whitman, Rockland and Norton all received over two feet of snow, some topping the 30” mark! Not to be outdone, the North Shore also had some whopping totals. Swampscott and Danvers were among several towns north of Boston that ended up with more than 2 feet of snow.
WHAT’S NEXT
So where do we go from here?
Thankfully we get several days to catch our breath. It will be cold for the next few days, but bright and dry. We start to warm things up by midweek, we should get into the 40’s Wednesday and Thursday. As for Friday, well, that’s another blog for another day. Let’s just say we COULD be looking at some ice or snow. I don’t know about you but I need a little time to catch my breath before we start breaking down the next one!
Click here for Westford snow storm data and past totals or select “Winter Snowfall“ under “Pages” on the left hand side.
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