Holiday week weather: 1989

The reason I’ve condensed this post, is because there were quite a few smaller events in this time frame. The year 1989 was coming to a close, and a new decade was beginning.  During the early morning hours on Christmas Eve, a small low pressure area passed well to the south of Nantucket. Two distinct rounds of snow fell. The first round of snow fell during the early morning. It is said that around an inch fell, or at least that was what was recorded at both my house and Chicken Hill. The second round, began in earnest at around 3 PM. It was light at first, but it began to get heavier in intensity.

This round of snow left a mere three inches on the ground. It was a white Christmas, and the last one until 1998. The snow briefly hung around. The temp on Christmas Day, was freezing. The next day, Boxing Day; brought some backlash snow that left a measly dusting atop the already melting Christmas snow pack.  The 27th, was sunny and very cold, a trademark of the 1989 portion of the winter. This however, was the last of the cold air, for a while. The clouds came back after dark, and brought a little bit of snow on the 28th.

Once again, another little snowfall. The eighties hadn’t been too kind to Nantucket in terms of snowfall, there were some good snowfalls, but there were not many. The little snowfall was just that: little. about half an inch fell on the island. There was a brief lull in the snowfall, but it returned late on the 29th. This was surely the last gasp of the cold air. On the 30th, the snow changed over to rain, and melted all of our snow away. The high was 37. On New Years Eve, the temperature rose to near 50, and a coastal storm came to close the decade.

The storm didn’t really set in until after dark, but when it did, you could feel it. The winds gusted to 46 mph, and the last bit of cold air, was truly gone; so were the eighties. A new decade was to open, and the first day of it, was to be brought in with fog and light drizzle. The cold air, did come back, but not in the way it had, because on the 3rd of January, it was back near 50.

Thanksgiving Snowstorm-1989

We’re going to take a trip into the storm time machine, let’s go way back, oh yeah, to 1989!

I was a year old, and already this was my second snowstorm(my first, was when I was three months old.) This storm was truly one for the 80’s.  For the most part, this snowstorm was one that not many remember. It took some prodding of die hard weather lovers to get some details.

It began in earnest early on Thanksgiving Morning, and it took off like a rocket from Cape Canaveral. The snow stuck to the ground instantly, and didn’t switch to rain once. The snow fell from 2 AM to a little bit after 6 PM. After all was said and done, Nantucket received over a foot of snow. Places as far away as Washington DC and Baltimore received a white holiday. Flights were canceled up and down the coast, stranding passengers.

The storm was a spectacular close out to the 1980’s, and it was good timing too. The rest of the winter was pretty bland and bleak. Damage was extensive on Nantucket, with branches and poles down. At Chicken Hill, we had just sat down to dinner, when the power was cut. Lucky for us, we were able to eat(not me though, I had to eat that nasty Gerber crap.)

The start of the storm

The peak

Stats:

Accumulation: 14″  Forecast: none

Wind: 45 MPH  Unofficial: 66 mph

Damage: moderate

My dad has video footage of this storm somewhere, although it was on VHS, so I do not know if the quality is still good.