Holiday weather, 1988

Christmas, 1988 was relatively mild. The high on Christmas Day was 49 degrees. Christmas Eve had been rainy, and gray, whereas most evidence of the rain was gone by midnight on Christmas Day. The clouds cleared out by sunset, so that left the holiday cloudy. The next day,Boxing Day, was mostly cloudy, and relatively mild. The cloudy conditions continued on the next day, and the temperature was a bit lower, but not by much, with 41 degrees as the high.

Christmas Eve surface map 7 AM

Rain began during the late afternoon hours on the 28th. It became heavy after midnight. The high was close to 60 degrees. The weather during this time was hardly what you’d call winter. The 29th, dawned clear, but clouds returned by mid day. The temperatures fell during the afternoon, and were back into the 20’s by nightfall.  December 30th, was an overcast day, and the temperatures were back into the freezing range.

December 28, 1988 7 AM

The temperatures were back to the 40’s on New Years Eve. The weather was clear for the midnight hour. The temperatures actually dropped on New Years Day, and we were set for some very cold weather in the coming months.

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.