December 2010 North American blizzard

For other 2010 blizzards in North America, see North American blizzards of 2010.
December 2010 North American blizzard
Category 2 "Significant" (RSI/NOAA: 3.27)
Visible satellite imagery of the nor'easter offshore Cape Cod at peak intensity, on the morning of December 27
TypeExtratropical cyclone
Winter storm
Nor'easter
Blizzard
European windstorm[1]
FormedDecember 22, 2010
DissipatedJanuary 15, 2011
Lowest pressure960 mb (28.35 inHg)
Maximum snowfall
or ice accretion		36 inches (91 cm) at Brick, New Jersey[2]
Fatalities7 total
Damage$60 million (2010 USD)
Areas affectedWestern United States, Central United States, East Coast of the United States, Eastern Canada, Bermuda, Northern Europe, Russia

The December 2010 North American blizzard was a major nor'easter[3] and historic blizzard affecting the Contiguous United States and portions of Canada from December 22–29, 2010. From January 4–15, the system was known as Windstorm Benjamin in Europe.[1] It was the first significant winter storm of the 2010–11 North American winter storm season and the fifth North American blizzard of 2010. The storm system affected the northeast megalopolis, which includes major cities such as Norfolk, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Newark, New York City, Hartford, Providence, and Boston. It brought between 12 and 32 inches (30 and 81 cm) of snow in many of these areas.

The storm had many similarities to the North American blizzard of 2006. The storm also generated a rare meteorological phenomenon known as thundersnow in which thunder and lightning occur concurrently with the falling snow. Several synoptic factors contributed to the intensity of this blizzard.[4] The storm was difficult to predict due to disagreements between models; it wasn't until about two days prior when the most models anticipated a major snowstorm. The National Weather Service's Hydrometeorological Prediction Center and many other private forecasters were skeptical of the storm impacting the Northeastern states until about 24 hours of the storm's arrival as well; although, some models depicted the storm delivering a full-blown blizzard to the New York City metropolitan area as early as a week in advance. The Hydrometeorological Prediction Center even issued a statement on Christmas Eve, 48 hours prior to the storm, that they suspected the American models of having model initialization errors; thus, they believed these errors may have forced the storm to be erroneously modeled to come up the Northeastern coast.[5]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Windstorm Benjamin named was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "National Weather Service New York, NY Public Information Statement". National Weather Service. December 28, 2010. Retrieved October 8, 2011.
  3. ^ Andrew Freedman (December 27, 2010). "Blizzard blasts coastal cities from Va. to Mass". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 28, 2012. Retrieved December 28, 2010.
  4. ^ "December 26-27th 2010 Blizzard" Archived January 12, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, National Weather Service, New York City
  5. ^ ""HPC's Case Study of the December 25–27 Northeast Blizzard"" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on October 23, 2015. Retrieved April 17, 2013.