It's officially December 31st, 2010, the last calendar day of the year. And with that in mind, we came to thinking about how active of a weather year this actually has been in our area. From the very beginning of the year in February, our area was affected by three significant snowfalls; one to the south (February 5-6, 2010), one across most of the area (February 10, 2010) and one across the Northern half of the area with a powerful retrograding low (February 25-26, 2010). The was just the start of the year; March would bring a powerful heavy rain and wind producing Nor'easter. April, May, and June produced scattered severe weather events. A large heat wave struck the region in early July with 103 degree readings; and again in August although to a lesser extent. September brought a confirmed tornado to New York City, while October and November were abnormally dry. Finally, December brought below normal temperatures and a record setting blizzard on December 26th, 2010. So we ask, what is your top weather event of the year? We've provided you with our top nominees, nominated by our forecast staff. You decide the winner. Respond to us on Twitter or Facebook, comment on this post, or send us an email with your vote!

1) February 5-6, 2010 Snowstorm: A significant southern stream shortwave moving northeast from the Southwest States and Mexico brought significant subtropical moisture into an Arctic airmass. The result was a very tight gradient in precipitation, but prolific snowfall amounts. Areas in Southern New Jersey reported over 28" of snowfall by February 6th. Atlantic City received just over 16" of snow, while most areas north of Staten Island received no accumulation. Check out the National Weather Service's snowfall accumulation map detailing the sharp gradient and prolific snowfall totals.

2) February 10, 2010 Snowstorm: Just a few days after the prolific snowstorm in the Mid-Atlantic on February 5-6th, a significant northern stream feature roared southeast out of Canada towards the Northeast US and Middle Atlantic. The feature dug far enough south to spawn a strong surface low off the Mid-Atlantic coast which moved northeast directly over the 40/70 Benchmark. The result was a dynamic snowfall over most of the region. Although the snowfall amounts were not quite as prolific, the area covered was more broad..and certainly had a greater impact on our area as far as coverage is concerned. Check out the National Weather Service's snowfall accumulation map detailing the coverage of the snow. The snowstorm also did it's job to blanket most of the Eastern US in snow cover.

3) February 26th, 2010 Snowstorm: In one of the more rare synoptic setups in recent memory, a strong surface low and upper level system moved in a perfect position to tug a strengthening and deep surface low northwest and then west-southwest from East of Long Island, into Connecticut, and then under the Long Island Sound....and still produce significant snowfall! Areas in New Jersey, Southeast New York, and Connecticut reported over 20 inches of snow with significant winds. Blizzard warnings were issued for parts of the area and the snowstorm impact was very large with heavy wet snow. The National Weather Service's snowfall accumulation map details the prolific amounts of snow.

4) March Nor'easter: A significant upper level cutoff low developed over the Southeast United States..and low pressure formed over the Mid-Atlantic states. A strong onshore flow and prolonged period of the strength of the upper level low and low pressure area meant significant trouble for our area with flooding rains..flooding onshore flow from the ocean..and winds. Winds gusting up to 70 miles per hour in New Jersey and on Long Island along with the rain and wind caused significant damage, power outages, and a State of Emergency in New Jersey. Brooklyn, New York received 6 inches of rain and wind gusts over 80 miles per hour during the height of the storm system. Click here for a list of storm reports from this event. Another strong Nor'easter developed with another strong upper level system on March 29-31 .

5) July Heat Wave: One staple of the summer of 2010 throughout the metro-area was the heat. And in early July, 2010...it came to a boiling point (no pun intended). A large upper level heat ridge built over the region..with a rare west-northwest flow keeping moisture at a minimum, and keeping the heat very "dry". Temperatures soared above 100 degrees for two days (three at some stations) before any precipitation could even make it's way into the Northeast.

6) September 16, 2010 Severe Weather and Tornadoes: New York City is not known for it's tornadic history, but the past few summers have featured some notable weak tornado touchdowns along warm fronts in the area. This summer featured another--occurring during the middle of a September Day. Severe thunderstorms developed in late afternoon and quickly moved eastward into an area of strong low level shear, where rotation developed on a strong updraft which crossed over New York City. An EF0 was confirmed in Park Slope, Brooklyn and an EF1 was confirmed just south of Flushing, Queens where one life was claimed and a few injured. Several other areas in the NY Metro reported other types of severe weather damage.

7) December 26th, 2010 Blizzard: Probably the most fresh in all of our collective memories, the newly titled "Boxing Day Blizzard" of 2010 dumped a historic amount of snow on some areas this past weekend. Over 30 inches of snow was reported in Elizabeth, New Jersey as well as Rahway and Scotch Plains, New Jersey, with 20 inches or more a very widespread occurrence. This was a result of an upper level phase between the northern and southern jet streams which produced a very strong surface low, which developed from Cape Hatteras to just off the New Jersey Coast by the 26th of December, and then moved eastward over Cape Cod. The surface low dropped to a central pressure of 961mb, equivalent to a Category 2 Hurricane. With the low passing so close to the region, wind gusts were significant as was the heavy snow which produced a confirmed blizzard at LaGuardia, Kennedy, and Newark airports.  The National Weather Service's snowfall accumulation map details the high impact system.


So, there they are. We nominated them, you pick them! Two of the events will be left off, and the remaining five will be ranked by the number of votes they received. Voting continues for the next seven days, so get your votes in while you can. We know it may be hard to rank them in order, but give it a shot! We'll write a full synoptic re-analysis on the winning weather event.