2011 - The Year of Weather Extremes in New England

For those who know me, you know I always wanted to be a weatherman.    I used to track the weather daily when I was a kid, by watching the weather on the news and the Weather Channel and track the local weather using charts just like they do on TV.  Even today, a day still doesn't go by where I don't connect to weather.com to check local and national weather.  If anyone asks me what the weather is in a certain part of the country, I am likely to know.   One of the reasons, I love living in New England is that the weather is very changeable.   As far back as I could remember, the New England area did not have a year like we have had in 2011.  Here is a review of this year.

The year started with one of the worst Januaries in terms of cold and snow in Boston history.   I was getting my daily legs and back workout digging out of numerous snowstorms that seem to hit every other day.  This year was the first year I had to even shovel my roof!  The snow blitz continued into February which prompted me and the family to take a road trip to Florida to feel what it is like to experience warm and sunny weather again.

The spring was relatively dry and warmer than past springs.  Nothing too hot, but I started to notice that the springtime thunderstorms were more severe compared to past years.  Other parts of the country experienced the biggest and most deadly tornado outbreak in history.  Raleigh, North Carolina, Joplin, Missouri and Alabama come to mind.    One thought I had was that the Southeast US was having warmer than normal weather while the Midwest was in a deep freeze into the spring, causing a clash of the air masses.

In June, it was our turn with tornadoes.  I remember June 1st like it was yesterday.  I was driving home from meetings in Boston and the weather reports were saying that conditions were favorable for tornadoes even as far east as Boston, which is very rare due to the ocean effect.  I noticed the sky becoming an eerie black/green color too in the distance.  Around 5:30pm or so, my biggest fear happened.  Numerous tornadoes touched down in western and central Massachusetts, including one that went through downtown Springfield.  The weather reports were saying the same line should be hitting the Framingham area. I have never been in a situation like this before and was thinking the worst, like where would we live after my house gets destroyed.   Luckily, the funnel clouds lifted up about ten miles west of me, so all we got was severe thunderstorms and the wildest clouds you would ever seen.

We ended up having three more days over the summer with tornado watches, but nothing like June 1st.


Later in July, we started having abnormally hot and humid weather.  On July 20th, Boston had its second hottest day ever at 103 degrees.  For those that don't know, Boston's airport is right on the ocean so it was probably even hotter inland.  We ended up having five or six more days around 100 degrees during the rest of the summer, which is rare here.


In late August, another rare weather occurrence was in the making.  Hurricane Irene was making a beeline toward New England.  For the first time since 1991, a Hurricane was going to hit New England.  The storm ended up downgrading to a Tropical Storm right before it made landfall but caused extensive damage in western New England.  We had a lot of wind in our area and I spent the aftermath cleaning up the tree damage.


September and October were warmer than normal.  There were still beach days well into September, but then in late October, yet another rare weather event happened, a big snowstorm.  Even though only 1-2 inches fell in Greater Boston, almost 2 feet of heavy wet snow fell in Central and Western Massachusetts.  Who would have ever though we would have a White Halloween.  It was weird seeing the trees still green with snow on the ground.  The storm actually caused more tree damage in the area than Hurricane Irene.


Since the October snow event, at this time, we have yet to see a snow flake where I live in Greater Boston.  The late fall featured numerous days well above normal temperatures and even a couple of short sleeve shirt days in December.  The grass is still green here a couple of days before Christmas.


It makes you think, what will we have in store for 2012?  We shall see.

I Think I Got the Guitar Bug Back

2011 was a crazy year from me.  The year started off losing my full-time job at Nokia and led to growing my internet marketing and social media business to a point where this year became my successful year in business.  In the middle of it all, I landed another full-time gig at Osram Sylvania.  But the one thing I regret in it all, is I lost time and desire to play guitar this year.  I actually was getting pretty good at it, up until two years ago.  But time got in the way and as hobbies go, they take a back seat.

That all changed on December 2nd.  My wife won tickets to the Mix 104.1 Not So Silent Night Party with 3 Doors Down, Gavin Degraw and O.A.R.   I was psyched since I think 3 Doors Down and Gavin DeGraw are great musicians.  I did not know much about O.A.R.   All three bands played an acoustic set, which I like since it really brings out the raw talent of the musician.   3 Doors Down had a ton of big hits in the 2000s, so it was pretty cool to see them in an intimate setting like the Lansdowne Pub in Boston.   I am hoping that they get back to being commercially successful again like they deserve.  Gavin DeGraw is the hot star now with the big hit with "All Over You".  He is the new Billy Joel, a New Yorker with tons of talent.   O.A.R was the big surprise.  They are a jam band with a lot of acoustic jams and the crowd knew their lyrics word for word which told me they have a great following. 

Needless to say, this is what I needed to become interested in playing guitar again.  I played this weekend a little and will need to practice to get to where I was in 2009.  I will be looking for lessons so if you know of anyone, please let me know.  Playing guitar is great for us middle age guys!