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The December 2010 North American blizzard was a major nor'easter and historic blizzard affecting the Contiguous United States and portions of Canada from December 5–29, 2010. From January 4–15, the system was known as ''Windstorm Benjamin'' in Europe.〔 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, Philadelphia, Newark, New York City, Hartford, Providence, and Boston. The storm brought between of snow in many of these areas. ==Meteorological history== On December 5, an extratropical disturbance developed in the western Gulf of Alaska, along a stationary front.〔http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/archives/web_pages/sfc/sfc_archive_maps.php?arcdate=12/05/2010&selmap=2010120506&maptype=satsfcnps〕 During the next few days, the system rapidly intensified, while channeling smaller winter storms and moisture from the Pineapple Express atmospheric river in the west coast of North America, before approaching the North American west coast itself on December 8.〔http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/archives/web_pages/sfc/sfc_archive_maps.php?arcdate=12/08/2010&selmap=2010120800&maptype=satsfcnps〕 On December 9, a new low pressure area formed to the south of Alaska in the storm system's circulation,〔http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/archives/web_pages/sfc/sfc_archive_maps.php?arcdate=12/09/2010&selmap=2010120912&maptype=satsfcnps〕 becoming the dominant low of the storm on December 11, when the original low pressure center dissipated over the coast of British Columbia.〔http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/archives/web_pages/sfc/sfc_archive_maps.php?arcdate=12/11/2010&selmap=2010121109&maptype=satsfcnps〕 During the next few days, the storm system slowly looped back westward while slowly strengthening,〔http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/archives/web_pages/sfc/sfc_archive_maps.php?arcdate=12/12/2010&selmap=2010121200&maptype=satsfcnps〕 before moving back towards the West Coast on December 13.〔http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/archives/web_pages/sfc/sfc_archive_maps.php?arcdate=12/13/2010&selmap=2010121303&maptype=satsfcnps〕 During this time, the storm system channeled more moisture into the Pacific Northwest and other neighboring regions, triggering flooding in some areas. After stalling for a day, on December 14, the central circulation split again, with the original center of circulation intensifying and moving ashore,〔http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/archives/web_pages/sfc/sfc_archive_maps.php?arcdate=12/14/2010&selmap=2010121412&maptype=satsfcnps〕 while the new low stalled in the northern Gulf of Alaska became the dominant low of the storm.〔http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/archives/web_pages/sfc/sfc_archive_maps.php?arcdate=12/15/2010&selmap=2010121506&maptype=satsfcnps〕 On December 15, the Aleutian Low opened up a large atmospheric river (the Pineapple Express) again, over California, which fed the storm system moisture, allowing it to strengthen significantly. This in turn brought torrents of rain and occasional gusts of wind, while the main storm itself slowly strengthened while stalling in the Gulf of Alaska.〔http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/archives/web_pages/sfc/sfc_archive_maps.php?arcdate=12/15/2010&selmap=2010121512&maptype=satsfcnps〕 By December 15, a powerful Kona low (which would later become Tropical Storm Omeka) had also set up near Hawaii, feeding additional moisture into the Pineapple Express, which in turn strengthened the storm system even further. The favorable weather pattern allowed the storm to retain its intensity, even while it slowly moved down towards the West Coast. The massive storm complex slowly looped westward and then southward towards the West Coast, undergoing explosive intensification once more on December 19.〔http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/archives/web_pages/sfc/sfc_archive_maps.php?arcdate=12/19/2010&selmap=2010121900&maptype=satsfcnps〕 The system stalled off the coast of the Pacific Northwest, and weakened slightly. However, the system fully opened up the Pineapple Express over California beginning on December 19,〔http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/archives/web_pages/sfc/sfc_archive_maps.php?arcdate=12/19/2010&selmap=2010121918&maptype=satsfcnps〕 triggering flash floods, mudslides, and landslides across much of the Western States, particularly in California. The Pineapple Express system channeled large amounts of moisture into California, ravaging much of the state from December 15 through December 22, bringing with it as much as of rain to the San Gabriel Mountains and over of snow in the Sierra Nevada. Although the entire state was affected, the Southern California counties of San Bernardino, Orange, San Diego, and Los Angeles bore the brunt of the system of storms as coastal and hillside areas were impacted by mudslides and major flooding. During the time that the storm stalled off the West Coast, the system brought significant rain, snow, and mudslides California the Southwest region. On December 21, the storm complex's central circulation fell apart, as it began to interact with another storm in the Gulf of Alaska.〔http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/archives/web_pages/sfc/sfc_archive_maps.php?arcdate=12/22/2010&selmap=2010122200&maptype=satsfcnps〕 On December 22, after stalling off the West Coast for 5 days, the weakened system finally approached Southern California and began moving ashore,〔http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/archives/web_pages/sfc/sfc_archive_maps.php?arcdate=12/22/2010&selmap=2010122212&maptype=satsfcnps〕 making landfall early on December 23, which finally put a temporary end to the Pineapple Express event.〔http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/archives/web_pages/sfc/sfc_archive_maps.php?arcdate=12/23/2010&selmap=2010122300&maptype=satsfcnps〕〔 Later on the same day, the winter storm weakened into a small, 1011 mbar storm, after moving eastward into the Four Corners region.〔http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/archives/web_pages/sfc/sfc_archive_maps.php?arcdate=12/23/2010&selmap=2010122315&maptype=satsfcnps〕 On December 23, the winter storm interacted with another frontal system, causing the storm to weaken even further, to the point where the storm lost its circulation.〔http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/archives/web_pages/sfc/sfc_archive_maps.php?arcdate=12/24/2010&selmap=2010122400&maptype=satsfcnps〕 By the time the winter storm reached southern Texas later in December 2014, almost all of the system's convection had dissipated.〔http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/archives/web_pages/sfc/sfc_archive_maps.php?arcdate=12/24/2010&selmap=2010122409&maptype=satsfcnps〕 Late on December 24, the winter storm began absorbing an ample amount of Gulf stream energy; as a result, the storm was able to reorganize.〔http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/archives/web_pages/sfc/sfc_archive_maps.php?arcdate=12/24/2010&selmap=2010122421&maptype=satsfcnps〕 The core of the storm eventually moved southeast into the Gulf of Mexico then abruptly turned sharply northeastward into the Florida panhandle and state of Georgia as it merged with an upper-level low pressure system located near Virginia. As it became a stacked low pressure system, the storm system began a period of rapid intensification off the North Carolina coast while tracking along the coast of the Northeast and Newfoundland. The storm had many similarities to 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. On December 27, 2010, the storm had deepened to ,〔〔 equal in pressure to that found in a Category 3 hurricane.〔 Several synoptic factors contributed to the intensity of this blizzard.〔("December 26-27th 2010 Blizzard" ), National Weather Service, New York City〕 The global American and European weather models encountered exceptional difficulty in portraying the path of the storm. The main issue that the models were trying to resolve was whether or not the upper-level low pressure system from Central Canada was going to phase in time with the southern stream energy, thereby revealing if the resulting storm would come up the Eastern Seaboard or simply continue to move east out to sea in the Atlantic Ocean. The latter solution would have only caused the storm to affect the Mid-Atlantic states of Virginia and North Carolina with a modest winter storm instead of the entire Eastern coastline up to Atlantic Canada. As such, it was only 24 hours prior to the storm's arrival in the Northeastern states when all the European and American models were in agreement that the storm would turn up the entire coastline. 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.〔("HPC's Case Study of the December 25–27 Northeast Blizzard" )〕 On December 27, the storm developed into a powerful nor'easter that buffeted the East Coast, reaching its peak intensity. On December 29, the storm weakened and left the United States. During the next several days, the system moved eastward over the Atlantic Ocean. On January 2, the storm began to re-intensify, but the system continued to drift in the eastern North Atlantic for another two days. On January 4, the system was named ''Windstorm Benjamin'' by the Free University of Berlin,〔http://www.met.fu-berlin.de/de/wetter/maps/Analyse_20110104.gif〕 which names all Low and High-Pressure systems that affect Europe. Windstorm Benjamin continued to moved eastwards across the Atlantic, and the storm began to impact Western Europe on January 8.〔http://www.met.fu-berlin.de/de/wetter/maps/Analyse_20110108.gif〕 On January 9, Windstorm Benjamin crossed the British Isles and turned to the northeast.〔http://www.met.fu-berlin.de/de/wetter/maps/Analyse_20110109.gif〕 For the next couple of days, Windstorm Benjamin held its intensity as it continued moving northeastward, before weakening on January 11, due to land interaction with the northern coast of Norway. On January 12, Windstorm Benjamin began to move inland into Western Russia, while slowly weakening.〔http://www.met.fu-berlin.de/de/wetter/maps/Analyse_20110112.gif〕 On January 13, Benjamin accelerated eastward, while rapidly continuing to deteriortate. On January 15, Windstorm Benjamin was absorbed into the circulation of another approaching extratropical cyclone.〔http://www.met.fu-berlin.de/de/wetter/maps/Analyse_20110115.gif〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「December 2010 North American blizzard」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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