When Winter Winds Blow 



by Kathy Hart 



Meteorologists classify them as classic winter storms. 

 Landlubbers know them as snow producers. But 

 coastal folks call them as they feel them— blows." 



Whatever the name, northeasters are known along 

 the East Coast as notorious winter troublemakers. 



Along the southern coast, these low-pressure systems 

 are laden with battering winds and rain. But as they 

 sidle up the Eastern Seaboard, the rain often turns to 

 snow— so much snow that occasionally it buries the na- 

 tion's capital and halts air traffic from the Northeast. 



Wayne Jones, a National Weather Service specialist, 

 says there are three types of northeasters. 



The first type moves from the Gulf of Mexico to the 

 South Atlantic, typically close to Cape Hatteras. There, 

 the storm draws strength from the warm waters of the 

 Gulf Stream before hurling northward in a counter- 

 clockwise swirl. 



These systems are called Hatteras lows, and in 1984 

 a team of scientists assembled in North Carolina to 

 study the formation of the storms. The $7 million 

 research program was funded by the National Science 

 Foundation and the Office of Naval Research. 



Another type of northeaster moves from the Great 

 Lakes or the Ohio Valley to the southeastern coast 

 where it intensifies and then tracks up the Atlantic 

 Seaboard. 



The third type of northeaster derives from a rare 

 alignment of weather systems, Jones says. A strong 

 high-pressure system in the Northwest combines with 

 low pressure in the Southeast to make for strong north- 

 east winds and higher high tides. 



The early December northeaster that mauled Topsail 

 Beach was of the third type, Jones says. But the New 

 Year's Day storm was a typical Hatteras low. 



Although the Jan. 1 storm caused a lot of coastal 

 damage, Jones says the late January northeaster that 

 dropped 8 to 20 inches of snow on western North 

 Carolina was a more powerful storm. 



The difference for coastal residents came in the tide 

 levels. The Jan. 1 northeaster struck on an 

 astronomical high tide; the latter storm did not. 



Jones says the winter storm season, which typically 

 lasts from fall to early spring, varies in its activeness 

 from year to year This year, an active southern jet 

 stream has meant storm after storm has bombarded 

 the East Coast. 



