Southerly High-Wind Events in Southern New England: Climatology and Synoptic Setting

Southern New England is frequently affected by cold season windstorms, in which primarily southerly winds can cause extensive damage. These events do not fuel the extensive media coverage that nor’easters and tropical events do, despite often being more destructive and disruptive. To gain understanding of the climatology and role of the synoptic-scale environment, we explore the behavior and characteristics of the 96 events with the highest magnitude observed surface wind (maximum gust, fastest mile, and hourly sustained wind) from 1965 to 2022. Results indicate that the highest frequency and magnitude of events is associated with a due southerly wind. In addition, anomalously mild, near-record breaking temperatures often coincide with these wind events. Composite plots show a synoptic pattern favoring a deep digging trough to the Gulf Coast and anomalous ridging over the East Coast of the United States, extending offshore into the western Atlantic. Several soundings from representative events show an anomalous low-level jet just above the surface and a well-mixed boundary layer, indicating the importance of downward momentum transport.