page_title: December 2010 North American blizzard
section_title: Meteorological history
hierarchical_section_title: December 2010 North American blizzard / Meteorological history
caption_attribution_description: English: Infrared satellite image taken of Eastern United States
context_page_description: 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 12 and 32 inches of snow in many of these areas.
context_section_description: On December 5, 2010, an extratropical disturbance developed in the western Gulf of Alaska, along a stationary front. 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. On December 9, a new low pressure area formed to the south of Alaska in the storm system's circulation, becoming the dominant low of the storm on December 11, when the original low pressure center dissipated over the coast of British Columbia. During the next few days, the storm system slowly looped back westward while slowly strengthening, before moving back towards the West Coast on December 13. 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, while the new low stalled in the northern Gulf of Alaska became the dominant low of the storm.
  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. 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. 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, 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 20 inches of rain to the San Gabriel Mountains and San bernardinos and over 13 feet of snow in the Southern California mountains and 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. On December 22, after stalling off the West Coast for 5 days, the weakened system finally approached Southern California and began moving ashore, making landfall early on December 23, which finally put a temporary end to the Pineapple Express event. Later the same day, the winter storm weakened into a small, 1011 mbar storm, after moving eastward into the Four Corners region. 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. By the time the winter storm reached southern Texas later in December 2010, almost all of the system's convection had dissipated.
  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. The core of the storm eventually moved southeast into the Gulf of Mexico then abruptly turned shar
caption: Infrared satellite image of the storm on Monday, December 27, 2010
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