2012-13 United States winter storm season

The **2012-13 United States winter storm season** was the first time that winter storms were named by The Weather Channel. The season is currently the only season to exhaust the naming list and move into another list. The season featured above average activity, according to the 2012-2016 average of 23.75 named storms. The season began on November 1, 2012 and ended on April 30, 2013.

## Some attributes

### Third

**Strongest storm:** Plato - 954 millibars

## Other attributes

### Fourth

**Maximum snowfall:** Gandolf - 46.8 inches

## Storms

### Winter Storm Athena

Winter Storm Athena formed on November 6. The storm brought unexpectedly high snowfall amounts along a swath from Central New Jersey northeastwards across Southeast New York, Long Island, Connecticut, and South Central Massachusetts. The 4.7" of snow that fell at New York City's Central Park was the city's earliest 4-inch snowfall on record. The old record for earliest 4-inch snow was Nov. 23 in 1989. Last year's Snowtober storm brought the earliest 2" snowfall on record in NYC on October 29, 2011, but the city didn't surpass the 4.7" mark until January 21, as winter basically failed to show up. The 5.7" of snow that fell in Newark, NJ Wednesday was the heaviest single-day November snowfall on record in Newark (going back to 1931), and the earliest snowfall of that magnitude on record (the previous record was set just last year, when the Snowtober storm dumped 5.2" of snow on October 29, 2011.) Several locations in New Jersey and Connecticut recorded a foot a more of snow during Athena, with the storm's highest total of 13.5" recorded in Clintonville, CT. High winds combined with the heavy snows and rains to knock out power to 375,000 additional customers in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut yesterday, and a storm surge of 2 - 3.5' hit most of the mid-Atlantic and New England coasts, from Virginia to Massachusetts. The storm brought waves of 20' to the waters offshore of Long Island, NY and near Block Island, RI. The top winds over water were 61 mph, gusting to 76 mph, in Buzzard's Bay, MA. Athena dissipated on November 8.

### Winter Storm Brutus

Winter Storm Brutus formed on November 8. Brutus brought blizzard conditions from the Sierra to the Rockies. The storm's greatest impacts were to the Northern Plains, where moderate blizzard conditions occurred. The top snow total from Brutus was 25". Brutus dissipated on November 11.

### Winter Storm Caesar

After nearly a month of inactivity, Winter Storm Caesar formed on December 8. Caesar impacted the Northern Plains and the Upper Midwest in early December. Caesar produced 11" of snow in St. Cloud, Minnesota, which was the most snow on one day in December for that city. The Twin Cities area picked up 10.5" of snow from Caesar also. The storm also ended the 279-day streak of no measurable snow in Des Moines, Iowa. Caesar dissipated on December 10.

### Winter Storm Draco

Winter Storm Draco formed on December 17 and produced heavy snow across the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes. Draco produced wind gusts up to 100 mph in the Cascade Mountains. Snowfall also accumulated to at least 20" of snow in the Cascades. Draco dropped at least 20" of snow in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin and 13.3" in Madison, Wisconsin. Des Moines recorded 12" of rain and Omaha reported thundersnow. Draco dissipated on December 21.

### Winter Storm Euclid

Winter Storm Euclid formed on December 23. Euclid caused snow on Christmas, and also caused a major tornado outbreak in the Southern United States. Euclid produced the snowiest Christmas on record in Little Rock, where 9" of snow fell. Much of the states east of the Mississippi River got snow on Christmas night and afterwards. Euclid caused more than 1 foot of snow in Illinois and Indiana. Drifts in Indiana accumulated to 4 feet. Euclid dropped 27" of snow in Vermont. Euclid dissipated on December 28.

### Winter Storm Freyr

Winter Storm Freyr formed on December 28. Freyr brought a swath of post-Christmas snow from Missouri to Maine. Generally, 4-6 inches fell from eastern Missouri through the Ohio Valley, with somewhat higher totals in the Northeast. Like Athena, Freyr dumped some small pockets of much heavier snow including 20 inches in East Machias, Maine, and 13 inches in Burrillville, Rhode Island. Freyr dissipated on December 30.

### Winter Storm Gandolf

Winter Storm Gandolf formed on January 10. Gandolf was similar to Brutus in its geographical domain, bringing blizzard conditions to Idaho, Montana, and North Dakota. Gandolf was a particularly nasty storm for the Salt Lake City area, where 1 to 2 feet of snow fell; up to 45 inches fell in the Wasatch Range just to the east. Gandolf dissipated on January 12.

### Winter Storm Helen

Winter Storm Helen formed on January 15. Sleet and snow, accompanied by lightning, made the January 15 morning commute a mess for Dallas-Fort Worth. Freezing rain accumulated in parts of Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Helen finished with some light to moderate snow (up to 5 inches) in parts of the Northeast. Helen dissipated on January 16.

### Winter Storm Iago

Winter Storm Iago formed on January 17. Iago was the second winter storm in a row for parts of the Deep South. It brought up to 6 inches of snow to Mississippi and 1 to 5 inches in northern Alabama, causing travel slowdowns; the snow quickly melted, however. Up to a foot of snow fell in the Appalachians of eastern Kentucky and western Virginia, with lighter snows into Raleigh, North Carolina and Richmond, Virginia.

### Winter Storm Jove

Winter Storm Jove formed on January 21. Before Jove was named, the storm caused a fatal 86-vehicle pileup near Cincinnati on January 21. Jove dissipated on January 22.

### Winter Storm Khan

Winter Storm Khan formed on January 25. Khan brought a stripe of light to moderate snow from Wisconsin through West Virginia. Farther south, significant ice accumulations occurred from Kentucky and Tennessee through far northern Georgia to the Carolinas, causing power outages and traffic accidents. Khan dissipated on January 26.

### Winter Storm Luna

Winter Storm Luna formed on January 27. Luna was more of an ice storm than a snowstorm, though parts of Michigan saw up to 11 inches of snow. Ice accumulation of 1/4 to 1/2 inch struck northeast Iowa, northwest Illinois, and southeast Minnesota. Over 200 flights were cancelled at Chicago's O'Hare Airport on Sunday, January 27, and a similar number of flights were cancelled at Newark and LaGuardia airports in the New York area the next day. Luna dissipated on January 28.

### Winter Storm Magnus

Winter Storm Magnus formed on January 29. Magnus caused a tornado outbreak that produced a deadly tornado in Georgia. It did cause major rush-hour headaches in the Des Moines area on January 30, when over 6 inches of snow fell there. Totals reached 14 inches at Snyder Lake, Michigan. Magnus dissipated on January 30.

### Winter Storm Nemo

Winter Storm Nemo formed on February 8. Nemo was the second snowiest storm of the season, with a maximum snowfall total of 40". Nemo is still one of the snowiest named storms on record. Nemo caused 18 fatalities in New England. Nemo dissipated on February 10.

### Winter Storm Orko

Winter Storm Orko formed on February 10. Orko was another in a series of blizzards that pummeled the Northern Plains this winter. At one point over 800 miles of Interstate highway were closed in the Dakotas and Minnesota, consisting of long stretches of I-90, I-94, and I-29. Upper Midwest blizzards are usually known more for extreme wind speeds than for extreme amounts of snow, but not this time. Over 20 inches of new snow fell in parts of North Dakota and Minnesota, and over a foot in parts of South Dakota. Orko dissipated on February 11.

### Winter Storm Plato

Winter Storm Plato formed on February 18. Plato brought up to 6 inches of snow to western parts of Virginia and North Carolina on February 18, and even South Carolina got in on some 1-to-5-inch amounts. Flurries fell as far south as Charleston, South Carolina. Plato then "bombed" off the East Coast, meaning its pressure dropped very rapidly. In this case, to a very impressive 954 millibars. However, with the track farther offshore than Nemo, its effects on the Northeast were much more modest. Generally, 1 to 6 inches of snow fell in southern New England, with some reports of 8 to 12 inches in Maine. Plato dissipated on February 20.

### Winter Storm Q

Winter Storm Q formed on February 19. Q was one of the longer-lived winter storms of the season, starting with snow in the mountains of California on February 19, disrupting road travel over mountain passes in both southern and northern California. Play was suspended at the Accenture Match Play Championship golf tournament in Tucson on February 20 as snow fell there. Q was the second-biggest snowstorm on record for Wichita, Kansas, where 14.2 inches fell between February 20-21. Heavy snow also caked parts of Nebraska, western Iowa, and western Missouri. Q spawned a secondary coastal low that brought over a foot of snow to coastal parts of New Hampshire and Maine on February 23-24. Q dissipated on February 24.

### Winter Storm Rocky

Winter Storm Rocky formed on February 24. Rocky was the second major winter storm in a row for the central and southern Plains region. The snow reached farther south with Rocky than with Q, and brought Amarillo its third-heaviest snowstorm of record (19.1 inches) along with 75-mph wind gusts that paralyzed the Texas Panhandle with widespread blizzard conditions and drifts of up to 7 feet. Coming on the heels of Q, Rocky's 7 inches of snow pushed Wichita to its snowiest month on record, a 21.2-inch total that eclipsed a record coincidentally set exactly 100 years earlier in February 1913. Rocky went on to bring very heavy snow to Wisconsin and extreme northern Illinois, and yet another round of double-digit snow to northern New England. Rocky dissipated on February 26.

### Winter Storm Saturn

Winter Storm Saturn formed on March 3. Snow spread across the Midwest, including 9.2 inches in Chicago, though roads mostly remained wet and traffic delays were minimal. Heavy wet snow knocked out power for tens of thousands in Virginia and West Virginia, with over 20 inches reported in the higher elevations; but warm temperatures limited accumulations to less than an inch in Washington, D.C., where it quickly melted. Saturn intensified and slowly sideswiped New England with heavy snow and relentless pounding surf, leading to major coastal flooding and beach erosion yet again in eastern Massachusetts. Snowfall totals exceeded 20 inches across much of central and eastern Massachusetts. Saturn was the longest lived storm of the season, at 7 days when it dissipated on March 10. 10 fatalities occurred from Saturn.

### Winter Storm Triton

Winter Storm Triton formed on March 8. Triton spread mountain snows from southern California through the Great Basin and central Rockies, bringing locally over two feet to some of the higher terrain in Colorado. Triton then spread somewhat disorganized but locally heavy bands of snow across the Central Plains into the Upper Midwest. Omaha picked up 9 inches; local double-digit totals stretched from Nebraska to Upper Michigan. Triton dissipated on March 11.

### Winter Storm Ukko

The Weather Channel named Winter Storm Ukko on Sunday, March 17. By the next morning, a long stretch of I-94 in northwest Minnesota was closed as blizzard conditions enveloped the eastern Dakotas and western Minnesota; rush hour was snarled in the Twin Cities. Ukko brought a glace of ice to parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania, and widespread snows from Pennsylvania and New York into New England. Parts of northern New England saw over a foot of snow on March 19-20. Heavy lake-effect snows broke out across the Great Lakes region in the cold air mass behind the storm. Ukko dissipated on March 20.

### Winter Storm Virgil

Winter Storm Virgil formed on March 22. Winter Storm Virgil dumped a long swath of snow roughly along the length of the I-70 corridor from Utah east to Maryland, along with parts of some adjacent states. The storm moved out to sea and away from the Mid-Atlantic on the evening of Monday, March 25. Denver and St. Louis both saw around a foot of snow. Springfield, Illinois was buried under 18.5 inches of snow, of which 17 inches fell March 24, setting an all-time snowfall record for any calendar day in Illinois's capital city. Indianapolis recorded its biggest snowstorm of the season with 9.1 inches. In the Mid-Atlantic, Washington, D.C. picked up 1.4 inches, which was their biggest snowstorm of the season. Baltimore saw 3.2 inches and Philadelphia recorded 1.1 inches. Virgil dissipated on March 25.

### Winter Storm Walda

Winter Storm Walda formed on April 7. Walda brought snow and ice primarily to a swath from the central Rockies to the Upper Midwest, but an unusually strong southward plunge of cold air behind Walda brought freezing rain as far south as Texas, and freakish severe thunderstorms with large hail in Nebraska where temperatures were well below freezing. Walda's worst weather, however, was reserved for South Dakota's two largest cities. On the western side of the state, Rapid City Regional Airport picked up 28.2 inches of snow, the biggest snowstorm on record at the airport location. Across the state, Sioux Falls was hit by a round of heavy freezing rain on Tuesday, April 9, knocking out power to tens of thousands of customers in the city of 150,000 residents. Walda dissipated on April 12.

### Winter Storm Xerxes

Winter Storm Xerxes formed on April 13. This late-season storm brought yet another round of unwelcome snow to the Upper Midwest, particularly North Dakota and northeastern South Dakota. Interstate 94 was closed across nearly all of North Dakota at one point during the storm. Parts of Bismarck, North Dakota, picked up nearly two feet of snow. The official total of 17.3 inches there on April 14 alone made that day the snowiest calendar day in the history of North Dakota's capital. Xerxes dissipated on April 15.

### Winter Storm Yogi

Winter Storm Yogi formed on April 15. Snow totals exceeded two feet in parts of Wyoming and northern Colorado, and amounts of 20 inches or more also piled up in parts of northeast Minnesota and northern Wisconsin. Duluth racked up a three-day total of 17.7 inches. Yogi dissipated on April 19.

### Winter Storm Zeus

Winter Storm Zeus formed on April 22. The northern and central Rockies and the Upper Midwest were blanketed by accumulating snow. The snow pushed downtown Rapid City, South Dakota and Duluth, Minnesota to their snowiest months (not just April, but any month) on record. Zeus petered out over Kansas on April 23 with some light snow across northern parts of the Sunflower State, but not before bringing at least 9.2 inches of snow to Goodland, Kansas, the heaviest snowfall ever recorded so late in the season there. Zeus dissipated on April 23.

### Winter Storm Achilles

Winter Storm Achilles formed on April 30. Having gone through the entire planned alphabetical list of names, the students at Bozeman (Mont.) High School's Latin class created their secondary proposed list of storm names. Achilles dumped over 20 inches of snow on the mountains of Colorado and Wyoming, where late-April and early-May snowstorms are nothing unusual. Preliminary data indicated statewide snowfall records for the month of May may have been broken in Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota, all of which saw localized snowfall of more than 10 inches. It was the first measurable May snow ever recorded in Arkansas, and the first May flakes ever seen in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Achilles dissipated on May 4, which makes it an off-season storm.

## Storm names

Storm names were provided by the Bozeman High School's Latin class in Bozeman, Montana. The name Achilles, was part of an unreleased secondary list.

* Brutus
* Caesar
* Draco
* Euclid
* Freyr
* Gandolf
* Iago
* Jove
* Khan
* Luna
* Magnus
* Orko
* Plato
* Q
* Rocky
* Saturn
* Ukko
* Virgil
* Walda
* Xerxes
* Yogi
* Zeus

### Secondary list

A secondary list was unreleased by Bozeman High School's Latin class, so only Achilles is shown.

* Achilles