The spring  that never arrived

Memorial Day Weekend ‘05 approaches
and still no spring in sight

The Boston Globe
Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Often with showers, this May glowers
Deep sun deficit could linger till June
By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

Psychologists say the dark weather can trigger a minor
"seasonal affective disorder" that may manifest itself in
oversleeping, irritability, a lack of motivation, and general
annoyance not only with the ribbons of gray in the sky but
with colleagues, fellow commuters, and family members.

Remember that big orb?

It was yellow. Warm. It used to beat down in a season called spring.

Not this month. A bizarre weather pattern that has stalled chilly temperatures and cloudy skies over New England for much of this month is sending May into the record books as one of the gloomiest.

Sun? Maybe Tuesday.

If three consecutive cloudy May weekends aren't enough, weather forecasters say the latest problem, a spring northeaster that toppled trees throughout the area last night, won't start moving offshore until tomorrow and then only sluggishly. Clouds are expected through Sunday, although temperatures are expected to warm to near normal by Memorial Day.

"It's sort of like the Southeast Expressway; nothing's moving," said Alan Dunham, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton. "I would love to fix it, but there is nothing I can do but forecast it."

Strawberries are late. Lilacs, already in bloom, may last longer. Golf courses have been empty. College commencements have been frigid affairs, with one Boston College graduate Monday wrapping her feet in the ceremonial hood that went with her gown. Boots, fuzzy winter boots, were seen on a walker in Milton yesterday.

Happiness has also taken a hit. Psychologists say the dark weather can trigger a minor "seasonal affective disorder" that may manifest itself in oversleeping, irritability, a lack of motivation, and general annoyance not only with the ribbons of gray in the sky but with colleagues, fellow commuters, and family members.

"People can feel like they are not really able to enjoy themselves even when they do things they really like," said Anthony Piro, chief social worker in psychiatry at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge.

In fact, the only people who appeared excited about the weather yesterday were a group of weather specialists at the Blue Hill Observatory in Milton, including chief observer Bob Skilling, who arrived at work at 5:30 a.m., an hour early, to calculate the weather records. He doesn't like gloom, either, but he loves record-breakers.

Skilling says the month has already hit one all-time record: This has been the only May in 120 years of Blue Hill record-keeping in which temperatures rose above 70 degrees on just one day, May 11.

So far, this is the third-coldest May on record, with an average temperature of 49.7 degrees. Normal is 57 degrees. By the end of yesterday, the sun had shone brightly only 37.4 percent of the time, the fourth-lowest number on record. Typically in May, the sun shines 52 percent of the time.

While the National Weather Service has no official definition for gloomy, Skilling said that considering both temperature and lack of sunshine, this month could be a contender for the second-gloomiest May in record-keeping history. He considers 1917 the worst: an average temperature of 46 degrees with the sun shining only 39 percent of the time.

As rain beat against the observatory's windows yesterday morning, Skilling offered, "I figure if we went through all this, we might as well break a record."

Normally, weather patterns move across the United States from west to east, blowing stormy weather offshore.

But a high-pressure system off Greenland is acting as a blockade, pushing the bad weather back onto New England.

"It is caught," said Dunham. The northeaster, the second this month, was expected to bring coastal flooding during high tides through tonight.

Meteorologists said power outages could occur throughout today, and with nearly 2,000 NStar workers on strike, that particular gloominess could last a while.

"There is the possibility of delays [in getting power back on] if there is widespread damage from the storm," said NStar spokeswoman Caroline Allen.

Along Quincy's Wollaston Beach yesterday, patios were barren of umbrellas and chairs. Roy Kandalaft, co-owner of Tony's Clam Shop, opened by his father 41 years ago, described this as the worst string of opening-season weather he's seen. With fishermen reluctant to go fishing, seafood prices are climbing, he said.

"You can really never make up what you lost," said Kandalaft, who co-owns the restaurant with his brother Gary. At the Clam Box down the street, owner Todd Schwanke said he is trying to take the long view.

"It's just May," Schwanke said. "I've been telling customers that if this weather continues through next week, [then] I'll be worried."

June starts next Wednesday.

Globe correspondent Scott Goldstein and staff reporter Marcella Bombardieri contributed to this report.

A bright fiery ball may appear in the sky briefly Friday.
Don't be alarmed. It's called the sun.

A bright fiery ball may appear in the sky briefly Friday. Don't be alarmed. It's called the sun.

But the nor'easter currently stalled overhead already is increasing the region's weather woes, with wind gusts up to 50 mph responsible for damage in the city.

Last night, the wicked winds dropped a massive 40-year-old American Elm onto a passing taxi and crushed the rear of a Jeep Wrangler on Boylston Street. The taxi driver was hospitalized with minor injuries, police said.

The Jeep's owner was on a first date at the Four Seasons bar and had just moved his now-mangled Jeep to the spot because it had been broken into before. "I thought `Oh, I'll move it here. It'll be a little safer,' " Shea Mullaney of Plymouth said.

As the storm continues today, National Weather Service meteorologists said, we can expect driving rain and moderate flooding along the coast, where high tides could threaten boats and beaches.

Today's temperature won't climb higher than 50 degrees before retreating. But forecaster Walter Drag said if it stops at 49 degrees, Boston will tie the 1967 record for lowest high this late in the season.

This dreary season's endless dark days have turned into a blooming disaster for nurseries and farm stands hopeful June will finally spring gloomy gardeners into action.

"It's been a long winter," said Brenda O'Brien of O'Brien's Florist and Greenhouse in Malden, where withering sales are linked to soggy skies over the past five weekends.

After Friday's brief reprieve, the chilly wetness keeping customers out of their water-logged yards and away from nurseries could continue through Memorial Day.

Weston Nurseries Vice President Peter Mezitt, whose Hopkinton garden center has suffered wilted sales, said, "Our hope is spring is in July this year as well as June."

"It's a huge loss in sales. We're dealing with it the best we can," said Jim Torrey, manager at S.F. Esposito's Nursery in Cohasset, where hanging plants in stock since Mother's Day beg to be spared.

"Our nursery is almost all outside. Everything is getting moldy and mildewy and the flowers are all hurting. It's been a horror."
 

Editorial
What's not to like about this weather?

Time for some positive thinking. There's rain and more rain forecast for the week leading up to Memorial Day. So what can we say in favor of this damp and dreary weather?

Well, for one thing it will be at least another week or two before the folks at the Ipswich River Watershed Association and their colleagues elsewhere in the region can issue their first drought warning. Meantime homeowners can keep their lawns plenty wet — and this water's all free.

No need to wash the car, either. It's been the beneficiary of a continuous, soaking shower.

And just think of the money you're saving on greens fees, beach parking and charcoal for the outdoor grill.

Then there's all that extra time you've found not having to attend the kids' baseball or softball practices or doing outdoor chores.

And think of all that pent-up anticipation you can let loose on that first warm and sunny day which, with any luck, will arrive sometime before the Fourth of July. As the weather guy on WBZ Radio put it the other day, we've got all of the season's warmth ahead of us — because none of it is behind us.

Finally, there's that warm, fuzzy feeling one gets seeing all those ducks waddling around with big smiles on their faces.

The worst of the nor'easter was expected to hit last night
and rain is expected to continue through Monday.

A woman on crutches was rescued from her home in a boat, a broken sea wall endangered homes and basements and streets were flooded yesterday as a late-season nor'easter brought the hammer down on the Bay State.

At its peak, 8,500 people statewide were without power, winds gusted up to 50 mph and coastal backyards turned into ponds.

In Scituate, waves crashed over two-story homes on Oceanside Drive, leaving behind shells, rocks and debris. Lawns were covered with water at high tide.

"You couldn't see the top of the mailbox," said Kathleen Lang-Ruggiero, who lives on the street.

The worst of the nor'easter was expected to hit last night and rain is expected to continue through Monday.

Yesterday, the South Shore seemed to be pummeled hardest, although parts of the North Shore saw some flooding. Oceanside Drive in Scituate was particularly hard hit.

A woman on crutches was rescued at 2 a.m. yesterday by a firefighters with a rubber boat. She called 911 to complain about the smell of gas in her home, which was surrounded by water.

Another woman abandoned her car on the street and left it, headlights on, in the road.

"She thought she could get through," said the woman's mother as she waited for a tow truck.

In Marshfield, an aging sea wall was undermined when the sand below began to give way, menacing two pricey homes on Bay Avenue on Green Harbor. Large boulders were used to buffer the homes.

Several home owners off Quincy Shore Drive in Quincy pumped water out of their basements.

"I looked out at the driveway and water was pouring down like the Mississippi River," said Frank Darche, whose backyard on Chickatabot Road in Quincy looked like a pond.

On Winthrop Shore Drive in Winthrop, about 100 people, in cars and on foot, watched the storm. Drivers passing by Short Beach navigated around splashing waves.

One man surfed at Winthrop Beach, despite the monster waves and a high-wind advisory.

Sewer systems in Winthrop backed up, a large tree fell and several low-lying streets were flooded, said Dave Hickey, director of public works.

Officials were preparing for another day of storm cleanup
after what forecasters predicted would be
the second round of battering by heavy rains and high winds.

Officials were preparing for another day of storm cleanup after what forecasters predicted would be the second round of battering by heavy rains and high winds.

The northeaster that started Tuesday downed trees and caused coastal flooding, but much of the damage was under control by late yesterday, just in time for another night of rough weather.

Peter Judge, spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, said officials were particularly worried that high winds coinciding with a high tide early this morning could cause more flooding.

"Our concern is everywhere that has an east-facing coast," Judge said. "So really, it's the bulk of our coastline from New Hampshire all the way down to the Cape and the Islands."

In Hull, one of the hardest hit areas, police Sergeant Gregory Shea said numerous calls regarding flooded basements were received, including one from a woman who reported a foot of water. Atlantic Avenue was closed for part of the morning due to flooding, and Shea said he expected it to be closed during this morning's high tide.

In addition to flooding, residents throughout the region were dealing with snapped trees and other concerns.

On School Street in Watertown last night, a fallen tree snapped power lines and touched off a two-alarm fire at a two-family house. No injuries were reported.

On Pembrook Road in North Andover, Katie Stewart was cleaning up from a 70-foot maple tree that landed on her mother's house late Tuesday.

Stewart said she was awakened about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday by a "crashing noise that sounded like a jet crashed into the house."

When she reached her mother, Claire Stewart, who was sleeping downstairs, she found about half the house damaged by the tree, which had cracked about 12 feet above the root, she said.

The damages will require demolition of half the house, she said. Ariana, her 3-year-old daughter, slept through the noise.

In Marshfield, officials were keeping a close watch on a stretch of sea wall on Bay Avenue that was damaged by the storm Tuesday night.

"It's just cracked in a few places and it's moved a little bit in the last 24 hours," said fire Captain Gerard Cashman. "They're getting a few trucks to try to reinforce it on the beach side. It's just a moment-to-moment situation."

If the wall were to give way, Cashman said, nearby houses probably would sustain heavy water and surf damage. Power and utilities were cut off to the three closest houses as a precaution, he said. The town recently approved funding in the next fiscal year budget to repair the wall, Cashman said.

In Boston, Bernie Lynch, director of parks maintenance, said the approximately 30 calls his office had received by late yesterday mostly concerned downed trees and branches.

At Logan International Airport last night, incoming flights were averaging a delay of more than 90 minutes, said spokesman Phil Orlandella.

By last night, NStar reported that about 1,000 customers were without power, primarily in its northern service territory from Framingham to Boston, said spokesman Mike Durand. Repairs have been hampered by a strike launched last week by 1,900 NStar's employees.

"We have two-thirds of our workers out on strike right now, so it's conceivable that there were some delays as a result of that," Durand said.

Last night, meteorologist Charlie Foley at the National Weather Service in Taunton predicted a repeat of the previous night "with the astronomical high tides, the increasing winds and another bout of heavy rain," he said, adding there was a likelihood of thunderstorms along the coast, except for Cape Cod and the Islands.

Warnings for high winds and coastal flooding were put in effect until 5 this morning, Foley said, with high tide cycles expected between midnight and 3 a.m. The storm will have dropped a total of 2 to 3 inches of rain in Boston by the time it ends.

Temperatures should reach normal levels for this time of year -- about 70 degrees -- by Monday, Foley said.

But that may be little consolation to bird watchers, who reported that the state's peregrine falcon chicks may have become casualties of the the storms.

Tom French, who heads the state's endangered species program, told the Associated Press that biologists have found only four successful nests, including three in western and central Massachusetts.

Another half-dozen pairs are missing from their usual haunts in downtown Boston, Lawrence, Lowell, and Fall River, French said.

Globe correspondent Amanda Pinto contributed to this report.

Letter to the editor
Ode to another rainy day

What ill-mannered sort of stuff is this to which my day is tethered?

Rope my soul to hell's handbasket that we should call this weather.

More vile yet than sweat-soaked skin all summer-stuck to couchy leather.

I recovered from a broken heart, but this goes on forever.

David Dunne
Cambridge

Like an obnoxious houseguest, the wintry weather that has plagued the North Shore all spring just won't go away.

And it's having a huge and mostly negative effect on local business, spring recreation and even mental health.

"It's unusual mostly because it's so cold," Salem weather expert Arthur Francis said. "The temperature is more like late March. ... It's one of the coldest Mays in a long time."

Often, this cold has been accompanied by winds averaging as high as 50 mph — winds that never seem to stop.

It might seem like it's been raining forever, too, but that isn't true.

"The rain is a little above average," Francis said.

The fact that so much of it has fallen on weekends, however, makes it seem worse.

It's been enough to affect Sam Bradford at the Marblehead Garden Center.

"Business has got to be off easily by 40 percent," he said.

If the cold isn't bad enough to keep amateur gardeners indoors, then the threat of a sudden freeze frightens them away from planting things like tomatoes.

Some of Bradford's plant stock has died, some of it has lost its color and some of it sits waiting for customers who never arrive.

"We have not had a weekend where we've had good sales," he said.

He manages a wry smile, but the fact is he's not likely to make up much of the loss.

"When summer comes, people are not going to go out in the yard," Bradford said. "They're going to go places."

Bruce Doig of the Beverly Recreation Department — who doubles as a Little League official — has been scrambling to make up 30 canceled games. Beverly High School has had a similar problem and is hoping for the best after scheduling three makeup games in girls softball for Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

"This is one of the dampest springs I can remember in 15 to 20 years of doing this," Doig said. "And the cold weather hasn't helped, either."

Troy Campbell's customers at the Salem Willows Arcade enjoy the pinball and skeeball indoors. But ask him how business is and he just gestures and says, "Look around." The parking lot is all but deserted.

Since Mother's Day, he complains, weekends have been wiped out by successive rainstorms. Now he's open on weekdays, too, and a stinging wind blows off the harbor.

"Right down here on the ocean, it's pretty nasty," he said.

Even so, he does most of his business in the summer, and he said he's hoping for better things by then.

The cold has been a bit of a blessing for some boaters, however. It's kept some from preparing their vessels for launch, keeping them out of the water as two nor'easters have battered the coast.

About half as many boats as usual are in Marblehead Harbor, Harbormaster Charlie Dalferro said. He and his staff spent yesterday trying to deal with boats ripped from their moorings in rough water and blown up on the beach.

"There's not much you can do when it's like this," he said.

Heat on in May?

Phil Martinello doesn't like to say he's happy about all this — but it hasn't hurt his business at Absolute Oil in Peabody.

"There's no windfall when it's extremely cold," he said.

When more deliveries are required, his expenses go up.

On the other hand, he acknowledges that it's been an extraordinarily cold 2005, with oil prices still high. Customers have been unpleasantly surprised when they need their tanks refilled in May, "but they take it in stride," Martinello said.

Salem Hospital psychiatrist Jeff Prince said the weather can have a profoundly negative impact on pretty much everyone.

"People feel helpless because they are helpless," he said. The days are longer, the kids are trapped indoors and everyone is irritable.

"It's a test of people's endurance."

But they should remember their Puritan forebears and fight it, he said. Don't give in to junk food, don't sit in front of the television or the video game like a vegetable.

"The weather could be turned into a positive," he said, if people play board games, find ways to exercise and interact with one another.

"If that doesn't work," he said wistfully, "go to Florida."

I don't want to be hardy any more, I really don't. I don't want to turn the other cheek at nature's constant insults. I don't want any more of this cockamamie Calvinist claptrap that says New Englanders are the chosen people who are always expected to persevere.

Here's what I want: I want the damned sun. I want it to shine on my big stupid face.

I want to wake up one of these insipid mornings, look outside, and not have to say: "Freezing drizzle. Better than yesterday."

Because I can't, not anymore, not after what Boston has gone through, not just this week or this month or this whole year, but now what seems like an entire miserable life.

I want what Los Angeles has, that's all, nothing more, nothing less. Or maybe San Diego. Give me mudslides. Give me forest fires. Make us run for our lives, because when we do, at least we'll be running across sun-dappled meadows, not through filth-ridden puddles.

It's late May, for God's sake. I want to drink a beer at Fenway Park to cool off, not in the vain hope that the alcohol will warm me.

I want to dress differently now than I did in March. I want to personally knock the ridiculous grins off the faces of every dermatologist and suburban landscaper who thinks this is the greatest May of our lives.

I want to stop paying the heating bill. I want to open the sunroof on my car. I want to have a reason to call in sick other than I really am sick because of how cold and wet it is outside.

Speaking of which, a friend informed me the other day that I'm probably afflicted with something called SAD, seasonal affective disorder. I told her to shut up.

Still, I looked it up online. It says that lack of sunlight can cause irritability, lethargy, overeating, depression, and anxiety.

Fascinating -- until the moment it wasn't, which was when I disgustedly clicked the computer off so I could finish a bag of potato chips before I locked myself in my room to keep the big dumb world at bay.

By the way, you want to see SAD, I'll show you SAD: Take a look in a mirror.

I don't want to wonder about the windchill factor any more. I don't want to keep thinking that spring is just around the corner.

I don't want to check out Seattle's forecast and see, as I just did, that it's going to be sunny and in the 80s all weekend.

We slog through vicious New England winters carrying the specter of a luscious spring with tulips and bunnies and little drops of dew forming on blades of vivid green grass.

We tell ourselves that winters shape our collective character and that summers are the reward for being better than everyone else.

We believe that we can't fully appreciate the breathtaking beauty of a soft June eve until we've withstood the hard edges of a February morning.

We've made a deal with the devil, weatherwise, and now he's not living up to his end. The result: We've become caricatures of ourselves, endlessly gray, unapologetically cranky, and relentlessly boring. What of it?

I want to personally call the notable Dr. Paul Epstein of the Harvard Medical School who wrote a letter published in yesterday's Globe that said, and I quote: "You were never promised a rose garden. Nasty weather comes with the territory."

I want to call him and respectfully offer a dose of shut-the-hell-up -- and while we're at it, Doc, ever hear of something called SAD?

I believe I speak for the entire male heterosexual population of Boston when I say I'd like to walk down a city street and see a woman in something other than a trench coat.

I want to click onto the weather report and see something other than little pictures of clouds.

I don't want to be tough anymore. Been there, done that.

And the truth is, it was never that great. I give up. Just show me the sun.
 

The Marblehead Reporter
Thursday, June 2, 2005

Violent nor'easters slam coast
By Bette Keva

An ill wind blew, taking down wires, trees, yachts and a barge while spewing rocks over the causeway. And the people grew tired and angry.

First was the unseasonable two-day nor'easter on the weekend of May 14 and 15, which tried men's souls, only to be followed by showers and a three-day nor'easter more violent than the first. It dumped 1 1/2 inches of rain each day for three days in the middle of last week, with Wednesday, May 25 seeing the brunt of nature's fury, according to Water and Sewer Superintendent Dana Snow.

The winds blew 50 to 60 mph, estimated Harbormaster Charles Dalferro who, with his employees, got little sleep as they stayed on call through the wee hours to be on hand for what the high tides would bring.

"We've been out the last two nights; Wednesday [May 25] until 2 a.m. We stayed through the high tide in case any boats got loose. Thursday [May 26] we were here until 1 a.m.," said Dalferro.

Pennants, lines securing boats to their moorings, let go in the relentless wind, sending them adrift on the harbor, where they crashed into other crafts and where their long masts threatened coastal homes. Eventually, a handful of boats ended up on the shore, some beyond repair. At least one brand new yacht owned by Buck Grader had overturned and was bobbing upside down in the harbor on Thursday, according to Dalferro.

"Six boats drifted across the west shore. I notified the owners," said an exhausted Dalferro on Thursday after the brunt of the storm had subsided. The boats were being dragged off the rocky shore by Marblehead and Salem marinas.

"There's a 34-foot boat off Naugus Head on the rocks. The rocks went through the hull. It's beyond repair. It was moored on the west shore," said Dalferro.

There was no one part of the harbor that was hit worse than another, said Dalferro. The storm did not discriminate. Boats broke loose of their lines from all parts of the harbor, and the boats that didn't break loose were at the mercy of those that did.

"It's hard to determine which boat hit which," said Dalferro, who was on his way Thursday to pump out boats in danger of sinking.

The "Summer Wind" went aground at the causeway. A barge sat aground a few feet away. "Second Fiddle" met the same fate.

At Leslie Cove off Front Street, the 34-foot sloop "Adrienne Lee" was thrown ashore with holes on both sides of its hull.

The sloop is a total loss, according to Rick Faris of International Marine Underwriters of Boston, who was surveying the damage last week. He said Alan Zeuli of Salem owns the "Adrienne Lee."

"Marblehead is exposed to the northeast. There's no place to hide. The forecast tells of a nor'easter, but the intensity we never know. This is an act of God; that's what the insurance companies call it. I determine whether its reparable. This boat is not reparable," said Faris, who came to assess two others in Marblehead Harbor, two in Salem, two in Beverly and the rest in Portland, Maine.

Lt. Michael Porter of the Marblehead Fire Department said the causeway was closed May 24 and 25 during high tides. The early morning of May 25 was the worst, with the tides keeping a variety of emergency workers and vehicles on standby at the Eastern Yacht Club where security guard Bob Martin made the stay more pleasant for the police, fire, water, ambulance and Keyspan workers, according to Porter.

The damage could have been worse, however. Poor spring weather prior to the storms meant there were for fewer boats in the harbor during the violent storms, said some local observers. On the other hand, observed the harbormaster, this was one case where the early birds who got their boats in the water before the others did not catch the worm. They instead caught mother nature's wrath.

Besides the damage inside the harbor, all of the town's landings, which had already been repaired for the warm season, were weakened by the nor'easters, said Dalferro. The State Street wharf patio whose bricks and benches had been repaired in anticipation of Memorial Day festivities once again sunk down into the pavement, he added.

"Water comes through the seawall and sucks the dirt and vines out and undermines the bricks," he said. Now the repairs must be redone, he added.
 

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