The November 2006 nor'easter was a powerful extratropical cyclone that formed offshore of the Southeastern United States on November 20, bringing heavy rains, high winds, beach erosion, and coastal flooding to the Carolinas and southern New England. In addition, the earliest snowfall ever noted in both Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia occurred on the southwest side of this cyclone. Over 10,000 were without power during the storm. No longer a nor'easter, the extratropical cyclone accelerated rapidly across the North Atlantic while rapidly strengthening, becoming a cyclonic storm again by November 25, but this time with hurricane-force sustained winds. The intense low made a cyclonic loop west of Iceland, before being absorbed by another strengthening extratropical cyclone to the west of Great Britain, late on December 1.
Meteorological synopsis
A shortwave moved through the southern stream of the polar jet of the Westerlies, dropping temperatures in its wake across the southeast United States. Cyclogenesis spurred a developing surface cyclone which quickly occluded on November 20. Surface pressure gradient between this cyclone and a sprawling high stretching around its periphery from New England into the Deep South led to strong winds in the Carolinas. The cyclone deepened to a central pressure of before swinging westward into the Outer Banks of North Carolina on November 22. At this time, a trio of upper-level shortwaves were rotating around the main closed cyclone aloft, which spurred development of a new, weaker low pressure center offshore North Carolina. This cyclone was weaker after its interaction with North Carolina until it reached New England, when renewed strengthening led to significant impacts across Long Island and southern New England. The system then began accelerating east-northeast while continuing to slowly strengthen, passing offshore Atlantic Canada on November 24. The cyclone subsequently bombed, or strengthened quite rapidly, and accelerated east-northeast, becoming a hurricane-force storm in the far north Atlantic with a central pressure of by the afternoon of November 25 and peaking at by the morning of November 26. Slow weakening occurred soon afterward as the system slowed down and turned towards Iceland. By the evening of November 27, its central pressure had increased to while located a couple hundred miles south of Iceland. The cyclone continued to loop cyclonically west of Iceland, absorbing a cyclone along the way as it passed southwest off the southern tip of Greenland, before a developing gale approaching Great Britain absorbed this cyclone late on December 1.
Preparations
There had been indications in the forecast model guidance as early as the first week of November that weather would be unsettled/rainy across the eastern United States around November 23. Within seven days of the event, medium range forecasts generally maintained the idea of a coastal storm offshore the Southeast, though its progression out to sea remained uncertain until November 21, after the cyclone actually formed offshore the Southeast United States and began edging northeast.
Virginia
On the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, officials restricted the types of vehicles that could cross the span between Virginia Beach and the Eastern Shore to cars and pickup trucks. Poquoson Public Schools were closed, and the Midtown Tunnel between Norfolk and Portsmouth was shut down because of the possibility of flooding. Sandbags surrounded buildings at Langley Air Force Base, which lies above sea level, and all computers and electrical equipment were waterproofed.
Maryland
The Maryland State Highway Administration worked to clear storm drains of branches and leaves and called in more patrollers to assist motorists in the event of an accident or stranded vehicle. The administration also prepared for falling branches, by making sure the department's chain saws had enough gas.
Effects
Florida
Snow flurries fell as far south as central Florida on the backside of this system. Snow flurries were reported in Orange, Seminole, and Volusia Counties. It was the earliest snow had ever fallen this far south, and only the second time on record snow had fallen in Florida in November.
Georgia
Snow mixed in with rain around noon on November 21, which led to the earliest trace of snow on record in Savannah. Just inland, 5–7 inches of snow fell across extreme southeast Georgia.