Summer arrives on Sunday afternoon at 12:38 p.m. Summer begins for us in that moment, though the weather and the signs have been around for a while. The precise time is more a concept than anything we can observe, measure in time, or experience. It is a moment when the overhead sun reaches farthest north above the equator, our time. If one could follow the sun at the zenith on this day and draw a line on the ground, the line would be what appears on maps as the Tropic of Cancer, a ring around the earth, at latitude 23.5 degrees.
The ferocious mid-winter weather that has pummeled the Vineyard with snow, ice, wind and frigid temperatures continued without letup over the weekend as another blizzard roared through. The storm began late Saturday and lasted all day Sunday.
After a night and morning of steady snowfall, the snow subsided early Sunday afternoon as a winter storm lashed the Vineyard. Ferries to the Vineyard have been canceled for all of Sunday and the Island is a blanket of white after hours of wind-driven snow for the second time in three weeks.
By many accounts, the blizzard that dropped 20-plus inches of snow and battered the coastline with hurricane-force winds was historic. Days after it first struck, the impact of the powerful two-day storm could still be felt throughout the Island.
Lights flickered out across the eastern part of the state at the height of the blizzard Tuesday, with power outages in every town on Cape Cod, and all of Nantucket going dark. By contrast, few outages were reported on the Vineyard during the first major snowstorm of the season.
The Steamship Authority began cancelling trips late Tuesday morning but had resumed service again by evening. East Chop Drive was closed, parts of Beach Road were under water; the storm was felt up and down the Massachusetts coast
November was rainy — the wettest month of the year so far and the second rainiest November since 1946, numbers from the National Weather Service station in Edgartown show.
The Steamship Authority said they anticipate ferry service disruptions Wednesday because of the weather; a high wind advisory is in effect from 2 p.m. Wednesday until 3 a.m. Thursday. Extra ferry service was added Tuesday for the Martha's Vineyard route.
