A fast moving winter storm system impacted the National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office (WFO) Taunton, MA County Warning Area (CWA) with a short duration of heavy snow on February 7, 2003. The system produced a narrow swath of 10 to 16 inch snowfall from northeast Connecticut to Boston, impacting both the mid morning and early evening rush hour commutes. While numerical model guidance suggested that the potential existed for heavy snow, most of the forcing mechanisms were forecasted to be along or just off the coast of southeast New England.

This paper will discuss how satellite imagery and Local Analysis and Prediction System (LAPS) output were used to diagnose the rapidly changing evolution and eventual northwest displacement of the heavy snow band. The paper will address the sharpening of the mid level impulse as seen on water vapor imagery, the evolution of mid level frontogenesis and deformation, and snow growth mechanisms.