City Celebrates brought couples and families, and all the animated characters and entertainers, who filled downtown New Bedford with joy on New Years Eve. Then, with a loud roar and a sudden flash of lights, the sky over the harbor was painted a red layer from within the clouds, caused by fireworks that exploded above the low cloud cover that acted as a lid.
One of the biggest disappointments for fireworks viewers is when the weather is foggy and hazy clouds are low, because it limits the number of actual fireworks that can be seen. Since New Bedford is a port city, we also have to deal with marine cloud layers, which are very low altitude clouds that form over the ocean.
So why have fireworks if you can’t see them?
The decision to go ahead with the fireworks or not was not an easy one. In most cases, a contract is signed with a given alternate day, but the following night required heavier rain so that wouldn’t work.
It was a Catch-22: either shoot them on a foggy New Years night or have no fireworks at all. Also, the deposit money was most likely not repaid to the Bristol County Savings Bank, which paid for them.
“Despite the unfortunate weather, there was no better time for the fireworks than Friday night,” said Mike Lawrence, a spokesman for the city of New Bedford. “The whole weekend was cloudy, so the City decided to run the show as planned, when the crowd was already in the center of City Celebrates and everyone was excited to ring in the New Year.”
Other cities call the fireworks in the fog “May Gray”, “June Gloom” and “No-Sky July”. What if New Bedford calls it “Year-end leave ashore”?
“It was a great and safe way to welcome 2022, clouds and all,” said Lawrence.
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