1/6/2005: SIGNIFICANT PLAINS/MIDWEST WINTER STORM

[Dan Cook]

Just came back in from snow blowing: we've got about 5 inches I'd say. NWS still saying main event later today and tonight.

so far:



Just looked outside: snowing pretty good again.

 

[Jeff Lawson]

We have about 7" of accumulation so far. The snow let up for a brief period around sunrise, but it's picked up again over the past hour or so. Heavy snow expected later today with the approaching low.

[Broken External Image]:http://www.jefflawson.net/wx/jan05_snow_morning.jpg

I think the guy across the street ran the snowblower across his lawn.

 

[Andrew Geil]

Gotta protect that grass from the evil snow.

No snow here yet around Champaign-Urbana (Illinois), but in the last ten to fifteen minutes, we went from a steady soggy rain to ice pellets falling and covering everything in sight. Cars and mailboxes are already glazed over, and the trees are turning white.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

[Broken External Image]:http://www.extremeinstability.com/stormpics/d2732.jpg

Looking outside my window this morning. This stuff is blowing around like nothing I've seen, about. Winds aren't real strong or anything, it just started off powdery ontop of a coat of ice and is blowing off of everything. Notice my car, center car, I've not moved it since it started, so it has not been cleaned off. Going to be some big drifts when the real snow starts later today. Already is some pretty nice drifting happening, obviously.

 

[Tim Stoecklein]

Once again Mike, you've stolen our snow from us. We were in the transition area here in Manhattan, so we've got about a quarter inch of ice on everything. It sleeted all last evening, so we have a hardpack on the lawn that I could even break through when walking out to the shed to get another load of firewood, lol. Now it has finally started snowing this morning, but not fast enough to catch up with Mike's drifts.

Oh well, they closed the University so I don't have to go to work again today Better get the shovel out H, or you're not going to be able to find the car by this evening. Enjoy it, you guys in the "midwest", sounds like Chicago is getting it already with the airport delays.

Tim

 

[Jeff Lawson]

I didn't fully realize how much snow we had until I got to shoveling the driveway. And we're going to get another 8-10" on top of this? Jeez. I'm moving back to Texas.

 

[Robert Dewey]

Well, I'm not so sure I'm going to be gettin all snow after all... The 12Z ETA brings in a pretty thick warm layer aloft, reaching close to 5C at 850mb, with nearly 0.50 inches of QPF, which would most likely be ice. Both the NGM and GFS are colder, and would be all snow... All of the mesoscale models keep the 0C 850mb line pretty far south of my area, so I would be more inclined to say all snow, but who knows...

 

[Jeff Wear]

Here in Norman icing was fairly minimal - there is a light coating on bushes and especially cars, but thankfully the period between the time the temp fell below freezing and the precip changed over to sleet was fairly brief. Sleet was quite heavy at times between about 9-11am. Temp is down to 23.0 now so everything has turned to ice - including all the standing water around from the 1"+ of liquid rain we had early this morning.

I put up some pics of my ice covered car and the sleet covered ground here....

http://www.theperksofchasing.com/accounts/...5/pix050105.htm

 

[Jon Miller]

We're currently (Wed) having an ice storm here in west central Ohio - got about a 1/4" of ice on everything so far since this morning - 1/2" to 1" of ice predicted for this area by tomorrow -which I hope they're wrong ! I'll take snow any day over ice but better yet - rain.

 

[Mikey Gribble]

In Wichita we have some serious power problems. We had significant icing on trees and power lines but the roads didn't start to freeze until it changed to sleet so the streets aren't real slick. We lost power at our house Tuesday morning and it still hasn't come back yet. They were saying on the news that it could take up to a week to get all the power back on. The tempature in the house was in the mid 30's this morning. Wichita has the layer of ice and sleet and then maybe an inch of snow. This sucks.

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

4" was the average measurement as of 2pm in Rockford. 11" was the max in drifts.

Aaron

 

[Robert Dewey]

Doesn't look like our NWS offices are communicating with each other very well:

We have a snow advisory for 5-8 inches of snow, surrounded by a winter storm warning for 5-8 inches of snow, with a winter storm watch just north of the advisory. And, of course, I live in the "advisory" area... Looks like their always out to ruin my storm! :lol:

[Broken External Image]:http://www.waveformpc.com/warnings.JPG

 

[Jeremy Lemanski]

Originally posted by rdewey
Doesn't look like our NWS offices are communicating with each other very well:

We have a snow advisory for 5-8 inches of snow, surrounded by a winter storm warning for 5-8 inches of snow, with a winter storm watch just north of the advisory. And, of course, I live in the \"advisory\" area... Looks like their always out to ruin my storm! :lol:

[Broken External Image]:http://www.waveformpc.com/warnings.JPG

oh, i love what DTX has done. We have a winter storm watch up about 12 hours before the event starts. APX has up to a foot along lake huron because of lake enhancment, which means the thumb should get roughly around the same. they have winter storm warnings up. :?: :?: I'm confused.

BTW, you notice there seems to be alot of new forecasters at DTX based on there little sig. at the bottom of the discussions. maybe they are rookies and don't have the knowledge of the local area?

 

[Robert Dewey]

Originally posted by Jeremy Lemanski+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jeremy Lemanski)</div>

<!--QuoteBegin-rdewey

Doesn't look like our NWS offices are communicating with each other very well:

We have a snow advisory for 5-8 inches of snow, surrounded by a winter storm warning for 5-8 inches of snow, with a winter storm watch just north of the advisory. And, of course, I live in the \"advisory\" area... Looks like their always out to ruin my storm! :lol:

...

oh, i love what DTX has done. We have a winter storm watch up about 12 hours before the event starts. APX has up to a foot along lake huron because of lake enhancment, which means the thumb should get roughly around the same. they have winter storm warnings up. :?: :?: I'm confused.

BTW, you notice there seems to be alot of new forecasters at DTX based on there little sig. at the bottom of the discussions. maybe they are rookies and don't have the knowledge of the local area?[/b]

Yeah, actually APX is calling for close to a foot for tomorrow, GRR says roughly 5-8 tonight/tomorrow (with a warning), while DTX says 5-8 tonight (with an advisory)... I thought 8 inches is warning criteria? For a 12 hour period, 6 or more is a warning, and for a 24 hour period, 8 or more is a warning... :?:

 

[Robert Dewey]

Does anyone know what's going on over CO with this upper level low on the WV loop?

http://www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/satellite/...lt_big&itype=wv

It looks like the upper level low is actually spinning clockwise, as of 5:15PM ET.