11/29/06 - 12/1/06 NOW: Plains/Great Lakes snowstorm

[Brian Stertz]

Moderate snow continues...

Back to moderate snow in Overland Park at the time of this post...at 6" presently on the snow accumulation. Looks like several hours of continued snow will bring things up towards the 10" mark here before things wind down. Looks like nose of mid-level dryslot poking up from the south along and east of the KS/MO stateline. This should bring some enhanced lift and snowfall rates for the next few hours.

 

[Danny Neal]

really bad situation in chicago right now, listening to the fire radio there are 13 accidents on the I 55 rt 171 bridge all ambulances are being dispatched from my town and towns surrounded, its freezing rain out, they highway ramps are closed by ISP if any of you are interested try to find the chicago fire dept. on one of those online scanner pages.......heaviest snow should be right over me for the duration, 10-13 inches predicted.......looks like itll be a busy night for the police and fire......at least 25 different accidents were being toned out since 830 pm

 

[Matthew Havin]

Currently in the Saint Louis suburbs in St. Louis County, and we are getting freezing rain and some sleet mixed in as well. Somewhat warmer low level air has moved into areas just south and east of STL and the FZRA is wrecking havok on power lines and trees.

Ameren (our electric company) is reporting close to 70,000 customers without power, and will likely increase over the next few hours as we keep getting the FZRA.

Here is a nice link to watch the MO/IL Ameren outages:

http://www.ameren.com/Outage/ADC_RS_StormCenter.asp

 

[beaudodson]

Posting my reports and images here

http://www.easternuswx.com/bb/index.php?showtopic=115062

 

[Matthew Havin]

Quick update: Thunder and lightning in Saint Louis! Here we go!

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

Quick update: Thunder and lightning in Saint Louis! Here we go!

I have a feeling we might not be getting reports from you here quiclky, the NWS now calling for up to 2" of ice, moisture continues to surge north and winds will begin to pick up there shortly as well it appears much of the city of ST Louis will experience another quite significant blackout

 

[Joel Wright]

Snow is about a half hour or so away. Just talked to a buddy who lives about 30 miles south of me and he said it went from nothing to moderate snow with the ground whitening up in a matter of ten minutes.

 

[Kevin Bowman]

really bad situation in chicago right now, listening to the fire radio there are 13 accidents on the I 55 rt 171 bridge all ambulances are being dispatched from my town and towns surrounded, its freezing rain out, they highway ramps are closed by ISP if any of you are interested try to find the chicago fire dept. on one of those online scanner pages.......heaviest snow should be right over me for the duration, 10-13 inches predicted.......looks like itll be a busy night for the police and fire......at least 25 different accidents were being toned out since 830 pm

Chicago isint the problem, few cities are better at keeping streets clear and wet, as soon as you cross the border into a burb though it gets very bad really fast

on the nw side of the city we have had sleet falling for over 2 hours now, untreated surfaces are very icy however roadways are being treated and are jsut wet

 

[Danny Neal]

Chicago isint the problem, few cities are better at keeping streets clear and wet, as soon as you cross the border into a burb though it gets very bad really fast

on the nw side of the city we have had sleet falling for over 2 hours now, untreated surfaces are very icy however roadways are being treated and are jsut wet

im on the south side they closed I 55 and rt 171 and 79th street and 87 street im currently at one of the accident sites where a fire truck from the summit fire dept was in a ditch, so you are right its not the City of Chicago its the outlying areas with the problems, they also close the mile long bridge do to significant icing......and now just to the south of me the bridgeview fire dept is being called out for a roll over accident.....730 pm nothing....830 pm 15 different subrubs asking for mutual aid and man power......now the heaviest precip seems to be just about to begin to cross our thresholds, some snow flakes mixing in but most still a heavy freezing rain

 

[Joel Wright]

Snowing here now. It went from just cloudy, to moderate snow in a matter of 10 minutes or so. Already a light skift. Winds picking up as well.

Sleet mixing in won't be an issue for me, but the dry air trying to battle in from the north will. We're still progged to get 7-10", but any deviation will affect that figure big time. Of course, if the band pulls just a bit further nw, I'll be pushing a foot.

Nevertheless, it's gone from just a windy and cold night, to a wind driven snow that's already sticking fast..

 

[Joel Wright]

It's been snowing a bit over two hours now, and now have a bit over 1" so far, but coming down pretty heavily now...

 

[Dan Robinson]

A crazy winter storm chase so far! I've been in the STL metro since early yesterday.

A significant ice storm is in progress across the St. Louis metro area tonight. Nearly continuous power flashes from arcing power lines can be seen illuminating the skies around the city. Power outages are widespread and tree damage is extensive.

The power flashes are insane - at times continuous from all directions. I caught one within 1/4 mile in the Florissant area:

Another flash went off on a pole right as we drove by with a loud bang rivaling a lightning strike! You can hear trees breaking everywhere. At around 10PM or so, we experienced a brief period of thundersleet, three flashes of lightning with audible thunder while heavy sleet/freezing rain was falling.

Daylight in a few hours is going to reveal some spectacular scenes here, that is if snow doesn't cover up the ice first.

Many more photos to come in a report thread later.

 

[John Farley]

I am still out west (see my post on the Wolf Creek snowstorm in Weather and Chasing), so I am not witnessing the STL ice storm first hand. However, I spoke with my wife about a half hour ago, and she reports conditions in Edwardsville, IL much like what Dan described in his post - she is hearing limbs breaking about every 30 seconds, and power has been out since 10 p.m. The windows are so heavily coated with ice that she cannot see what type of precipitation is occuring.

I have a feeling that the STL area tomorrow will be looking a lot like Buffalo did after the October lake effect snowstorm.

 

[Joel Wright]

No ice here, but lots of snow. As posted earlier above, the snow started here just a bit before midnight. As of 3:55am I'm passing 5" here with rates exceeding an inch an hour the last few. No lightning yet, but the wind is finally begining to pick up and really blow the snow around now. It looks like another 4-6hrs of snow, so final totals here will approach 10" the way it's looking now...

 

[Matthew Havin]

Reporting from STL again....... still have power here. According to Ameren, Saint Louis metro has over 200,000 customers without power currently!

We had 600K out with the July super wind storm (all-time worst)...... but to have two of these type of events in 6 months is just unbelievable!!