12/22-12/25/09 REPORTS: Ice, Snow, Wind, Sleet, etc. etc.

[Michael O'Keeffe]

The Great Christmas Blizzard is still bringing us snow here in the KC metro as of right now but the brunt of the snow is over and I'm not sure how much we got maybe 8-10" with drifts between 2-4 feet. I did however make a short chase log of the blizzard which I documented from my house mainly. It was a pretty awesome experience seeing true blizzard conditions!!

http://www.supercellcrazy.com/24Dec2009.html

 

[jshields]

amazing windspeeds at rapid city, sd for the past 8 hours! 60+ mph gusts every hour since 11am this morning.
60, 62, 60, 63, 69, 67, 67, 60 mph gusts

http://www.weather.gov/data/obhistory/KRAP.html

 

[Alan Switzer]

OKC Blizzard 2009

After yesterday, I've decided that a white Christmas looks better on TV.

 

[Justin Griffith]

This is picture from this morning.

Try not to be jealous.

 

[Joel Wright]

We didn't get the blizzard or the heavy snow here, but we had all kinds of interesting weather.

Started out with 1/3" of freezing rain on Wednesday that changed to rain late in the day. Rained Wednesday night through early this morning giving us 1.68". Our temperature was 41 degrees at 10am this morning, but quickly dropped when the cold front came in from the SOUTH. Within an hour it was snowing with howling south winds advecting much colder air in. By mid afternoon we dipped below 20 degrees. Picked up almost 2" of snow so far with some additional snows to come later tonight and tomorrow as weak troughs rotate around the main storm.

 

[Robert Dewey]

I measured 1.10 inches of rain here just north of Detroit. Since 2pm, my weather station has reported an additional 6-7 inches of rain. Yeah, I'm going to have to check it out tomorrow and see what the problem is... at this rate, we'll be flooded out.

 

[Adam Lucio]

Joel,

watching that cold air surge from the south was really interesting. It was 43 at my house and locations to my SW were in the 20s. I cant ever recall cold like that surging in that way, though Im sure its happened. I tried to find a temperature plot that would illustrate it with colors to show people but the only one I found wasn't that great.

Once it passed the temps plummeted so fast all the water on my truck quickly froze and made the doors hard to open. Then it started snowing furiously and we picked up a real quick inch. More coming.

 

[Bart_Comstock]

Great Blizzard of 09 Chase

Well at the VERY last second I decided to do an impromptu blizzard chase and jumped into The Storm Trooper (my jeep) and marched off to the west to meet the Blizzard in Tulsa. I don't really have much to add to the chase log that my footage cant already say so here is my video (in HD) from the great blizzard of 09.



This was my first chase with my new Canon XH-A1s and it really made the grade. Especially in low light performance.

 

[Stephen Locke]

Christmas Blizzard Kansas City 2009

Snow mountain, Country Club Plaza, KCMO

This fellow struggling to keep everything he owns in a blizzard.

Light steeple, Community Christian Church.

 

[Kevin Rolfs]

Ended up with around 5-6 inches here Bartlesville. South and east sides of Tulsa metro got the worst of it for NE Oklahoma. It was awesome sledding weather today too

 

[Chris McBee]

My best guess was 9-10 inches in Norman, with drifts well over 3 feet in places. The first picture was obviously during the height of the storm, the other three are pictures from Christmas morning near my parents' house.

YouTube video (in HD) of the blizzard at its worst, Christmas Eve afternoon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RghgeEXvJIE

 

[Jeff Miller]

Sioux City Area Report

Sioux City, Iowa topped out at 20.7" in a three day epic snowstorm.

First, our latest and (hopefully final) snowfall total:

1200 PM SNOW SIOUX CITY 42.50N 96.39W
12/26/2009 M20.7 INCH WOODBURY IA CO-OP OBSERVER

The storm began on Wednesday, December 23 with what I called "Wave 1". Wave 1 brought approximately 6" of new snowfall to the area. That night was a temporary lull.

On Christmas Eve, December 24, "Wave 2" moved in. This storm brought approximately 5" more of new snowfall, with much more wind. This was followed by yet another temporary lull.

On Christmas Day, December 25, the strongest wave, "Wave 3" moved in, with wind and heavier snow. This snowfall accumulated an additional 8" of snow.

Today, December 26, brought an additional 2 to 3" of snow to the area as wraparound moisture precipitated in additional snowfall, bringing totals to over 20" in many places.

This storm is the 3rd largest snowstorm of All Time in the Sioux City area. This is also the snowiest December ever in Sioux City history, and also the snowiest Christmas in Sioux City history.

I want to apologize for the poor photo quality. These pictures were shot with my cell phone camera. They are not the best quality but no doubt they convey the snow depth enough to get the picture.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

That is a great weather/journalism shot, Stephen---certainly worthy of newspaper/newsmagazine publication.

Ditto, that is a great shot. Makes one remember it's not all fun and games when weather is bad.

And damn Jeff! Looks like the winner so far from all I've seen out of this storm.

I just took a stroll to try and figure snow depth and totals. The back yard didn't work, as even in the flat areas it had more than the front yard. Hell the front in many areas just had the ice covered layer on the 8 inches before this storm. So I thought, hell the wooded hill area near the house will work. Big flat area in there completely covered in trees before a big hill to the west and north. It is 100% protected from the wind in there. With leaves gone, no real pine trees, and ice on the branches, the branches aren't really holding much up.

There's a solid 19-20 inches on the ground here, which is pretty damn rare for this area. You stick the tape measure in and right at 12 inches it stops, hitting that 1/2 inch freezing rain coated snow layer. Give it a good pop down and it goes through that till it hits 19-20 depending on exactly where you are at. So 12 inches from this last storm on the 8 before. Bands of snow keep popping up and trying to add to things, but largely it is done now.

It's really strange walking around in there. You go in to your knee and it feels like if you were walking through a drift, but there are no drifts in there, it's just how much snow is on the ground. As long as it has been blowing out west and here, drifting has to be phenomenal given the right location. A ton of highways are still closed on the NE roads map, like most by the looks of things. Let alone any of the gravel roads. Hopefully there won't be any stranded type of deaths from this yet. Guessing many a farm houses were hosts to strangers this Christmas.

 

[Michael O'Keeffe]

Snow continues to fall on the SW side of KC now for over 48 hours straight! It got heavy for a few hours today giving us an additional 1-2" on top of the 8-12" we already had. The roads are still a complete mess as it seems as soon as the roads clear we get a new burst of snow dumping a nice 1-2" coating on the road.

Just took this as a heavy band of snow moved into the area after 3:00pm. Appeared by the license plate this car was from Ohio, stinks to have that happen far from home.

 

[Chris Carter]

Mike, I dont know where to get info about stranded vechiles on the road during this storm, but from viewing public information on the NWS site, I saw quite a few starting Thursday night when it first started snow. The biggest stranded vechile i heard was 3 tour buses being stranded on a highway out near North Platte.

My guess would be Nebraska probably saw 20-30 stranded vechiles statewide.