2/1 - 2/3 NOW S. PLAINS/MIDWEST/GL/

[Dan Robinson]

I decided to take my chances with missing surefire events close by (blizzard to my west and north, ice storm to the east) and document this storm in downtown St. Louis. I was after some blizzard-like scenes in the city with hopefully thundersnow at some point. Alas, the warm layer aloft made this storm a non-event (compared to the forecast) for most of the STL metro, with mostly sleet throughout the entire event. Back home in New Baden, IL (on the extreme eastern side of the STL metro) my place had seen mostly freezing rain, but with only about 1/4 inch of ice by late afternoon. After dark, more FZRA passed over for a couple hours, but seeing no power flashes nor hearing snapping limbs, I just went to bed. I awoke to this morning to find we had received over 1/2 inch of ice total, a legit ice storm. Here are some photos:

http://stormhighway.com/blog2011/feb211a.shtml

 

[Robert Dewey]

After all is said and done, we made it to 6.5 inches. Looks like the norther sections of the DTX CWA were able to make it into the 9-14 inch range, so it wasn't as epic of a fail as originally thought.

 

[Bob Hartig]

Twenty-eight inches here in Caledonia, MI.

Okay, I'm lying.

But we definitely saw a good foot, possibly as much as 14 inches. I see that nearby Ada logged 13.4 inches. Sounds about right.

This evening I took a drive out in the country in the hopes of getting some great photos. The plows have made a single swipe down many of the backroads, but some places weren't very user-friendly and in at least one stretch by Elmdale, I wondered whether I wouldn't wind up getting stuck.

 

[beaudodson]

Drove to northern Illinois to cover the event. Had a great time. Experienced three hours of thundersnow. Very low visibility with heavy and severe blowing snow. I measured winds over 40 mph several times. Gusts were over 50 mph. Snow and sleet literally hurt your skin and eyes. I will bring goggles next time.

15-18 inches of snow here at my location. You can see from some of the photos - the depth.

I captured some thundersnow on video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKjDZ8Sbjj4

Also posted my photos here
http://beaudodson.smugmug.com/Weather/Blizzard-2011-Illinois-Chase/15662322_hfBxj#1173869658_qw4by

Slide show option on the right side - top

This was the best blizzard event I have ever experienced. Could hardly stand in the wind at times and you had to turn your back to walk into the wind.

Impressive lightning and wind.

Also more videos - once you get to the thundersnow video - just search my name on there. Few more videos from the event should show up. Posted my event on my Beau Dodson Weather Facebook - tidbits of information.

A+ event - enjoyed every minute of the chase.

 

[Skip Talbot]

Got a time lapse of the snow accumulation just west of Chicago:

Watch video >

My camcorder ran out of disk space a couple hours before dawn and I missed some of the heavy lake effect snow we were getting at the time. You can see the end result at the tail end of the video though. There's also a flash of lightning midway through the video.

Some more pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/album.php?aid=2294907&id=22012908

 

[Aaron Shaffer]

Here in Cedar Rapids I ended up with 14" of snow at my house... some higher amounts then as you headed southeast. We took the station chase car out and were streaming through the blizzard last night and then early again this morning... eventually coming across these monstrosities of drifts - and believe it or not we saw a few that were about 2 feet taller than this later in the drive with cars stuck in them (but there was oncoming traffic so no photography). I was out with Aaron Gerhardt.

 

[Danny Neal]

http://nrnilstormchaser.blogspot.com/2011/02/watch-me-live-as-i-sit-in-ground-zero.html?spref=fb - Through up more pictures and video on my blog. Made a final compilation video of the event from my front step.

 

[Michael Towers]

We got just over 14 inches with considerable drifting, enough it appears to have killed my snowblower. I shot some footage during and after the event:

Watch video >

 

[Aaron Shaffer]

Just captured some of our footage from our chase vehicle during the storm...

Watch video >

Watch video >

 

[Jordan Hartley]

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/02/03/article-1353169-0D02D74B000005DC-186_964x578.jpg Link to the article http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ard-ice-snow-killed-12-crushed-buildings.html

Thought id share this with everyone. Impressive satellite image of the stroms aftermath. 2/3 of the country clothed in white.