2/24/07 NOW: NE/SD/MN/IA/WI/IL/MI/IN (WINTER PRECIP)

[Joel Wright]

Now at 2". 95% of that fell in the last hour.

Things are getting really bad around here now. Many power outages around the area. Luckily mine is still on, but my satellite keeps cutting out. Winds are gusting to almost 50mph now. Davenport hit 47mph at the 4pm ob.

I'm about 20 miles south of where the blizzard warning starts, but if this keeps up it will no doubt need to be extended south. Amounts will easily exceed a foot if it can stay all snow, but I'm expecting more of a mix later this eve cutting back on amounts.

It looks like much of Iowa is changing over now too, so you guys can expect conditions to go downhill very fast.

I'll keep posting updates as long as the power stays on!

 

[Jim Hunt]

Mixture of sleet and ice is now falling in Kokomo, about 45 miles north if Indianapolis. Ice, sleet and snow reported south of here. The winds at my house around 10 mph with gusts topping 25 mph in the past hour.

 

[Josh Richardson]

Blizzard conditions now starting to really kick in here in Northern IA as accums. are rapidly on the rise. I just went out in the country real quick to grab a couple of quick pics before it got extremely bad. I figured I wont get the chance for the rest of the duration of the storm now as there will be too much on the ground too quick. It was already bad enough on the roads out there with up to 1/2 inch of ice on them.

The last pic is showing how much snow started coming down as I was headed back into town....

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h94/jrich557/IMG_0074.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h94/jrich557/IMG_0071.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h94/jrich557/IMG_0076.jpg

 

[Joel Wright]

1/2-3/4" of ice has accumulated now just to my southwest in the Quad Cities. Lots of damage is being done to area trees. 1/3" of ice here. Even though this isn't a huge amount of ice just yet, the fact that winds are exceeding 40mph on a regular basis is a big factor in causing the damage. I believe a few gravity waves have moved through, which may be responsible for the 50mph wind gusts we've been seeing from time to time. Davenport reported sustained 38mph, gusting to 47mph at 5pm again. The Moline ob has said calm the last two hours, so I believe ice has literally froze up their anemometer.

The snow has switched back to moderate freezing rain and sleet here now. It's interesting, it has put a cap on the snow we received just a little while ago, totally killing all the blowing and drifting snow. Very interesting.

 

[Jeff Miller]

Extremely heavy snow with whiteout conditions in Sioux City Iowa with 2-4" on the ground already. Visibilities WELL under a quarter of a mile . This is bad. Road conditions have quickly deteriorated.

Frontal passage was marked with a torrential sleet pour (not underestimating this) and then quickly changed to heavy snow.

 

[J West]

Looks like the event is getting started here in the MKX CWA. I'm near the WI/IL border to the SW of Milwaukee, and the snow has just started with a sudden increase in surface wind out of the ENE. Conditions were overcast and dry and within the last 10 minutes visibility has dropped to under one mile.

The forecast seems on track for a heavy snow/blizzard event but I was a little concerned locally as to whether we will maintain all snow. The snow/ice line is only ~40 miles south of my location and the temp was hovering around 30*F. At this point, my concerns seem unfounded as it's now 28*F with steady snow.

Putting the work hat for a moment: No closures are being discussed, and we usually don't react to anything until it's too late and multiple crashes force us to close parts of the interstate.

 

[Ross Lazear]

Snow just began in Madison and is already falling fairly heavily. Doesn't look like we'll see any mixed precipitation here. I'm figuring we have a very good shot of seeing between 12-16" here...with some snow falling 2" per hour overnight.... Take that coupled with winds gusting to 45-50 mph (all of southern Wisconsin is under a blizzard warning), and it is going to be really treacherous overnight tonight into tomorrow morning.

With the 6-13" that fell overnight last night in most of southern Wisconsin, there could be places with 24-28" of snow, and potentially drifting to 4 feet. Definitely a very historic event in Wisconsin.

A beautiful dust plume blowing cyclonically into the dry slot in eastern Kansas right now, too...one of the nicest visible satellite loops I've seen.

 

[Kevin Bowman]

We have some heavy ice pellets falling right now on the nw side of Chicago. it is accumulating very quickly on non paved surfaces.

 

[Michael Rogers]

WOW! The snow started very light about 30 minutes ago with light winds and now we have moderate snowfall and sustained winds about 20 with gusts to about 40 (not measured -- these are guestimates). This could be an interesting evening.

I'm still worried that my area won't stay cold enough to keep it all snow, but if it does look out. If we get an ice storm there will certainly be power outages to follow as these winds will only increase. I'm in the blizzard warning area, so this could be an interesting night.

 

[Jim Zandonai]

Here in Rockford the Snow just started within the last hour. Its dangerously slick out there as i just arrived back home.
Anyway between Blizzard Warnings, Winter storm and Ice Storm Warnings around I think its a wait n see thing to what will ultimately occur.
Very tough to call. In any event its a dangerous mess. Currently its not doing much here now as we did have a Mod/ heavy snow burst around 5pm. Current wind gusts are in low 30s here..looks like some heavier precip is forming to our south and heading NNE. acc. to the KLOT radar.
Should be an interesting night to say the least.

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

Hopefully I'm not contributing too much to the noise, but -- here in Lincoln, Nebraska, the snow is coming down in a type and quantity I haven't seen before. The flakes are the size of silver dollars, extremely wet, and they are accumulating very, very quickly. The sky keeps rumbling with thunder, too. The wind hasn't arrived yet, though.

The radar out of KOAX is amusing -- it looks like a large non-severe thunderstorm is parked over eastern Nebraska along I-80. But it's all snow.

 

[David Draun]

Large flakes embedded in snow and sleet curtains coming down FAST. Also I just saw my first lightning flash of 2007! I can't see across the street outside! According to the radar, this is going to continue for a long time!

 

[Joel Wright]

It's been freezing rain and sleet here now for over two hours. Ice accumulation near 1/2" now. I can't believe I still have power. My brother and fiance from the west side of town are coming over because they've just lost power. A lot of people are losing power now. Ice accumulations are approaching an inch fast in the Quad Cities. With winds still gusting over 40mph, I doubt I'll have power much longer.

It now looks like the snow will stay largely north, so with temps still at 29, I may end up with over 1" of ice accumulation. Very bad situation, getting worse...

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Hopefully I'm not contributing too much to the noise, but -- here in Lincoln, Nebraska, the snow is coming down in a type and quantity I haven't seen before. The flakes are the size of silver dollars, extremely wet, and they are accumulating very, very quickly. The sky keeps rumbling with thunder, too. The wind hasn't arrived yet, though.

The radar out of KOAX is amusing -- it looks like a large non-severe thunderstorm is parked over eastern Nebraska along I-80. But it's all snow.

I had to drive back the worst possible route I could. It was nasty south of Lincoln, sleet covered the road fast. Cars were off the road. Me and my pos rear wheel drive are now stuck in Lincoln for the night. I hope the thunder at least comes back.

 

[Andy Wehrle]

Nothing yet here in Green Bay. The snow across southern Wisconsin appears to be nearly stationary, but actually I think the northern end is being eroded by dry air. We're still under a winter storm warning with forecast storm totals of 12"-16" by the end of the weekend, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that cut down unless things hurry up and get here.