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

[Jim Zandonai]

Things have started to go downhill fast here in Rockford. Heavy snow and sleet areas are over the area and acc. to radar extending into chicago.
No doubt there is some thundersnow/ sleet in this mix. That area is getting hit the hardest now around KLOT.
I see the NWS in Chicago now has moved their Ice storm warnings out to the south and SE and replaced them with Winter storm warnings.
What a headache to forecast this. Winds have also increased here now a little too but no ice accumilation here.

 

[Kevin Bowman]

KLOT has cancelled the ice storm warning, its snowing heavily here on the nw side, we have a good 2-3 inches in the past hour

its occasionaly mixing with sleet/ice pellets but its for the most part snow

no thunder or lightning as of yet

there is just a light glazing that i can see, nothing that would have me concerned about power failures as of yet, im praying that dosent happen

 

[Jeremy Ludin]

Very frequent thundersnow beginning here in the Quad Cities area with VERY heavy snow. Visibility has become very low and power outages are being reported from all over. Another very thick band is closing in so it'll be very interesting to watch. My brother and I are actually going out to his front porch to watch this progress. Might even attempt a capture of the thundersnow although no bolts have been visible yet.

 

[David Draun]

NLDN is now showing numerous lightning strikes near Quincy, IL as of the last 30 minutes ago. Yes the stronger precip echoes do look like large thunderstorms. It's well over 45dBz in Kane and Dupage, IL

 

[Kevin Bowman]

NLDN is now showing numerous lightning strikes near Quincy, IL as of the last 30 minutes ago. Yes the stronger precip echoes do look like large thunderstorms. It's well over 45dBz in Kane and Dupage, IL

a lot of that is sleet and ice pellets

 

[J West]

Things are going from bad to worse here. The snow is mixing with big ice pellets and freezing rain. Looks like my first hunch about the freezing rain was correct after all. The blowing snow has cut down quite a bit due to the layer of ice that is forming, but what snow that is coming down is in the form of huge flakes 1/2" or greater in diameter. I have a state highway for a front yard and the new layer of ice has made it almost impassable.

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

It was real bad here in E NE, after chasing the Cold Core setup I was trying to return home to Lincoln and made it as far as 8 miles outside of town before I determined I could go no farther, so I snagged a ride home from a 4 wheel drive vehicle and am just staying in tonight. I had huge snow flakes falling with CG strikes as frequent as every couple of minutes for a while just SE of Lincoln.

 

[Jeremy Bower]

The snow has stopped here in Lincoln for at least the time being. I think our thundersnow at about 6 p.m. this evening will be this area's highlight for this storm. Snowfall potential here has greatly diminished as OAX has dropped our projected totals for this storm to about 4 inches. Snow should continue to diminish over the course of the next few hours in the eastern part of the state as this system moves to the east.

 

[Bill Doms]

Still holding on to the 1" per hour here...about 40 miles nw of the MPX radar site. Pretty good drifting with winds 15-25 out of the east yet.

 

[Jim Zandonai]

Well the temps have creeped up to about 32 here and freezing rain and sleet
have put a thin coating of ice on the snow now.Winds gusted to near 40mph around here. Looks like the precip is about to end soon though from the SW. So we should'nt see too much ice accumilation especially if the temps keep going up.

 

[Kevin Bowman]

there is some pretty significant icing going on on the nw side of Chicago, everything is now covered in a thick sheet of ice

tree damage is starting to occur

 

[Josh Richardson]

Back here in Northern IA it appears we have about 6-6.5 inches right now on top of the ice that accumulated earlier today. Still looking towards the one foot mark when all is said and done. I will check things out again about 7:30am assuming totals should be pretty high by then and maybe get some pics as well.

 

[David Draun]

It has quited down here, west of Chicago as the dry slot is working in. Temps have skrocketed into the mid and upper 30's, so I think the show is over until the wraparound moisture gets in here tomorrow. It was mostly snow and sleet out here.

 

[Joel Wright]

Wow, what a storm!

We are now dry slotted here, and as the low pressure is approaching a nice warm bubble of air has moved in, and the temp has climbed to 36. A little bit of drizzle is falling, but that's it. Much quieter now, with just the sounds of dripping water and creaking trees outside currently.

Ended up with about 3/4" glaze of ice, and about 3" of cement type snow. Many large limbs are down all over. Winds which were consistently gusting to between 40-50mph, have subsided back well below 30mph.

It was very interesting earlier this evening as thunder rolled and lightning flashed, as very heavy snow and very large ice pellets blown by very high winds moved in.

Just to my southwest in the Quad Cities over 100,000 people are without power, and many crews were pulled off the job as conditions became too dangerous for the workers. Reports of tremendous tree damage in that area. Some of the pictures being shown on local TV stations are amazing.

In Davenport, a large elevated walkway called the Sky Bridge dropped 1 1/2" thick sheets of ice 100' below crashing to the ground. This was all caught on tape.

In Bettendorf, a 130' tall tree toppled to the ground.

John Deere Road, a major road in the Illinois QC, was closed due to downed wires and limbs over the roadway. Power poles have been snapped off in many areas as well. These high winds that were associated with this icestorm make it just incredibly damaging.

Just an amazing storm all around.

 

[Bill Doms]

Still snowing but not at the 1" per hour anymore. Wind is coming around to the NE finally. Not even going to try to get to the worst of the drifts on the east side of the house as they appear to be 3'+.