First snow pics of the year (submit yours)

[Scott Weberpal]

Encountered my first heavy snowfall of the year in S. Wisconsin (albeit very brief). It's always a treat when the leaves are bright reds and oranges and the colors are mixed with thick, heavy snowflakes. Unfortunately I didn't make it to my favorite fall color destination before the snow stopped (lasted ~20 minutes), but I still snapped a few photos. Given the warm ground temps, most of the snow melted upon impact, however, by the end of the event some of the flakes had some staying power.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Currently on my first snow trip of the season! Thankfully a short one, only 45 minutes from home. The WV mountains are in the middle of a nice upslope event for our first winter weather episode. Morning should provide some nice photo ops, as most trees still have their leaves up here. A few shots from tonight are here:

http://stormhighway.com/blog/oct2508a.shtml

 

[Dan Robinson]

Here are some photos from this morning in southeastern WV:

http://stormhighway.com/blog/oct2808a.shtml

 

[Joel Wright]

DAMN! Nice pics guys! Very cool to see the snow falling, and on the ground with all the colorful leaves. Quite a bit different than what's usually seen with snow.

Dan, that shot with the snow line over those trees changing color is just money!

 

[Josh Richardson]

Some of us here in Iowa should have our first "real" snow pics of the year tonight, a few inches possible today if this snowband sets up across North Central IA.

 

[Mike Kovalchick]

Went up to my cottage near Gaylord, Michigan to watch Lake Michigan come to life as cold air poured overhead throwing moisture inland and creating the season's first big lake snow. As luck would have it-the storm bull's eye ended up directly overhead as a WNW wind favors the Otsego County area.

This link highlights the synoptic and mesocale lake setup:

http://kamala.cod.edu/offs/KAPX/0811091741.fxus63.html

Some of the lake squalls were impressive..dropping 2"/hour type snow rates..as a combination of extreme overlake instability, little wind shear, just enough wind speed to create the maximum moisture flux off the lake, little to no inversions, deep moisture and a source of lift. Bufkit soundings indicated that omega just barely reached into the good snow growth region in the clouds. The warm ground, poor moisture to snow ratio's and cellular organization that was distrupted by daytime heating were the only things keeping this from being a very big event. (Late night/early morning is the most likely time to get sustained heavy lake effect snow due to snow band organization..especially early/late in the season.) It dropped about 10" just to the S/SW of Gaylord.

See below:

I decided to drive down to the lake shore near Petoskey and then drove back inland. Since the lake temps were still in the 50's..it was rather balmy near the shore...with just a few graupel or light rain showers passing by. Far out into Lake Michigan..the skies appeared to be nearly clear while conditions inland were decidedly more interesting. The snowline was near Boyne Falls(Location of the Boyne Mountain Ski Resort). I noticed that graupel proceeded any of the heavier squalls that passed overhead...very common occurrence in the Fall in this area.

 

[James Reynolds]

Nice!

Great photos there Mike, no doubt the first of many lake effect snow storms this winter! Lake effect snow is something I'd really love to experience sometime.

 

[Mike Kovalchick]

Great photos there Mike, no doubt the first of many lake effect snow storms this winter! Lake effect snow is something I'd really love to experience sometime.

James, I think in your neck of the woods, the Sea of Japan creates a similar setup on the windward side of the mountains in Japan when a cold, moist Siberia airmass crosses over. Some of the snowfall numbers I've seen there are similar to what is experienced on the infamous Tug Hill plateau in New York downwind of Lake Ontario. I hope to chase "The Tug" this Winter if the opportunity presents itself. (Who wouldn't want to experience a storm like the 77" of snow in 24 hours that fell back on January 11, 1997? )

 

[Ron Riemersma]

Not the drama of the supersquall pics, but it was fun to get a few shots yesterday.

 

[Nathan Edwards]

I made a trip up onto the North Yorkshire Moors here in the UK for the first 'major' snow of the year (and possibly last given recent years!). Managed to get some reasonable snowfall on the Heritage Steam Railway between Grosmont and Goathland (some of you may recognise this as Hogsmeade Station in the Harry Potter films... I won't blame you for not admitting that though )

 

[Joel Wright]

Still haven't had a measureable snowfall so far this season, so I can't post any pics yet. It's getting pretty late to have not received a decent snowfall. I'm jealous of all you guys up north. Nice pics!

 

[Jason Foster]

Funny...Harry Potter.

I made a trip up onto the North Yorkshire Moors here in the UK for the first 'major' snow of the year (and possibly last given recent years!). Managed to get some reasonable snowfall on the Heritage Steam Railway between Grosmont and Goathland (some of you may recognise this as Hogsmeade Station in the Harry Potter films... I won't blame you for not admitting that though )

Without even reading your text, I started to hit the reply button to make a comment about it looking like a shot from the Harry Potter Movies. Harry Potter is cool. I like old folklore type stories. There is a lot of old history that go into the back story of these books/movies that date back to the dark ages.

 

[Joey Ketcham]

We had our first snowfall of Winter 08/09 today, just a light dusting but enough to accumulate some on the tree's, vehicles and ground.

 

[Dann Cianca]

Okay, well ... this was our second snowfall of the season, but the first was a dusting and melted before noon.

A couple of pics here:

http://blog.bigskyconvection.com/2008/11/denver-area-snow-november-28.html

 

[Brian Emfinger]

We had a few flurries a week or so back but we had our first accumulating snow today (just a dusting though). I can't remember the last time we had this much snow before December...