Significant snow event through Monday...

[Stephen Levine]

Here in Richardson, TX, about 10 miles N. of Downtown Dallas, I recorded 1.4" or 3.6 CM of snow today. To many of you that's a pittance, but snow here is as rare as thunderstorms in Calif. Since moving here in 1996, I have seen only 4 years where more than one inch of snow fell at a time.
It was quite pretty, getting into the trees and everything.

 

[Bill Schintler]

Iowa: Monday and Tuesday

A winter storm will track to our south and produce an extended period of light snow in central and eastern Iowa on Monday and Tuesday. Snow will start during the mid-morning hours Monday in central Iowa and mid-afternoon in the Cedar Rapids area, with most areas receiving three to four inches of “light and fluffy” snow by Wednesday morning. Winds will increase out of the northwest on Wednesday, gusting to as much as 25 mph, producing some blowing of the snow in rural areas. Below is time of arrival and total snow accumulation for specific locations in central and eastern IA:

Cedar Rapids, IA (Eastern IA Airport):
Snow will start after 3:30 PM and accumulate to 3.3 inches by Wednesday.

Iowa City, IA:
Snow will start after 3:30 PM and accumulate to 3.5 inches by Wednesday.

North Linn Co., IA (Paris and Coggon):
Snow will start after 3:30 PM and accumulate to 2.9 inches by Wednesday.

Marengo, IA:
Snow will start after 3:00 PM and accumulate to 3.5 inches by Wednesday.

Union, IA:
Snow Flurries overnight, and then light snow will start after 9:00 AM and accumulate to 3.9 inches by Wednesday.

Discussion:
The synoptic pattern is characterized by a vortex over eastern CAN and a strong 500mb positive height anomaly west of AK. Flow will remain zonal over the central CONUS over the next 48 hours. A negatively-tilted 300mb trough shifts into the Dakotas on Monday, with surface cyclogenesis remaining modest until Tuesday when phasing of southern and northern jet branches increases. This may set the stage for a significant nor’easter system by mid-week. An inverted 850mb trough will cross the area Monday night.

Light snow is already falling in western Iowa. Here, however, it will be another 12-18 hours before a very dry air mass in the lower levels saturates, due to dry easterly surface flow. 00Z, 01/10/11 DVN and ILX soundings indicate extremely dry air in the layer below 700mb. Top-down saturation finally occurs during the day Monday, however snowfall amounts should remain very light through the early evening. Periods of moderate snowfall are possible during the 03Z-09Z period, 01/11/11. Models consistently suggest 0.20 to 0.25 inches QPF over 72 hours, which suggests 3-4 inches of total snowfall with snow/water ratios ranging from 15:1 to as much as 20:1 where lift occurs in a 100mb+ dendritic snow growth zone. The depth of this layer may increase to more than 150 mb in southeastern IA between 03Z and 06Z.

bill schintler
www.twistertoursusa.com
10:04 PM CST, 01/09/11

 

[Dave Gallaher]

Thundersnow!

It's 10:30pm central on 1/9, and we have thundersnow in Huntsville, Alabama! Cloud to cloud, so far, but a joy to listen to as the density of the precipitation really modulates the sound in interesting ways.

EDIT--I don't know why this says 'density' twice on the posted version. I've corrected it and it's only once here. Hmmm...

 

[Joshua Nall]

At least 6" here in SW Arkansas after a half inch of sleet. What's different with this storm is that it all fell with temps below freezing, and it's going to be cold for several days.... as low as 12 degrees one night with daytime temps near freezing. Seems like most of our significant snows occur when temps are 32 to 35 and hardly any accumulates on roads. As of right now all roads are covered with snow, even those with decent traffic. Wondering if it will just compress and become more slick by morning and the following day. I've hardly ever seen roads completely covered like they are with really cold weather hanging on. It has been quite a storm.

 

[Drew.Gardonia]

we got 6" here in Murfreesboro, TN. i started coming down hard last night about 11:50 pm, and it was still going till about an hour ago, since tapered off.

 

[Mark Ellinwood]

Some snowfall totals through this morning (~7am?) via Al Roker:

Intense storm no matter where you look! Snow line and big totals further south than most anticipated.

Wilmington, NC past 7" per initial reports (climo. for the year is 2"!), and Charlotte, NC METAR reporting 4" of SnOG.

EDIT: The 7" estimate is from TWCbreaking Twitter, but I cannot find a 7" measurement in the Wilmington area.

 

[jshields]

here in nw omaha i ended up with 8.5". it was kindof surprising to get that amount bc the snow never came down heavy. it just snowed for the better part of 30 hours straight! basically 4/5 of the state ended up with 6+" with several reports of 12" in central nebraska. now we're waiting for the intense cold starting tomorrow

 

[Chris Carter]

I recorded 8" here in Bellevue. I dont care what Offutt AFB says, I don't like how they always melt the snow in order to find out how much snow there is.

 

[Darren Addy]

I recorded 8" here in Bellevue. I dont care what Offutt AFB says, I don't like how they always melt the snow in order to find out how much snow there is.

That does sound a little wacky. How can you have variable snow-to-precip ratios to calculate for snowfall if all you are going to measure at the end is the precip?

 

[Jason Foster]

Are you guys ready to hand off some of that white stuff to use East Coasters? I am soooo missing the snow this year...arrggg.

 

[Keith Hosman]

Are you guys ready to hand off some of that white stuff to use East Coasters? I am soooo missing the snow this year...arrggg.

We could do with more snow here in NW Ohio as well.

Jason it is coming your way, we have a system moving through here today that is supposed to meet up with what went through the southern states yesterday.

 

[Dave Gallaher]

I'd be pleased to pass on the snow, along with the forecasted 14 degrees that will manufacture black ice out of today's scant melting. I just dug my van out and made a grocery run, with many slides on the way home. Looks like I'll miss a paying gig on Wednesday.

 

[Dave Kaplow]

They are predicting 20" of snow for New Haven from this system, or rather from the rapidly deepening coastal low it has evolved into. Now 20 inches is quite a bit, but about what you'd expect from a typical nor'easter... The real shocker is that practically all of this snowfall is expected to occur between midnight tonight and 8:00 am tomorrow. Yep, 20 inches in 8 hours, over a rather wide swath... That's going to require some seriously intense banding, and maybe some embedded convective cells with thundersnow. If this actually plays out as predicted it will be quite something. I've lived in New England all my life and I don't think I can ever recall a storm dumping that much over such a wide area in such a short time.

What with the blizzard a couple weeks ago, then the surprise 6-12 inches we got over the weekend, and now this... It's looking like a very snowy winter indeed here in CT.

 

[Mark Ellinwood]

Widespread totals of 1-3" from No. VA through DC/MD, with 3-4" in No. MD and So. PA are what I'm seeing from many different people. About as predicted for the area, with some of the higher forecasts of 3-5" for BWI and Delmarva busting.

Locally I got 2.0" with big, clumpy flakes. The higher clumps went to 2.2" depth, but I won't count those. Seems to be one of the higher totals for the Montgomery Co./DC area.

 

[Mike Smith]

Here is a cool time lapse of the blizzard in Boston: http://meteorologicalmusings.blogspot.com/2011/01/time-lapse-of-boston-blizzard.html