• After witnessing the continued decrease of involvement in the SpotterNetwork staff in serving SN members with troubleshooting issues recently, I have unilaterally decided to terminate the relationship between SpotterNetwork's support and Stormtrack. I have witnessed multiple users unable to receive support weeks after initiating help threads on the forum. I find this lack of response from SpotterNetwork officials disappointing and a failure to hold up their end of the agreement that was made years ago, before I took over management of this site. In my opinion, having Stormtrack users sit and wait for so long to receive help on SpotterNetwork issues on the Stormtrack forums reflects poorly not only on SpotterNetwork, but on Stormtrack and (by association) me as well. Since the issue has not been satisfactorily addressed, I no longer wish for the Stormtrack forum to be associated with SpotterNetwork.

    I apologize to those who continue to have issues with the service and continue to see their issues left unaddressed. Please understand that the connection between ST and SN was put in place long before I had any say over it. But now that I am the "captain of this ship," it is within my right (nay, duty) to make adjustments as I see necessary. Ending this relationship is such an adjustment.

    For those who continue to need help, I recommend navigating a web browswer to SpotterNetwork's About page, and seeking the individuals listed on that page for all further inquiries about SpotterNetwork.

    From this moment forward, the SpotterNetwork sub-forum has been hidden/deleted and there will be no assurance that any SpotterNetwork issues brought up in any of Stormtrack's other sub-forums will be addressed. Do not rely on Stormtrack for help with SpotterNetwork issues.

    Sincerely, Jeff D.

WINTER STORM NOW 12/08-11/2007: KS, OK, NE, MO, IA, CO, among others

What was that about a Norman bubble? ;)

My band is supposed to be playing in Chicago tomorrow, and I'll be damned if we aren't going to make it. Looks like this initial band should stay pretty far NW in NW Illinois and eastern Iowa. Tomorrow afternoon and evening is when I'm most concerned about northern and possibly central Illinois getting into some problems. Luckily, it looks like we won't have as long term an event as they've been seeing out west. However, whatever does fall will be falling on top of the already 0.25" we already have, and won't be melting any time soon.
 
Here are the pictures I have teken over the past 2 days. Most are from on or around the OU campus. I havent really felt like venturing out much further, did not really need to with such extensive damage. I went to Pizza Hut a couple hours ago and there are 2 places in Norman with power: OU campus and 12th St (fast food places and Wal-mart). Everyone else is hiding in darkness, heavy fog, and a very thick coat of ice.

http://ou.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2181393&l=0cdac&id=9609344
 
Kansas City is seriously lucky. The edge of the training storms goes from about Platte City up through St. Joseph and Holt/Atchison Counties in NW Missouri, and it is looking seriously rough up there. I can't imagine how much precip they are picking up out of this. St. Joe is looking completely toasted at this point. Here the streets are treated and I haven't heard a limb crack yet -
 
Streets are fine here in Olathe, I just drove around town, mainly just ice on the trees and power lines. There are a few patchy spots, and the side streets are a little slick, but everything is holding up okay so far. No tree damage, no power lines down. Maybe .1 - .2 inches of ice accumulation on those.
 
Starting to worry about STJ now ... they've reported .25" in the past hour, and they continue to hover at 30 degrees. And there is no end in sight to this line of storms! I checked their temps for the next few days and this is looking grim. They won't be as fortunate as points south that will climb above freezing, so when they lose power (which most probably already have), it's going to be a very serious mess for a very long time. It's a good thing KC is getting spared for the most part because they are going to need all the help they can get up there.

EDIT - Just checked again and now they're at .34" in the past hour alone.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
New RUC showing a lot more precip is expected for NE KS/NW MO and surrounding areas.... http://www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/model/displayMod.php?var=ruc_sfc_prcp&hours=hr06hr09hr12

I wonder how much of that will be freezing rain, and where.

A few pics from earlier:

decemberice3web.jpg


decemberice2web.jpg


decemberice1web.jpg



Mike Hollingshead said power is out in the distance now too, and he is seeing lightning as well in Mound City, MO along I 29 in extreme NW MO.
 
I can't believe I-29 is still open up there. MoDOT is showing it (and every other road in northern Missouri) covered, but still passable. I hope that Mike H is enjoying my hometown of Mound City, Missouri because he may be spending some time there.

Just checked the RUC after Dick's post, and this is starting to look like it has the potential to reach catastrophic levels. I'm not seeing much hope held out by the RUC at all. It's keeping forecast temps down and precip levels up through all of its runs.
 
Well, just got home work. The freezing rain started here around 1am. Already .2" coating everything. Just the beginning here. Still another 14-16hrs worth of freezing rain to go...
 
Some of KC's roads look like solid sheets on the traffic cam network. Going after an event like this would be exactly like chasing a Cat 3 or 4 hurricane in terms of preparations and stranding potential, and from the looks of things tonight that may be exactly the way it turns out for some areas. At least 5 days of food and water, preps for going into self-sufficient survival mode, etc.

I was sitting here on Saturday getting ready to pack up the car and head west for the KC-SJT-TOP region, but decided against it. Would have been fun, but I figured it would cost me over $350 in gas and $200-$300 hotels if I got stuck there for several days. Too much for my winter chase budget!
 
Look at that squall line in TX pan handle approaching W OK....

Looks to be very heavy cold rain.

The NWstrn half of OK is right @ 32... However, i am guessing another degree or two of warmth just before the rain line comes in
 
1/3" glaze down here already. Raining hard enough I can hear it on the roof at times. That's a bit disconcerting knowing that's all freezing on contact. Trees are already beginning to sag. Luckily the winds are dead calm. Much different than the last icestorm we had. That's one saving grace. Haven't seen a single sleet pellet. Temp's holding right at 30°. Radar shows moderate to heavy freezing rain centered from about the Quad Cities down towards Lamoni IA, and to just north of St. Joseph MO. Some of the radar estimates in northwest MO are astounding. I'm sure the rainfall rates may be exceeding the freezing rate, but even with that there's certainly gotta be a significant glaze building up.
 
What the hell! LOL. I'm shocked power is back here. I was thinking when it went out, and saw the power trucks right away, that maybe I was lucky that my area went out early and got the power guys first. For the last 2-3 hours I've tried to sleep, but it's been impossible in the dead silence.....broken over and over by large crashing tree sounds outside. Which has seemed somewhat odd because I never noticed there being many trees right around here. Power already flickered again since it just came back on.

Edit: TOP storm total radar is sick....3+ inches near here already. I can't see much outside yet as it is dark but it looks rather fubar'd.
 
07-12-10-9206.jpg


That's my only view at the moment, here in Mound City MO at 5:20 a.m.

Edit: Power just went out again but came right back on. Won't be long now and it'll be gone again....flicker flicker as I type. North winds will start and that will finish things off. Scary seeing the next long slug coming and seeing the n winds start up on the ruc through it. Should stay below 32 pretty easy. See ya later, probably Wednesday, lol. Sucks the cell phone data doesn't work when the power goes out here...for some reason. Phone was fine and said D for digital, but wouldn't connect.

Mental note...never ever again chase a winter storm without a battery radio(for noise if nothing else) or at least a 9 volt battery for the motel clock radio. Jeez I can't believe I did it again, something so simple like a 9 volt battery and I always forget or don't bother. Sooooo annoying to be stuck in complete dead silence.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Nice account Mike H. Yeah, I think the corridor from Greensburg-Pratt northeast through Great Bend-Salina to Manhattan-Junction City to Falls City-Atchison-STJ area is the freezing rain winner (from meteorological standpoint!). Here in Dodge City, we were on the western fringe of the heavy precipitation. As of this hour, Dodge City ASOS has recorded 1.00" of precipitation, all in the form of freezing rain since late yesterday afternoon. I'll take my camera into work and get some photos from around the office. I think this equals or perhaps barely surpasses how much freezing rain we got from the Dec 30, 2006 ice storm (as that "core" of major ice storm damage was just west and northwest of Dodge City). Still not sure how much impact there is here in Dodge, I have power on the north side, but all the trees on the northside are new/young trees. I understand pretty much all of Pratt is without power... much can be said I guess of most of the smaller communities in the "swath" I mentioned previously.

EDIT: Where Mike H is, the radar is likely over-estimatin, since the beam is shooting so high... might be getting some bright-band contamination at the edges of radar domain. Nevertheless, STJ is almost up to two inches right now (6am). FNB (Falls City) observation recorded 0.89" so far where radar is showing about 2.5" Interesting to note that the TWX storm total precip is showing a 4" bullseye over Salina, but Salina ASOS showing 1.97" for a total at this point.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back
Top