Chinook

My area got a band of snow this morning, generally after 8:00AM. We got 3". Temperatures have warmed to around 30 degrees, so snow is not as fluffy as before, and the streets are getting better already. By my calculations, that puts my place at 43.6" for the year, which puts us above average for this date. The snowless January has not seriously put us in danger of below normal snowfall for the year. The GFS shows snow in Albuquerque on Tuesday??? What??!!

The NW-flow snow event is already happening. A trace of snow occurred here at about 6:00PM and made the sidewalks a little slippery. So that makes 4 straight days this week that I have driven on wet or slippery roads. We are expecting some more snow tomorrow, with a winter weather advisory. low temps on Wednesday. I drove in between Loveland and Fort Collins with at least -11 F temperatures and some leftover snow from Tuesday. Thankfully, there was some open pavement that was non-icy. tomorrow's snowfall:

Possible tornadoes near McCormick, SC and Washington, GA

Possible tornado near Hillsborough, west of Durham

New tornado warning west of Albemarle.

Slightly earlier radar image near Matthews

Possible tornado near Matthews (TCLT radar)

This was the radar image just before the Gastonia/ South Gastonia tornado reports. The GSP radar had a hard time picking up the velocity signatures of tornadoes at Kannapolis and Concord, NC.

several reports of tornado damage near Stonewall, MS

New radar-confirmed tornado near Bay Springs and Paulding, MS

This warning is for area east of Yazoo City MS, with the possible tornado near I-55. -- At 404 PM CST, a confirmed large and extremely dangerous tornado was located over Pickens, or 16 miles southwest of Durant, moving northeast at 50 mph. This is a PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION. TAKE COVER NOW! HAZARD...Damaging tornado. SOURCE...Radar confirmed tornado.

radar-confirmed tornado near Gunn, MS

NWS forecast for Thursday-Friday is probably an average of several model forecasts, which show different amounts.

It kept snowing here today, with some large dendrites at times. It's so weird that it didn't snow up on radar. I think I got another 1-2", maybe 0.10" of water equivalent, so my snow depth is probably 8.2" - 9.2".

I got an extra 2.7" overnight! Now things look snowy around town. The storm was not a bust here. Looking back at the radar from overnight, 5-10 dBz on radar happened for the entire night, which doesn't sound like much.

My area dropped from 72 to 20 degrees in 24 hours, which is quite a shock, certainly about the highest 24 hour temp drop that I've experienced in Fort Collins/Loveland. My area has 4.5" of snow. Much of that fell in the morning with some nice dendrites. Freezing drizzle fell early in the day just before the snow started, and my car had a layer of ice on it in the morning. This was very annoying. The weather models are now beginning to agree on a northwest-flow snow event on Friday-Saturday for my area. The GFS has up to 0.9"-1.0" of QPF for Fort Collins and Cheyenne and also some high amounts for mountains north of I-70. In my opinion, northwest-flow snow events can be tricky, 700mb winds would be downsloping while snow is falling, which doesn't always work together well.

Today, Denver tied a record high of 74 set in 1934. (Interesting note: the winters of the 1930's were not generally as much above average as the dust-bowl summers.) Fort Collins had a record high of 74. Two places in Colorado hit 80 degrees today. A winter weather advisory has been issued for the Front Range cities, and a winter storm warning issued for areas over 6000 ft. Also winter storm warning for Boulder County, Jefferson County.

The 12z GFS has 9-14" for the Front Range cities, with over 12" very close to me. The NWS gridded forecasts still have 5-6" at Fort Collins with 8" at Boulder, 6-7" for Denver. This may be a time when this type of graphic showing Kuchera-ratio snowfall of over 20:1 doesn't really happen because the snow packs down better than that.

First forecast from NWS Boulder

Interesting forecast here: This is the snowiest run of the UKMET I have ever seen for our area. UKMET snow products have been on Pivotalweather since Monday or Tuesday. Otherwise, I haven't checked UKMET precip for years. Those people at Pivotalweather really must be something else to have full ECMWF data and full UKMET data.

The first winter weather advisories/watches for this storm have been issued for central Nevada up through Wyoming, including Salt Lake City. In Colorado, our area will probably get some light upslope snow on Monday, with higher snow rates later on Monday as the 500mb low approaches and the lift increases. I am hoping the heavier snow doesn't start too early on Monday, but 5:00 rush hour may be challenging. Overall, this is a pretty decent setup for snow with some easterly 700mb winds here east of the Rockies. The last time it snowed here was December 27-28th with 1.5". So the last two months were pretty much uneventful except for a few days with wind gusts, and hardly any days that were very cold. We have had just a few days with a high temperature below 40 since December 31st. I would think that we are on track for a colder week or two weeks after this. by the way, this happened a few days ago in Colorado. read the text carefully

A mix of rain and snow is happening at Denver, Colorado Springs, and Fort Morgan this afternoon. As per the radar, I don't think too much has happened in Denver city.

There were some heaps of lenticular clouds today. I haven't posted a picture of clouds or mountains for a long time, I think.

Are there any Toronto area people talking about this storm? The models are not in total agreement, but Toronto could get some snow on Saturday.

When every storm misses you