Geoboy645

So final totals ended up being 12.1" at Madison and 10" even at Green Bay. GRB just barely missed out on the max snowband, as there were several 12-15" reports all across the metro. I estimate we recieved about 15" here total at my campus. Today it is sunny and in the low 40's out. The snowpack is melting incredibly quickly. Or rather evaporating because there really isn't that much melt water out. Kind of what happens when you have the sun angle equivalent of September 16th.

Just insane snow amounts all over the state today. This is going to be one of if not the most widespread 12"+ snowfalls in this state since 12/20/12. This is also now in the top 10 for daily snowfalls in Madison's history, with snow still falling. Today's storm is going to go down as one of the biggest overperformers in the Midwest at least in the last 15 years, if not since 2000.

I guess I way underestimated how much snow there is out. There's a report from just east of me of 8" of snow. In like three hours. These are some of the heaviest rates I have experienced in quite some time. Insane considering that it's March 25th. Also with this storm we are going to be entering at least the top 10 if not top 5 snowiest Marches all time at Madison and Green Bay.

We are experiencing 2-3" hour rates here right now from this. When I went to bed at midnight it was practically bare ground, and now there's at least 4" on the ground. The deformation band is just sitting right on top of us. We are going to way overperform on this storm.

This is where this cold pattern is really hurting us right now. The longer we stay cold, the more snow gets dumped on the snowpack and the higher the chance of a hard flip occurs. It also increases the risk of getting a rain event on such a wet snowpack as well.

Some figures to help illustrate the amount of snow within these basins.

We are in store for potentially a major flooding event this spring along the main-stem rivers. The constant snowfalls in the Northwoods and Minnesota have created a near record snowpack across much of that region. Several stations are very close to breaking their monthly snow depth records or even their all time snow depth records. This snowpack also has an incredible amount of SWE within the pack. Most of the region is within the 90th percentile for SWE, with a widespread 4-7" throughout the region. These factors coupled with a well above average start to the year for precip to the south have set the stage for a potential major flooding event sometime within the next month along most of the main stem rivers within the Midwest.

Meanwhile up by the Fox Cities they have been getting death banded. Reports of up to 12.8" on the south side of Appleton as of 8:48 PM. Wasn't expecting that to say the least out of this storm.

We could be in store for a serious flood event early next week and no one is really talking about it. For perspective, that's more snow on the ground than what caused the 2019 Ice Jam flooding and that was our worst or second worst flood event since 2008 here. Like this is Nebraska 2019 levels of rain on snow and look how that turned out. (P.S. I figured to make a new thread about this because it's really not that far off.)

Wow mild winters in what was a much colder time than present day. It's almost like mild winters are part of our climo or something. Crazy.

1982-83, 2000-01, and 1964-65 have all been pretty similar analogs to this winter with the deep snowpack to the north and an active December followed by nothing south. 2001 and 1965 also had pretty snowy Marches as well, followed by major flooding on the Upper Mississippi. It will be interesting to see if the parallels continue into spring or not. And both 01 and obviously 65 were pretty active Aprils for severe in our region as well.

If we get substantial rain on top of the snowpack up north after this system. We are going to be in serious trouble for flooding on the stem rivers like the Upper Mississippi, Wisconsin, Wolf, Black, and Chippewa. That's how you get Nebraska 2019 but even worse.

Meanwhile up here we are going to get absolutely buried if these trends keep holding. Just an insane amount of snow. I've only experienced this amount of snow once with the 12/20/12 blizzard. So to potentially do that again and then add a couple more inches would be unimaginable. Especially since I don't have to worry about shoveling or driving in it. Also this would smash a lot of 1 and 2 day snowfall records across most of the state.

If some of the higher model totals verify, you guys could be as high as #3 in seasonal snowfall by this time next week.

The fantasy hours GFS wants to keep demolishing the northern parts of the forum apparently.

I don't know what's funnier about that GFS run. MSP having 68" out to 384 hrs or Chicago having 0.5" in that same timespan.

Meanwhile up in Madison they are up to 38.9" for the season after this last snowstorm. I would consider this season to be kind of a weird category of a warm and snowy season. We've been pretty consistently at least a little bit above average even with the long dry periods all winter despite it being so warm. 2012-13 has been a pretty good analog to this winter with the very tight gradient between Madison and the Chicago area. Sans the 20" storm in December obviously.

Looking to be 2-4" here for accumulation. A decent little hit but man if we had a typical February airmass this would be a 12"+ hit for the 151-41 corridor. This is the perfect track for that corridor with a low just north of Chicago. Still going to be a decent hit, but it is a little frustrating having such a great track at the perfect time of year be so marginal.

Tonight feels like a major overperformer with cold in the northern parts of the subforum. Especially in the areas of recent snowfall the last few days, and up north where they have 12"+ OTG. Basically no wind, clear skies, and fresh, semi-deep to deep snowpack. You can't have a better combo for radiational cooling and cold air drainage. Black River Falls is already down to -19 and that's the 10pm obs with several hours of CAD to go. Madison is down to -2 with the fresh snowpack around there. There are probably going to be spots breaking -25 tonight in the usual CAD areas.

Looks like Madison and Milwaukee's final totals ended up at 7.3 and 7.9 respectively for this storm. With Madison having a single-day total of 6.4, which is the largest single-day total since 4/17/18 there. That's pretty crazy it's been that long. And there are widespread 9" totals across most of Madison. Definitely our largest single storm in the area since 2019. The last 3 winters were pretty much all nickel and diming.

It's been snowing pretty constantly here since about this time yesterday. We haven't had much accumulation, at most 2.5". But it has been a really pretty snowfall. That perfect rate of snowfall where it's more than mood flakes, but not heavy enough to be a visibility concern. Just a perfect snowy late January day. What more can you ask for in some ways?

Don't look now, but there's some indications on the models that we could see a serious cold shot right around the end of the month. Giving some 2019 vibes, without the snow ahead of time.

MKX put out their graphics for this storm. 4-6" would be a nice hit here, although I really don't like being so close to the gradient like that. This would basically be undoing the last few weeks of warmth when it comes to our totals and send us right back to being above average which would be really nice as well.

Yeah as of right now it looks like that the Madison area will be just a bit too far south for this. If I had to guess this is probably going to end up being a La Crosse-Stevens Point-Shawano-Marinette corridor hit. Green Bay will probably end up right on the gradient with a few inches while Pulaski gets slammed, again. The maximum amounts always seem to follow the northern edge of the bay in the slightly higher terrain N and W of the Fox Valley.