OrdIowPitMsp

Been getting steady light snow as forecasted since around 2:30pm. Probably averaged a half inch an hour since onset. 4-5” event total seems a lock based on radar trends. 

Another morning low of 1F here. Glacial snowpack at 6” 

High ratio 3-6” of WAA snow across much of Minnesota on Saturday. Let’s see how that unfolds as it could be a precursor to this storms evolution. After last weeks burn I’m not putting much faith in the medium term. 

Low of 1F here this morning. Couldn’t get below zero in the UHI but many locations did. 

8 hours ago, michsnowfreak said:

 That is a cool website. I personally have compiled things like that for Detroit but it's very rare to see a national weather service compile that much detail of stats, let alone the dnr.  I just used Xmacis and it calculated the data from 1900 to 2020 period I do not have snow cover data for Minneapolis from 1884 to 1900. I like Xmacis because as long as there is no missing data you can get the exact averages of whatever your looking for, no quality control or anything.  The bottom line is, 88 or 100 days it really does not matter, for a snow cover lover Minneapolis is one of the best metros to live in in this sub. Considering the long term average is only 6" more snowfall than Detroit but 38 more days of 1" snow cover, I would say Minneapolis does an excellent job of making their snow last.

The DNR here is exceptional. Maybe my expectations were low coming from IL but I’ve found the amount of publicly available data on all sorts of subjects is impressive. 
 

Sun angle matters, the difference in melting on a 38F day at 42N vs 45N surprised me. 

15 minutes ago, michsnowfreak said:

 As mentioned above, I am not sure though 100 number comes from everything I looked at showed an average of 88 days for Minneapolis. Obviously it's still double Chicago. As for 2014, im shocked the snow depth with that low in Chicago. I know others have complained about measuring at ORD, I wonder if it was too low? Detroit spent the entire months of both Feb 2014 and Feb 2015 with double digit depth.  Each year it lingered well into March as well.

I pulled that number directly from a page on the MN DNR who merged data from a handful of sites based on when that was the official obs spot going back to 1884. They have some really cool stats compiled.

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/climate/twin_cities/snowfall.html

Here is the direct link to the file I pulled the 100 days of 1” stat from. I will concede that using data directly from the current NWS obs site at the airport is the proper methodology and 88 days is probably a more accurate “average”
 

https://files.dnr.state.mn.us/natural_resources/climate/twin_cities/snowvar.html

Obviously the big ones that I’ve personally experienced and come to mind immediately for me are

January 1999: probably the event that first got me interested in weather and being a snow weenie. I was 9 and the snow seemed impossibly deep. 
 

December 2000: Not sure which storm in an epic month for Chicagoland but I vividly remember struggling to walk down the block in the deep snow with my dad so we could borrow the neighbors snowblower. That was also the month that convinced my parents to put a heater in the garage. Not sure I’ll ever see a snowpack that deep outside a lake belt or mountain chain again. 

December 2009: Iowa, legit blizzard. Was in Iowa City so didn’t get the worst of it further west, but still ended up with nearly a foot of snow. 

GHD 1: again in Iowa City so didn’t get the worst impacts but still saw 12” totals and significant travel impacts. 

Winter 13/14: Working on graduate thesis in Iowa City. Seemed like we had something to track or sometimes 2-3 things at all times. Just a fun winter as has been said here countless times.

GHD 2 (was living in PA at the time so missed out, but was partaking in a different Midwest weather forum at the time and felt like I lived it vicariously)

Early March 2015: SE OH: Was working in the oilfield outside Woodsfield OH in the extreme SE corner of the state. Got blasted with 12-14” in about 8 hours. My little Honda Civic stood no chance driving those back holler Appalachian roads for days. 

Mid April 2018: Nearly 16” of snow. Blizzard conditions and thundersnow! Biggest April storm in MSP history. Skied legit deep powder midwinter conditions the next day which was very strange for April 17 in Minnesota.

Note: I’ve been fortunate that in my short time in Minnesota I’ve experience the snowiest October (2020), February (2019) and April (2018) on Record.

I believe in Chicago it is 100 consecutive days of snowcover which is the record, not sure the average non consecutive days of 1” cover. MSP averages 100 non-consecutive days of snowcover per season. We are at 43 days with 1” of snowcover so far this season, and the record is 136 days of consecutive snow cover in 1964-65. @beavis1729

Fresh half inch of snow this morning. Nickel and diming our snowpack back up. 

3 hours ago, A-L-E-K said:

sick bamboo forest for sure

never mind palms gonna become a bamboo guy now

 

You live in IL. There’s a much more useful weedy plant you could try growing. 

2 minutes ago, michsnowfreak said:

that includes the missing date from 1874-1884 so it counted as 0. average overall is 46.6".

Math was always my weakest subject. I guess that’s why I’m a geologist not a meteorologist. Thanks for the help guys. 

Basically outside Bo’s location none of us would be happy. 

2 hours ago, mimillman said:

Where’d you get 54”? Maybe its a data window thing.

Let me google that for you...

Source: https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/climate/twin_cities/snowfall.html

Okay so technically this is calendar year not snow season.

I'd still rather live up in Two Harbors with @Brian D or in one of the snow belts, but coming from the Chicagoland area, MSP was a massive improvement in prolonged winter conditions.

Minneapolis average annual snowfall is 54" so I'm not sure where this 9" greater then Chicago is coming from, unless we are talking about median. 

Here is annual snowfall over the past 10 seasons. Yes we've had some big time clunkers but the retention is a much greater here then in the Chicagoland area. Also worth noting Minneapolis averages about 8" less of liquid equivalent precipitation so our climate is drier by comparison. 

AVERAGE NUMBER OF DAYS     
* WITH SNOW "ON GROUND"
*     ---------------       
*     DAYS    INCHES       
*      100 ...  1           
*       79 ...  3           
*       54 ...  6          
*       34 ...  9           
*       24 ... 12     

@beavis1729 I feel like I tell you this all the time but move to Minneapolis if you want more consistent snowcover and frozen lakes while still living in a large urban area. 

Will be a typical dry and seasonable MSP winter week ahead with the exception of Wednesday. Might even get a below zero low tomorrow night or late week which have been severely lacking this year. Still have a crusty 7" snow depth but the "warm" 35F temps wrecked havoc on the deck snow which didn't have the frozen insulating ground. Puppy sighting in the upper left corner of the yard.

Flipped to light drizzle/rain with some wet flakes under the lighter returns through most of this afternoon and evening. 
 

Total slopfest imby. We definitely lost some snowpack and added about 3/4” of moisture to the 6-7” that remain. Crazy at one point blizzard warnings were only a county or two west of us. Never had much of any wind here.

Southern metro and points south did well. In fact there was nearly twice as much snowfall only 20 miles south of me. My prospective of this storm might have been completely different. Guess I’ll see tomorrow when I ski Welch Village which picked up 5”

3” of new snow. 9” depth. There’s just no cold air.

There’s just no cold air. Light snow all night but temps stayed above freezing so doesn’t look like much if any accumulated. We might have lost snow depth

HRRR says only 3” here this round. Guess I’ll see in the morning. 

3 hours ago, Cary67 said:

I would like to experience MSP winter drought

Over 30” on the season. 6 otg with a nice refresher storm tonight and we’ve been abnormally dry since late summer. 
 

Just now, hawkeye_wx said:

The entire state of Iowa is in the 30s and Minneapolis is still 33º.  There just isn't much cold to go with the snow, at least initially.  It's making it difficult to get any accumulation here with such a light snowfall rate.

North central Iowa should do well. We lost some of what fell in round one due to temps holding in the mid 30s during the lull. 33.1F on the PWS but we should fall into the 20s in the next couple hours. Dusting so far with round 2