OrdIowPitMsp

Another miss East and south incoming for the twin cities I’m afraid. Hopefully we can net a couple quick inches

Looks like we could string together a few days of below zero highs here. Will definitely need a couple inches of refresher to maximize potential.

It rarely sticks around more then a couple days so that eases the jealousy for me.

Back to discussing January weather happenings....torched up to 34F here today with mood flakes most of the morning.

Getting some solid low end -SN right now. DAB here we come.

FRDZ and an occasional few flakes. Just no moisture depth. Gonna end up with a nice rim on top of the snowpack and maybe a DAB.

Had some nice drifting on roads outside the metro this morning from the stiff SE wind. Spitting occasional ice pellets here. Locked and loaded for my 1”

.05” ice 1.2” snow first and final call here

Same

Even up here we are potentially looking at more ice then snow. Sucks but that’s the way she goes.

Warm tongue has me slightly worried and lack of moisture depth could mean a long period of FRDZ instead of light snow. 1-3” refresher could easily end up being a glacier creating glaze event up here.

I have a recollection of the gfs v16 having issues overamping precip some months back and it was delayed, did this happen?

Bombs away? Hopefully not a Fargo special.

Miss south for me. I’ll enjoy my flurries and snow showers over the weekend and in the meantime keep lurking.

Crazy that GHD 1 dropped 16” in IC but less then a foot in CR.

5.6" official storm total which puts MSP at 39.5" on the season. Averaging 10-11" snow depth imby.

As of midnight MSP was reporting 5.3” we should finish around 6” which is on the higher end of guidance.

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.

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.

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.