michsnowfreak

The past 20 years, with a few exceptions, Feb has been money.

Wind Advisory Flood Watch Winter Storm Watch All in effect

The depth is 3 to 4" but you have to realize the water content in it is a lot. I took this picture on Saturday after the last thaw but before the fresh snow on Sunday. The frost depth is about 2 feet so the ground is frozen solid. Huge water Laden ice snowbanks everywhere too. There's really no water where for the water to run off.

That's DTX. Very gunshy on watches and warnings but they'll issue an advisory all day. Sometimes to where I think it makes the public complacent. Some of their advisories I feel are not even needed, a special weather statement would suffice, and other advisories should be warnings and are often upgraded midway through the storm lol.

Sometimes it's about impact. Look at all the car pile ups on Sunday in the whiteouts. This storm should have a high impact regardless due to the icy conditions. Snow amounts however are a huge unknown so they might as well just forecast 1 to 8" and see what happens. I wish I could avoid looking at computer models but i can't help myself. Weather does what it wants. Like I said a few weeks ago, the day I enjoy an overperforming 3" snowfall more than I do an underperforming 9" snowfall is the day I quit following the weather and just turn to following computers. And that's not happening.

That's crazy that some areas had a top 10 or 15 driest year on record last year. I did not realize it was THAT dry so. Been a pretty average Winter here snowwise to date (may change to the + by Friday) and 2021 was Detroit's 12th wettest year on record.

We have actually had quite a few snow events this season that have overperformed, and most of the rest have performed as expected. Only the 1 big one was the one that really underperformed, and it had the most hype. This storm has a massive amount of uncertainty. Either way I don't see how it's not going to be a high impact event. You have frozen solid ground with snowcover that is going to be melting with heavy rain, then a transition to ice and snow and a major temp plummet to the single digits in the storms wake.

And sref (ie nam ensembles) went well south lol.

I am so excited to go to Au Train next week. Shoot me a pm if there's anything cool to check out that I might not know about lol. I have a cabin for the week. It's just incredible to see the microclimates of northern MI. Almost every year we see times when Detroit has more snow on the ground than some of the banana belts (ie Standish, Tawas, Glennie, Menominee, Escanaba). Then not far from these places you have crazy deep snow annually. The only thing I worry about is that I am missing some beautiful sites because I never visit those areas due to their unfavorable climate.

Looks like you gave a 3 year old a purple colored pencil.

Sorry to hear. Hopefully at least brightened up your old snow crust. It's a very snowblind kind of day today.

1° this morning, a pretty winter day. Fun fact: 15 of the past 17 Valentines Days have been white at DTW (1"+, many of them deep). Only 1 of the past 17 was totally bare. In contrast...7 of the past 17 Christmases were white.

It was a crazy day. There was 6" reported in Livonia. The irony of this is that was the same area that was screwed from the February 2-3 storm so they had about the same amount today as they had during that storm. I wasn't watching your area on radar closely but I thought for sure what those amounts in Livonia would have had more. Amounts varied widely from 1 to 6" where the squalls hit. I got 1.9", puts me at 30.9" on the season. DTW got 2.2" which puts them at 31.2" on the season (we had ironically been tied to date). The fresh powder does wonders for cleaning up the old crusty snow.

I'll see your quarter mile and raise you...

Went sledding with cousin and her kids and had a blast. The icy old snow was an absolute expressway for Clark Griswold type sledding. While we were at the park the northern suburbs of Detroit were dealing with freeway closures due to white out snow squalls. The squalls have now migrated South and it's like a legit snowstorm outside.

Urban and suburban areas are always different. I went to the park yesterday and there was 100% snow cover. Yet you drive on the main roads and there is salty grass, few snow patches, and snowbanks. Many neighborhoods have snow banks and grass on the curb side and then full snow in the yards except under trees. There's no question that a rural setting is exponentially better for snow cover than a city one.

To be honest I'm always apprehensive at models. It does not matter whether it's a small event or a big event, they can signal that something is coming but the fine details are absolutely worthless in the long range. And I do not let the models dictate my enjoyment of the weather. Nov 27- got 4.2", expected 1-2 Dec 27- got 2.0, a "chance" of snow Jan 27- got 3.1", expected 1 Feb 2/3- got 9.3", expected 10-16 The day I let enjoyment of an overperforming 3" snowfall trump that of an underperforming 9" snowfall, is the day I quit looking at models altogether and remember I'm a weather hobbyist, not a computer one.

Avg depth is 2-3" here. Grass spots along most roads but also big snowbanks everywhere that are solid as boulders. An interesting potential lake setup today with an advisory issued by DTX.

The leftover snow crunchy as can be and there is standing ice everywhere.

Had 0.1 slushy snow yesterday and 0.2 slush this morning. 3.5-4 hvy snowcover left on avg. Season to date snow imby 29.0".

1995-96 is the Winter that I began recording snowfall and I haven't missed a beat since.. I also write-up a summary at the end of each Winter. Weather Winter nerds unite. The most non Winter was 2011-12, and the best was 2013-14. I mean, nothings even been close to that once in a lifetime Winter. Winters the past 20 years are far superior to those my first 7 years recording data.

Winter is definitely longer than summer. Especially when it likes to pop in early or linger. Summer is more than long enough though.

Good, bad, or indifferent, I sure wouldn't be worrying about what the models show a few weeks out haha. They've struggled mightily.

I'm nowhere near ready for Winter to end. It's pretty common for the same crowd to start getting ready for Spring in mid February. Just as there are some of us who get ready for fall by mid August. Or earlier lol.

I would say ours average is 3 to 5". Heavily traveled areas are a mix of huge dirty snow banks patches of drifts and salt splattered grass. Still solid snow away from those areas though. Will be a while for these piles, taken in a mall lot last night lol