michsnowfreak

DTW torched briefly to 60 today, the warmest temperature since mid November. We stayed up bit cooler on the water with the East wind. A fantastic February of cold and snow ends miserably. Outside of the dirty snow piles in all the parking lots, some still quite big, just a few drifts and piles remain.

I've actually been quite grouchy myself about how our deep Winter wonderland disappeared the past week, and people enjoying the mild weather and gloating makes it worse. But still lol Chicago just had an amazing stretch I thought beavis' next rant would wait until fall. Chicago had more snow on the ground than much of the Northwoods. This is where MY inner beavis comes in, I honestly can't decide if I would prefer an epic stretch to come frontloaded or backloaded in Winter. There are pros and cons to both. That's why I just want it all Winter long lol. Unlike Chicago, we actually had average snowfall in November and December with several snowfalls and it was absolutely maddening to see each melt in 3 to 4 days despite the weakest sun angle of the year. Plus Christmas is my favorite time of year. Then February comes along, which is our go to month anymore, and suddenly deep Winter appears. On the bitter cold days, the sparkling snow laughs at the Sun angle, but as soon as you get some days in the 20s-30s the sun starts to ripen that snow like it never could in December. Leads to much quicker vanishing act. But then again, January through March tends to be a boring time of year outside of weather so I always want a lot of snow. Honestly can't choose if I prefer front or back loaded

After what's been a great February it's depressing seeing so much snow melt in less than a week. Sun angle means business now. The 2nd picture shows 2 homes with no trees or obstructions in front directly across the street from each other. Can you tell which side is the Sunny side of the street?

With a 147 year span of record, I have NEVER seen any ranking of any kind more crazy than the snowiest Feb lists. It's mind boggling really. Detroits snowiest Febs 1.) 38.4" - 1908 2.) 31.7" - 2011 3.) 28.4" - 1881 4.) 28.0" - 1900 4.) 28.0" - 1926 6.) 27.0" - 2010 7.) 26.4" - 2015 8.) 24.2" - 2008 9.) 23.5" - 2013 10.) 23.4" - 2014 11.) 21.8" - 2021 12.) 21.0" - 2018 13.) 20.8" - 1986 14.) 19.6" - 1898 15.) 19.2" - 2003

My peak depth at home was 15". While up there we visited a friend's place in Cheboygan and it was beautiful because they had just had a fresh 5" snowfall but you could tell by the depth that before that new snow they had way less on the ground than we had had that week. Everything's relative, but since we have months of snow off and on to play in at home, when I go up North I typically like to see the mind boggling depths. This year was just not happening, so hopefully if next year is a more normal northern Michigan Winter I will head to the Keweenaw.

There was absolutely more snow in southeast MI than northern lower MI last week. However with the melting at home and some fresh snow up here it was a nice few days. The lackluster snow season in northern MI, combined with a good Feb in southeast MI, meant a big snow trip was really not in the cards this year so just went up for a few days and got to see some elk!

True. the last few days will likely take it out of top 20 coldest range but it'll easily be in the top 30 (148 yrs of record). Typically +/- 0.5° is considered an "average" winter but I still like to be technical with every tenth.of a.degree. The Feb snow bonanza we've been on is something else. I'll look into it soon.

Febs cold will essentially wipeout a mild Dec/Jan and this will show in the books as near avg temp winter.

Seeing blue ice at the mackinac bridge was pretty sweet

Sun, wind gusts as high as 39mph, and 47° yesterday (first 40 since Jan 21) pulverized the snow. Avg depth about 6" currently but to use a cyclone word, it looks "mangy" and the huge snowbanks are getting dirty. Headed to northern lower this morning for 3 days.

urban winter before the clouds gave way to torching sun.

With the milder weather compacting the snow it was perfect packing so I built an igloo with my nephews. Sometimes us snow weenies feel in the minority when we hear other people bitch about winter, but kids NEVER get tired of snow

I would call uninterrupted snowpack for 2 months in the southern Great Lakes rare but not unprecedented. The record for consecutive days of 1"+ days at Milwaukee is 112 in 1978-79. As recently as 2013-14 they had 92 straight days. In 2013-14, Detroit went from December 8th til March 30th without a 0 depth, although there were a few trace days around Christmas that ruined an otherwise phenomenal stretch of solid white. And then the last week or so of that in March was trace depth as the massive drifts remained and the rest of the ground became open.

Years ago I used to dislike facial hair. However, after years of having a beard, I don't think I could ever be clean shaven again. Btw when I commented earlier on your post I realized I misread it. I thought you said this was in your top 3 stretches of Winter, but you said this was your top 3 week stretch of Winter. Again, it was a great stretch here but certainly not tops. If this was 1998 and I was 15, it would be my top stretch hands down. But we've had so many good times this century we are spoiled. I don't think mother nature will be able to top 2014 here. (Hope you heard that ma nature, I am challenging you).

Nice pic. and nice shovel/piles. I hate to say it but after getting older and having covid in fall, I caved and got a snowblower for the bigger falls. My piles will never reach epic status of 2014 again lol. It was a great stretch of winter, but no top 3 here. Id call it on par with Feb 2018 and Dec 2000. Better in Jan 1999, Feb 2011, Jan-Mar 2014, Feb 2015. Pic from Feb 2014 (I'm 6'4").

Was so tired last night. Slept through it all. woke up to fresh white at like 3am, then when i woke up this morning it was watery slush. Looks like a heavy burst of snow then temps warmed to 36 with high dews and drizzle. Estimating 1". Season total at 42.5". Depth has actually compacted to 11" of dense snow. A week of double digit depths. Child's play compared to 2014-15 and 2013-14 but deep winter nonetheless.

I have no idea if this is going to be wet snow, rain, or a bit of both here. I still see similarities to February 4th but no way is it going to be that whiteout type of fun lol. As hoosier mentioned itll just add water to the snowpack. Our depth is down to about 12" on average and the water content I would say is about 1.3 to 1.4". Doesn't seem like it's really going to freeze hard for a few days afterward but it's not like the snowpack is going away without a torch lol.

Went to a park during sunset last night...just love winter sunsets and sunrises.

I love satellite shots like that. Narrow as that band may be its insane that it's dumping 3+ feet of snow with do little open water. Even the little bit of Lake effect we have last night was not your typical fluff it was more like powder which made me think this was a product of good les parameters but not enough open water to generate the goods.

Picked up 0.6" of powder overnight from the lake, wasn't really expecting it and there was a blob of 3-4" well NW of Detroit. As soon as the snow moved out the sun moved in. Now at 21.7" in Feb and 41.5" on the season. DTW picked up 0.4 which makes 20.7" in Feb and 40.2" on the season.

Will we end up with yet another year of late season accumulating snow events in April and may?

You still have 2 more months before you can guarantee the parting shot lol.

Can't say im not jealous of Chicago, but I mean it looks absolutely fantastic here. They were kind of due but it's crazy how the city proper is ground zero over the burbs, rarely will see that happen anywhere let alone lakefront Chicago. Just going to Gaylord area. Some family friends recently moved there so we are going to visit them and thencheck out some elk, which I've never done. Their snow depth is pretty much similar to ours lol. Obviously if I went way up into the Keweenaw I would see more but just not worth it this year. We've had quite a run of deep snow winters here, we've now had pack over a foot deep in.. 2000-01 2002-03 2004-05 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2013-14 2014-15 2017-18 2020-21 (and a lol that we only peaked at 10" in 2007-08 despite almost 80" of snow) 1900-1999 1998-99 1991-92 1984-85 1981-82 1977-78 1974-75 1951-52 1942-43 1929-30 1925-26 1917-18 1911-12 1907-08 1903-04

Actually he is wrong about storm track. And he's not from MI. There are many different types of storms that can affect the Lakes. Bowling balls and hookers are the best shots at 8+, but one of those isn't a guarantee to get 8+ nor does it mean that you can't get 8+ from another type of storm. You are also wrong about it being very rare for SE MI to be in the jackpot, as we have been in the jackpot many times in recent years. Since 2010, the official 8"+ storms- Detroit- 12 Milwaukee- 10 Chicago- 8 Columbus- 4

Nice sunrise today after a little bit more fluffy snow last night. Loving this deep Winter, don't want it to end.