michsnowfreak

Winter has made quite a comeback. Picked up a fluffy 2.8" of snow this morning with round one, and DTW had 2.5".

It's been nice to have snow on snow on snow this week!

0.6" of sugar snow fell overnight, and the Arctic looking sun this morning made for a beautiful winter morning. January snowfall today is 9.2" at DTW and 8.9" imby.

On 1/14/2024 at 9:57 PM, DaveNay said:

My coworkers in Germany and UK are simply unable to comprehend the extremes of weather we get in the US.

I have a few friends in the UK and likewise, they literally cannot comprehend the weather that we get in Michigan. They don't necessarily understand the US as a whole, just my area,  and the amount of snow and cold we see in the winter and the amount of heat & humidity in the summer is insane to them. 

19 hours ago, OrdIowPitMsp said:

Cold weather sicko checking in. 

Me too. I love the tundra atmosphere of a frozen landscape.

After picking up 4.6" of cement snow, rain, and a flash freeze friday night, another 1.5" fell at DTW blowing ad drifting everywhere on Saturday. Then Sunday, January 14th was the 1st sunny day we have seen since December 15th!

Season to date snowfall has now climbed to 11.1" at DTW and 10.3" Imby.

Went to bed friday night hearing drip drip outside, then woke up saturday morning and heard the howling wind. As expected, the 4+ inches of extremely wet snow compacted about nearly in half then froze solid, with new wind whipped snow drifting around. Ice everywhere.

DTW just rose above 0 after 13 hours. This cold snack is extremely impressive for a strong nino. 

Took this picture of the frozen landscape at sunset last night.

13 hours ago, michsnowfreak said:

Absolutely gorgeous outside. Three inches and counting of extremely heavy wet snow. Probably 5-1 ratio

Quite a storm here. After I posted those pictures I was outside shoveling snow. Snow blower would not even come close to cutting thru this 4-1 ratio snow. Then TSSN, lightning lit up everything and the thunder was a long rumble. Then 15 minutes later more (we did have thundersnow on March 3rd last winter but this was more impressive). Power kept flickering then went out. Snow turned to rain. Temp rose to 38 (technically never hit freezing during the heavy snow, remained a steady 33), snow fell off all the trees and lines (not before limbs down and transformers blown) Snow boulder ruts and puddles everywhere. Power back on.

Total snowfall here 4.1", about 4-5:1 ratio. DTW had 4.6" on 1.04" and about an inch of that was all snow.

Wake up this morning to howling winds, temp of 25, snow compacted to 3" (less around drip lines under all trees) and frozen and light snow swirling around. 

2 minutes ago, mississaugasnow said:

Amazing photos 

 

did you guys have Virga to start?

Thanks! And yes virga. and then it actually started as rain here, mixed at times with snow for about an hour before turning to heavy snow.

Absolutely gorgeous outside. Three inches and counting of extremely heavy wet snow. Probably 5-1 ratio

Though its a different set up, for me this is very similar to the blinding wet snowstorms of Jan 26 & Mar 3 last winter. Trees already sagging.

1 hour after rain and mix turned to snow. Yesterday's snow was all melted, so this is all new.

Latest RAP keeps snow ripping for several more hours.

4 minutes ago, cyclone77 said:

11.3" so far here as of a bit ago.  Snow continues...

Well deserved! Enjoy and post pics.

literally went from horrible sound of rain thrashing the windows to winter wonderland in about 45 minutes.

20 minutes ago, Lightning said:

Wonder if you are getting some Erie warmth??

 

Probably. Its not common, but it has happened before, esp with easterly flow.

But right now pouring heavy snow and sticking!

9 minutes ago, Frog Town said:

Crazy snow if Toledo with 2" already.  Does anyone really know what's going on?? LOL> 

 

Webcams in toledo are insane. Hope it moves north. 

2 minutes ago, WestMichigan said:

Do you actually think that is accurate?

The latest high res showed that and also showed that it should be turning to snow very soon

Started as rain here, then a rain/snow mix and just now turning to snow.

4 minutes ago, TheClimateChanger said:

I think it's also important to note that @michsnowfreakisn't being fully forthcoming with just how bad it's been. The 5.0" observed to date is the 13th lowest (of 151 years) in the threaded historical record. Also, it's reasonable to suspect that it was somewhat inflated relative to the earlier years when they didn't use snowboards and measuring at intervals throughout the storm. I believe NCAR has found as much as 15-20 percent inflation from summing 6-hourly max accumulations measured on a snowboard relative to total depth. Regardless, this is pretty bad.

5th lowest of 66 years, since official records moved to DTW.

And last winter was mostly luck for Detroit. If we take a short jog down I-75, we find Toledo had its 4th least seasonal snowfall (of 127 years).

 

 We were talking about winters of the past and those that ended up on the futility side. This winter has sucked so far and I have no idea where you get the idea that I have not been forthcoming about that. I've been frustrated as hell lol. But I can't include or exclude this winter in any discussion of past winters for another 3+ months after the last snow has fallen because I don't know what's going to happen, nor does anyone else.

Also, I'm not sure how they measured back in the day. Or how long the 6 hour method has been in place

10 minutes ago, mississaugasnow said:

Nah those numbers are legitimate. We can also look at Toronto Island airport and Hamilton which tell the same story 

8 minutes ago, TheClimateChanger said:

Well, I'll grant you 2006-07, 2011-12 & 2015-16 were generally milder winters for much of the region. 2009-10 was very snowy for most, however. As far as questioning the validity, I'm just going by the complaints of the locals from that era. Truthfully, I didn't put much stock in their complaints since I assumed they were just denying reality.

Most places have had their times with measurement issues. DTW had some from approx 1995-2005, Although the only winter it really irritated me was 2004-05 because it was a snowy winter that was under measured. They reported 63.8" but I had near 80" (there was a freak storm here that missed them. But I would still estimate they were over 70).

I remember a while back someone said in Canada they just applied 10-1 ratios to everything? Not sure how valid that was or is. 

All that said, the years that were listed for toronto make sense. 2006-07 was a synoptic nightmare. But we got saved in michigan with an unusual amount of lake effect snow. 15-16 Was a warm winter so it makes sense to me but I do not recall what was going on in Toronto. Because we had crazy gradients around here, from way below avg snow in Toledo to above avg in flint. We all know 11-12 sucked. Now 09-10 was decent here but I happen to remember there was some crazy things going on where it would be snowing in DC and raining in Maine and toronto kept getting the shaft.

21 minutes ago, nwohweather said:

Absolutely ripping snow at my house SW of Toledo. Radar returns of rain are inaccurate

Good sign for us to your north!

7 minutes ago, TheClimateChanger said:

Nonsense. Historically, some of the biggest snowstorms on record have occurred in April. The biggest snowstorm on record in Detroit occurred in April.

Yes, indeed. April 06, 1886 took a non memorable winter and made it live on in local lore. My reference to stat padding was agreeing with snowstorms that November and April snow usually does not last long. I actually hate the term stat padding, but I know the context in which it's used on here lol. But again, my point was that it still counts towards the season total. A less extreme but more recent example would be the November 11, 2019 storm. Over 9 inches of snow which stayed on the groun 10 days. There are exceptions to every rule. Plus, the opposite of stat padding would be those times when you get a 2" snowfall and it stays on the ground the next 10 days without any more measurable snow. It still only counts for 2 inches in the record, but you got to enjoy 10 days of a wintry look.

So many different aspects to winter.

16 minutes ago, Snowstorms said:

For each of those winters, one month finished average while the rest were below to exceptionally below (almost futility months). I believe the 10 year stretch of futility winters we experienced is similar to the ones a lot of the folks down in the mid-atlantic are going through at the moment. 06-07, 11-12, and 15-16 were just down right bad. 09-10 had potential but to much blocking suppressed every single storm.  

April snow or November snow are nothing more than a stat pad. I could care less knowing it'll melt within 2-3 days max. I care about what falls between DJF until mid-march. And December and half of January now are pretty much a write-off and the next 10 days look cold and dry. 

I don't disagree that april snowfall is stat padding, but it still counts.

23 minutes ago, mississaugasnow said:

I do agree. I can’t speak for SE Michigan but April snows in GTA are more similar to the climo of November 1-15th 

 

It can snow and sometimes does but most years it’s 1-2” events, so I don’t classify April as a real winter month in GTA/Niagara 

 

just referencing that because you put a lot of emphasis on April snows lol 

It's more than likely just a temporary trend, but we've really been on a spree of some decent April and November snowfalls in recent years lol. They just get overshadowed by our pissy Decembers and snowy Februarys (again all probably temporary trends).