michsnowfreak

DTW hit 41F yesterday evening, the first 40F day of January. Snow depth is down to 1".

Especially with a changing pattern, i still think its way early. I dont have any stake in it either way, but its a pretty tall task to assume that less than 6.3" of snow will fall there in the next 3 months. FWIW, the 3.6" at MLI is their 10th lowest total thru 1/28. The lowest was 0.4" in 1944 (The 1943-44 season ended with 17.3").

Yes! Didn't think or that but that's a good point

In the 6 days preceding the blizzard, the high temps at Chicago were 45, 50, 56, 59, 65, 54. Really an extraordinary stretch of warmth for the dead of winter. Then BAM! The clashing airmasses probably contributed to the fierceness of the storm. At Detroit, the 6 days preceding the storm had high temps of 40, 45, 53, 61, 54, 60. Here the storm was a mix of snow/sleet/freezing rain, with a record blizzard just to our west.

DTW gusted to 52mph today. Hit 38°, which ties for warmest of the month. Snowcover crust didn't budge in shade but eroding in sun. This isn't my pic but thought it was an awesome pic of a Detroit River sunset.

This should be the motto of this January in southeast Michigan as well. Been nothing exciting whatsoever, but lots of flakes, lots of cold, and persistent (albeit not deep at all) white ground.

Feb looks stormy in many areas, so easily there could be notable things for some areas in Feb.

With early morning flurries, Detroit has now seen snow fall on 26 of the past 28 days. Today is the half way mark of the snow season at DTW (meaning the climatological avg would have seen half the snow fall and half the snow to come still)

Haha. Yeah there is supposed to be a "user friendly" area at all these sites to measure snow and depth properly. Near wind scoured fields or salt splashed roads are as bad as measuring a drift or snow bank.

It's absurd that this conversation is brought up still. Obviously lake snow settles insanely fast. But it is what it is. That's why there's a liquid precip, snowfall, and snow depth column for each day.

Next weekend looks like a brief warm up then the cold recharges. Pattern definitely more active on the ensembles.

After a low of 11° DTW skyrocketed to 35° under sunny skies. Went sledding today and i had as much fun as the kids.

Definitely understand. I've enjoyed this Jan for what it has been. Snow has fallen at least at some point on 23 of the first 25 days of the month, though my monthly total is only 9.0". It's been deep winter for sure, just not deep snow. I know it's been abysmal to the west. I see Omaha has only had 1.0" all season. I'm guessing you welcome the pattern change with open arms.

If I'm stuck with one or the other I still pick CAD lol

Ensembles have a fairly active look to start Feb. Last week of Jan looks to continue pretty quiet.

Big dogs can occur thru March

Took a walk along the Detroit River yesterday. The ice looks so dang cool. In the first pic, the far distance horizon left of center looks towards Detroit, and the far right horizon is Canada.

Oh believe me. I'll be pissed. Why I said its like gambling. Rolling the dice on a pattern that is more favorable for better snowstorms still has the risk of losing the snowcover AND not producing. In which case...I'll be in a very, um, unpleasant mood.

The cold in Detroit has been impressive but nothing record breaking. Certainly more than seasonable cold. January is running a temp departure of -5.0° to date. If we go this last week without hitting 40°, this will only be the 10th January in 152 years of record to not hit 40°.

Even DTX gets it lol: Friday night through Saturday night will be one of those MI winter days with multiple chances for show showers, higher POPs, but with little QPF/snow amounts most likely.

For me its not all about average snowfall. Its been nice to have a lot of sustained winter this year. We can get years with avg snowfall but tons of thaws, and despite the final snowfall number it didnt seem like it. This year has been very wintry but boring. Its really been a quiet one outside of a few systems and frequent lakes disturbances. Clippers are great, but they seem to ebb and flow over the years. Weve had a handful in recent years. I believe the '80s-90s were clipper city, it was our bread and butter here. Yet, 90s winters overall sucked. Theres SO many different ways it can snow in the Great Lakes (and NE), so I dont worry about just one aspect of it. The projected change in pattern brings WAY more chances for fun, but also some risks. Buckle up!

Oh dont get me wrong. As an all-things winter lover I enjoy the pattern a lot too. Snowflakes falling yet again today. I wish there was more snow, but theres been pretty consistent light snowcover and near daily snowfall this month. The only issue I have is that we are really not getting a great clipper pattern like we could with this cold NW flow, so im looking forward to the pattern change as we head into Feb. Obviously it will come with the usual of some people freaking out over random OP model runs, but pattern & climo recognition makes it clear. The projected pattern will increase 3 things for our are: variablity, the chance of rainers/thaws, but most importantly, the chance of some good snowstorms. Its a gamble for sure, but more times than not this pattern will yield a decent amount of snow, even if it means seeing bare ground and rain again at some point.

Omaha has only seen 1.0" of snow all season. Its not the driest January on record here, but its in the top 20 so far. Plus, like I said, it snows pretty much every day but just not squeezing out much water. Very UN-Nina like. PRELIMINARY LOCAL CLIMATOLOGICAL DATA (WS FORM: F-6) STATION: DETROIT MI MONTH: JANUARY YEAR: 2025 LATITUDE: 42 13 N LONGITUDE: 83 20 W TEMPERATURE IN F: :PCPN: SNOW: WIND :SUNSHINE: SKY :PK WND ================================================================================ 1 2 3 4 5 6A 6B 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 12Z AVG MX 2MIN DY MAX MIN AVG DEP HDD CDD WTR SNW DPTH SPD SPD DIR MIN PSBL S-S WX SPD DR ================================================================================ 1 37 30 34 6 31 0 0.01 T 0 13.2 22 260 M M 10 1 28 250 2 30 27 29 2 36 0 T 0.1 0 13.3 21 280 M M 10 29 270 3 28 23 26 -1 39 0 0.02 0.4 T 13.7 24 290 M M 10 32 280 4 25 19 22 -5 43 0 T T T 14.9 22 270 M M 9 31 310 5 27 12 20 -7 45 0 T T T 8.2 16 300 M M 7 23 290 6 28 21 25 -2 40 0 0.01 0.1 T 12.2 23 10 M M 10 169 31 340 7 30 21 26 0 39 0 T T T 10.7 21 320 M M 9 31 330 8 26 16 21 -5 44 0 T T T 8.5 16 300 M M 10 25 330 9 28 7 18 -8 47 0 0.00 0.0 T 5.7 13 210 M M 2 17 220 10 26 15 21 -5 44 0 0.16 3.2 T 8.2 18 190 M M 9 128 24 190 11 34 17 26 0 39 0 0.04 0.5 4 7.2 15 290 M M 9 1 19 280 12 34 23 29 3 36 0 0.02 0.6 3 12.2 23 210 M M 9 1 30 200 13 34 16 25 -1 40 0 T T 3 16.2 29 230 M M 10 9 36 230 14 20 9 15 -11 50 0 0.03 0.8 3 11.0 21 310 M M 7 28 300 15 26 8 17 -9 48 0 T T 4 11.8 21 220 M M 7 27 210 16 32 17 25 0 40 0 0.05 1.4 4 11.5 22 220 M M 10 189 29 210 17 38 20 29 4 36 0 0.00 0.0 4 13.3 23 190 M M 7 30 190 18 38 20 29 4 36 0 0.24 T 2 12.6 23 220 M M 8 1 26 340 19 22 8 15 -10 50 0 T T 2 9.0 18 300 M M 9 24 290 20 13 5 9 -16 56 0 T T 2 14.2 24 240 M M 5 32 220 21 10 0 5 -20 60 0 T T 2 12.3 21 280 M M 6 27 220 22 16 -3 7 -18 58 0 0.01 0.1 2 13.1 20 170 M M 7 25 190 23 26 13 20 -5 45 0 0.07 1.4 2 10.5 18 300 M M 9 19 22 290 ================================================================================ SM 628 344 1002 0 0.66 8.6 263.5 M 189 ================================================================================

The midwest/upper midwest is WELL below normal to date west of the Lakes. It was -20° in Rochester, MN this week with no snow on the ground. Here in MI outside the lake snowbelt it's dry and cold with lots of flakes and dusters but no big storm. It's wild to think about it...Detroit has seen snow fall on 21 of the first 23 days of January, but the month to date snowfall is 8.6" and 14.0" on the season (normal to date is 21"). As a winter lover, it's great to see the mood flakes, the local lakes thick with ice, and a constant albeit not deep snowcover. But the lack of anything meaningful starts to really grind on you as we hit mid winter. My eyes are glued to the window for the first flakes of Oct/Nov, but when they become a daily occurrence & you know that any storms are hundreds if not thousands of miles away, it's not quite the same. I will gladly take the gamble to change up the pattern, even if we have to flirt with rainers and get thaws in order to increase the chance of some good snowstorms. IF this pattern were producing more clippers it would be a completely different story. But it's not.

DTW also had 1.5", bringing January to 8.6" and 14.0" on season. Snow depths crept back up to 3" at Detroit, 5" at Flint, and 8" at DTX NWS White Lake.