frostfern

It seems totals around 20" are pretty widespread all along I-131. I-94 south will get a LOT more than 3-4" since this is fluffy snow now.

It feels like it's winding down up here. The peak squalls came through around noon and it's been winding down ever since. I saw a little sun peeking through the clouds even. There's still some nice big dendrites at times, but it's not steady enough to really put down. I-94 is still in the game for heavy snow for a while I think.

You're getting the wrap-around boundary enhancement effect now that a truly arctic airmass is undercutting the lakes. It's kind of a lull here now. I don't know how much more is to come here in GRR. The better focus might be south and west from now on.

GHD 2 was mostly mass south. There was around 7" total.

The latest squalls have pushed the total up to around 11" here. It's getting much fluffier.

I remember December 2008 being extremely active around here. The depth got up around 20" briefly before a rainer around Christmas destroyed it and caused a lot of roof leak issues..

I think it was a result of the DGZ layer being more elevated than normal due to the very warm lake temperature. The seeding process is slower. In a more NW flow scenario it isn’t a problem because the fetch is long enough to overcome the longer seeding period.

The problem is you need a stationary stacked low somewhere near the south end of Lake Huron. That just doesn’t happen. If there is a low there it tends to be on its way north towards Quebec or Hudson Bay. You can get northerly flow for a while with an arctic high, but then the inversion heights are too low and winds too light to get the deep dominant band you need to really dump.

8” depth on the ground here.

Not too surprised. I didn’t hear or see anything but that band was intense for 45 minutes before it shifted more to the south. Hopefully the Saturday event will be more solid coverage. The monster sized flakes today were cool, but it hasn’t been persistent and its a little sloppy and heavy compared to a normal LES event. Its not super dense, but its not that really light 20:1 ratio we sometimes get either. More like 12:1. The next one is supposed to be colder.

Yea. Eastern Allegan and western Barry have had more persistent coverage. There has been a cutoff where to the north its very scattered with a lack of good banding, especially very close to the lake. I think maybe the dendrite growth zone is a little high and being squeezed up against the inversion layer. There is a fairly deep liquid cloud layer and I think that can produce a cellular pattern with dry gaps wherever there isn’t enough upward motion to feed the DGZ, despite ample moisture. It is more W than WSW at this point as well.

I notice it's very cellular like we sometimes get in the afternoon during March/April cold unstable spells.

I don't think anyone has better insight at fantasy range. Sometimes models keep clowning right up into 12 hours before the event.

It's really hit/miss showery and ratios are not high, but when it comes it absolutely rips. There is about 4" here on the grass, 2" on the driveway, and 5" on parked cars that haven't been brushed off. The super heavy band that was over me a few minutes ago seems to be shifting south now though.

Absolutely ripping right now and its getting more steady as opposed to the on-off squalls earlier today. I notice more accumulation on the roof of the car than on the ground. If the ratio was classic LES this would be 4” per hour stuff. Its just somewhat wet and the ground is a bit warm…. thus compacting a lot.

Impressive silver dollar flakes on and off today. Its not the heaviest in terms of visibility reduction or rapid accumulation, but the flakes are magnificent dendrites.

It was terrible. But it was exciting for me.

https://www.spc.noaa.gov/misc/AbtDerechos/casepages/jul7-81991page.htm I was 11 years old when I witnessed this storm. In my parent's yard there were at least three 50' tall 2' thick oak trees that bent over so far they snapped off 20 feet off the ground. There were trees down everywhere you looked. Couldn't get out for 24 hours due to so many trees having to be cleared off the road, and the power wasn't restored until 5 days later. It's funny with derocho there are always pockets that get hit way worse than areas around and we were right in a really bad pocket. It looked as bad as some of the worst pictures from the 2020 Iowa derecho. I really think it was around 90 mph. It was actually kind of miserable, but of course I was excited.

Same. Scattered non-sticking mood flakes, but otherwise CAD. I jinxed it with my dumb wishful weenie post yesterday. Wind direction is wrong for LES as usual.

First 1"+ snow at GRR tonight? It's a tough call with warm ground and being on the northeastern fringe of the QPF. 1-2" on non-paved surfaces seems doable. If the band can come inland at some point.

Wetlands aren't looking great here either. A lot of dirt/mud/grass in places where there'd normally be water. December and January are not particularly wet months. Even months with large snowfalls typically don't add up to more than 3.0" of water, and heavy rain isn't common in winter. Really need a few 5"+ months, but that usually only happens in the spring or early Summer, if at all. September and October are normally wet months as well, but they ended up being on the dry side. Could have used a tropical system at some point.

Missed the rain last night here, just sprinkles and distant rumbles. Had some decent lake effect rains over the past few weeks though. The east side of the Lower Peninsula that missed out on the LE moisture is parched though. Growing season mostly is over, but newly planted trees aren't going to do well in the spring if winter remains dry.

Non-severe storms have less lightning within the cloud overall, but what lighting there is tends to be visible and dramatic. Higher-based elevated storms have a knack for big bold CG strikes. Monsoon storms in the desert SW are similar. Nice big CGs from a high base.

I heard one very low pitched rumble in the far distance. The more active stuff will probably miss NW of here though. These high-based cells can make for nice CG photos.

I thought there was one or two very warm days early November 2020, upper 70s even here in Michigan.