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Northern IL snow events


Thundersnow12

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That last minute NW bump on the 12/1/06 storm was awesome for this area. It was a nail biter all the way up until when the snow began. The snow actually backed in from the southeast agonizingly slow as it fought very dry/cold air. We went from not a flake to be seen to heavy snow a very short period of time. The winds also kicked up dramatically right as the snow arrived. It was odd to see the winds kick up at the beginning of the snow like that. Often times the stronger winds extend further west outside of the snow band. We ended up with 10-11" here.

even though that kind of screwed me here, still one of my favorite events. I think Skilling mentioned TSSN possible like 3 days out or something like that.

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Insane blizzard. Up until the GHD storm I hadn't seen anything like that since. We had winds pushing 50mph with the GHD storm, but I suspect the winds pushed close to 60mph with the '87 storm. There was also rounds of frequent lightning with that storm.

Top gusts across the area...

ORD: 64

RFD: 61

PIA: 59

MDW: 58

MSN: 58

MKE: 53

MLI: 46

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  • 2 weeks later...

12/14-16/87...

ORD OBS:

KORD 151100Z 06021G29KT 1/2SM -TSSN FG-BLSN OVC002 00/M01 A2927 RMK R14RVR40V60+ TB32 OCNL LTGIC OVHD PRESFR SLP918 P0005 T00001011

KORD 151106Z 06035G56KT 1/16SM -SNPL FG OVC/// A//// RMK R14RVR08V26 TE05 MOVD NE PRESFR SLPNO

RFD OBS:

KRFD 151400Z 32020G28KT 1/8SM +TSSN OVC002 M01/M01 A2919 RMK R36VR08V10 T OVHD-NE MOVG NE OCNL LTGIC SLP892 P0028 T10061011

Upper Air Maps:

121503.png

121512.png

121521.png

Snowfall Totals:

121587.png

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wish I was alive for that one lol thats a beast of a system.

I'll never forget that one. I was only 10 but I still remember waking up around 3-4am and looking out at what looked like a white hurricane. I remember two plows coming from opposite directions on our street stopped in the road to talk to each other about two houses down. I distinctly remember the wind kicking up so hard that even with their strobe lights they were completely obscured in white. It was like a severe thunderstorm with snow that lasted for hours. It was pretty much what Alek encountered with the GHD storm.

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There's a great case study writeup regarding the '87 blizzard that goes into great detail about how gravity waves played a large role in the extreme wind gusts associated with this storm.

Hopefully this link works...

http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/1520-0434%281990%29005%3C0533%3ALAMWDW%3E2.0.CO%3B2

If the above link doesn't work try this one, and then click on PDF in the center of the page...

http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/1520-0434%281990%29005%3C0533%3ALAMWDW%3E2.0.CO%3B2

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There's a great case study writeup regarding the '87 blizzard that goes into great detail about how gravity waves played a large role in the extreme wind gusts associated with this storm.

Hopefully this link works...

http://journals.amet...DW%3E2.0.CO%3B2

If the above link doesn't work try this one, and then click on PDF in the center of the page...

http://journals.amet...DW%3E2.0.CO%3B2

first link worked, thanks! Will be spending probably several hours going through that! That storm puts the GHD storm to shame lol besides for amounts

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first link worked, thanks! Will be spending probably several hours going through that! That storm puts the GHD storm to shame lol besides for amounts

Yeah that was the one downside about the storm. Relatively speaking it was a quick mover. IIRC (at least in the QC) the heavy snow didn't kick in until after midnight and only lasted till about sunrise before tapering to lighter snow. Still picked up about a foot.

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Yeah that was the one downside about the storm. Relatively speaking it was a quick mover. IIRC (at least in the QC) the heavy snow didn't kick in until after midnight and only lasted till about sunrise before tapering to lighter snow. Still picked up about a foot.

Ya from the sfc all the way up, its very impressive. Can't name another storm that got as deep as it did at 850mb.

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This is the most impressive graphic to me in the case study posted above. Look at how quickly the surface low bombed as it moved north through Illinois. Between midnight and 6am the surface low's pressure dropped from 992mb to 979mb.

almost looks like an occlusion track of a meso with a supercell but on the synoptic scale. I've never seen something like that before, then turned northeast again and continued to deepen.

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