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Revisiting the 2011 Ground Hogs Day Blizzard!


SpartyOn

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It was beautiful here in SW MO. Small flake size ruined an otherwise perfect heavy snowstorm. I think we ended up with 19".

It's hard to believe what happened there less than 4 months after that. Talk about going from one extreme to another. That has to be on a short list of extreme events that are on total opposite sides of the spectrum over a short period of time.

IIRC we averaged around 16" here, but it was extremely hard to measure. I suppose it's possible we could have been anywhere from 14-18".

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I remember that storm very clearly - everything from the lake effect on the 31st, to the 1st wave of snow on the 1st, then the main event. The LOT NWS office included the total snow accumulation from the 31, 1, and 2nd and counted it all part of the storm. My town ended up with 24.0". Even high 3 day totals around Racine, WI. I followed the event on WGN during the evening.

View of the snow drifted up in front of my house.

180539_1811678218647_1440765701_1996979_5974943_n.jpg

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I remember that storm very clearly - everything from the lake effect on the 31st, to the 1st wave of snow on the 1st, then the main event. The LOT NWS office included the total snow accumulation from the 31, 1, and 2nd and counted it all part of the storm. My town ended up with 24.0". Even high 3 day totals around Racine, WI. I followed the event on WGN during the evening.

View of the snow drifted up in front of my house.

180539_1811678218647_1440765701_1996979_5974943_n.jpg

Holy ****!! Almost like some of the photos out of Alaska this season lol.

As I've mentioned before, one of my favorite things about the GHD storm was the quick start to the main snow event. The long duration WAA snows the 24+hrs before left the column saturated, and ready for more precip.

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When 10" is considered a bust, you know the storm was really something special. I've mentioned it before, but they hype this thing generated, even outside of us weather geeks here and into the general public, was remarkable. The Buffallo Wild Wings I was at that night had a TV turned to the weather channel. I remember the day before the storm at my high school there was just this strange excitement in the air. Can only hope we'll get to see something like this again.

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It's hard to believe what happened there less than 4 months after that. Talk about going from one extreme to another. That has to be on a short list of extreme events that are on total opposite sides of the spectrum over a short period of time.

IIRC we averaged around 16" here, but it was extremely hard to measure. I suppose it's possible we could have been anywhere from 14-18".

There were a lot of extremes in 2011 here. Blizzard, EF5 tornado, even tremors from an earthquake in OK. We hit a low of -11 and a high of 110 for a record 121 degree temp difference between Min and Max for the year. The next closest was 1983 with a 114 degree temp difference.

As far as snow depth, that was the most snow I have seen in a long time.

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When 10" is considered a bust, you know the storm was really something special. I've mentioned it before, but they hype this thing generated, even outside of us weather geeks here and into the general public, was remarkable. The Buffallo Wild Wings I was at that night had a TV turned to the weather channel. I remember the day before the storm at my high school there was just this strange excitement in the air. Can only hope we'll get to see something like this again.

It is funny to say a 8-10" storm was a bust BUT everyone (not talking about weather geeks) you talked with after the storm was laughing at how over-hyped it was for Detroit metro area. No one I know felt it just anything major or significant at all around here. I asked a few people if they remembered this storm and the response I got was either 'no' or 'oh yeah that hyped up storm that did do all that much'. I guess I don't consider this storm a 'bust' but rather to me it was a disappointment and big underachiever for this area. It definitely did not live up to the hype at all. I also hope we can get something just like it again just without that massive dry-slot that clipped a lot of us in SE MI.

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It is funny to say a 8-10" storm was a bust BUT everyone (not talking about weather geeks) you talked with after the storm was laughing at how over-hyped it was for Detroit metro area. No one I know felt it just anything major or significant at all around here. I asked a few people if they remembered this storm and the response I got was either 'no' or 'oh yeah that hyped up storm that did do all that much'. I guess I don't consider this storm a 'bust' but rather to me it was a disappointment and big underachiever for this area. It definitely did not live up to the hype at all. I also hope we can get something just like it again just without that massive dry-slot that clipped a lot of us in SE MI.

A lot of non-weather-geek people seem to remember how harsh last winter was as a whole, but Id bet any money if they remember a storm in particular it would certainly be Feb 20/21 snowstorm over GHD.

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Holy ****!! Almost like some of the photos out of Alaska this season lol.

As I've mentioned before, one of my favorite things about the GHD storm was the quick start to the main snow event. The long duration WAA snows the 24+hrs before left the column saturated, and ready for more precip.

Yeah, it drifted bad on the south side of the house! The moderate snow for the main event started at the snap of your fingers! The was some really light lake effect going on prior to the main snow sheild moving in.

Next morning, the lake effect was going when I took this shot. That's 36-40" of snow up by the garage!

168485_1811674138545_1440765701_1996960_5187920_n.jpg

167031_1811696659108_1440765701_1996994_5089971_n.jpg

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Truly a remarkable storm and probably one of the most disruptive Midwest snowstorms of all-time given the large area affected by heavy snow/blizzard conditions.

3 day snow/sleet totals from January 31-February 2

post-14-0-66613500-1327727020.png

Parts of MO, IA, WI, IL, IN and MI saw 18" or more. Here are the 18"+ totals that I pulled together from NCDC database and various NWS pages. A couple of them didn't have many totals listed so this is underdoing it.

Kenosha, WI: 27.3

Racine, WI: 26.0

1.4W Beach Park, IL: 24.2

0.6ESE Elk Grove Village, IL: 23.7

Spring Grove, IL: 23.4

1.7S Inverness, IL: 23.1

5NW Woodstock, IL: 23.1

Antioch, IL: 23.0

Highland, IN: 22.9

Downers Grove, IL: 22.3

Payson, IL: 22.0

Quincy, IL: 22.0

Chicago Midway Arpt: 21.7

Willowbrook, IL: 21.7

2.2WSW Elk Grove Village, IL: 21.4

2.2N Waukegan, IL: 21.3

Chicago O’Hare Arpt: 21.2

1.2SW De Motte, IN: 21.2

1.8E Lincolnwood, IL: 21.2

Grayslake, IL: 21.1

2WSW Schererville, IN: 21.1

Hannibal, MO: 21.0

Lake Zurich, IL: 21.0

Park Forest, IL: 21.0

St. Charles, IL: 21.0

Lisle, IL: 20.8

4.6W Hoffman Estates, IL: 20.7

McHenry, IL: 20.5

0.7SSW LaGrange Park, IL: 20.3

0.9ESE Portage, IN: 20.2

1N Abingdon, IL: 20.0

3E Columbia, MO: 20.0

2WSW Crown Point, IN: 20.0

Monmouth, IL: 20.0

1.5NE North Aurora, IL: 20.0

6W Perry, IL: 20.0

South Haven, MI: 20.0

1.5NNE Lakes of the Four Seasons, IN: 19.8

Milwaukee, WI: 19.8

Davenport, IA: 19.7

4WSW Mundelein, IL: 19.7

4NW Wolf Lake, MI: 19.7

Elburn, IL: 19.5

2ESE Kahoka, MO: 19.5

Oak Brook, IL: 19.5

3.7NE Hebron, IN: 19.4

1.5S Oak Park, IL: 19.3

St. David, IL: 19.3

Stoughton, WI: 19.1

3SW Barrington, IL: 19.0

4.1SW De Motte, IN: 19.0

Marengo, IL: 19.0

New Bloomfield, MO: 19.0

2NW Paw Paw, IL: 19.0

4.8NNE Poplar Grove, IL: 19.0

4NW Rockford, IL: 19.0

Saverton, IL: 19.0

Shelbina, MO: 19.0

1W Tennessee, IL: 19.0

DeKalb, IL: 18.7

Madison, WI: 18.7

5NE Avon, IL: 18.5

Pontiac, IL: 18.5

5.3W Watseka, IL: 18.5

Wauconda, IL: 18.5

Moline, IL: 18.4

Winfield, IL: 18.3

2SSE Newark, IL: 18.2

Ashland, MO: 18.0

1SSE Bartlett, IL: 18.0

4S Glen Ellyn, IL: 18.0

Hudsonville, MI: 18.0

Montgomery City, MO: 18.0

Pittsfield, IL: 18.0

Ripley, IL: 18.0

2E South Haven, MI: 18.0

Winchester, IL: 18.0

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One other thing I will always remember about this storm was the mocking some of local radio DJs were doing on the morning before the event. Some local DJs (Dwyer and Michaels) were on all morning calling it "death storm 2011" with some cheesy music. People were calling in all morning and making comments about how this will be another hyped up storm that never hits as bad as predicted. They were effectively shut up later in the day when full on blizzard conditions developed and effectively shut the QCA down for a few days.

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The amount of vehicles (with and without people in them) that we're stranded was high! Everyone knows about the people stuck on Lake Shore Drive all night, but many people we're stranded across the region. With the way the wind was blowing, a lot of the west to east roads were the worst. A couple miles from here on IL. Rte 173 people were stuck in some cases over 12 hours! I think a few people it was even close to 18 hours in the worst drifting spots. I remember hearing the National Guard's Hummers were getting stuck down in Central IL! That storm caused the first official Civil Emergency Warning for the county.

I remember on campus, the administration wanted everyone to get home early and shut the University down at 2:30pm. I had 2.5 snow days. Going back home to IL, I drove into a wall of white as the main system snow moved in from the south.

The third town on Hoosier's list above is my location. It's incredible how many locations surpassed 20". In terms of wind and snowfall, this Blizzard surpassed the one in 1999.

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GHS bust or not, i could just cry looking at pics from the first week of Feb last year lol.

Feb 1, 2011, 11pm

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Feb 2, 2011, after storm

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Feb 2, 2011, after storm, one last snow shower

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Feb 5, 2011 surprise snowstorm

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Feb 5, 2011, every corner looked like this

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Feb 6, 2011...deep snowpack

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What a difference a year makes. Those piles looked healthy. It was a good event for us around here IMHO. Sustained Blizzard conditions for a few hours.

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I had never experienced a sleet storm close to this one. Picked up 3-4" of pure sleet before changing to snow. Having 40-50 mph gusts and moderate/heavy sleet hitting the windows was like being in a hailstorm that wouldn't end.

It's a terrible sound. Each little "ping" hitting the window is more snow you're not getting.

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