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Revisiting the 2011 Ground Hogs Day Blizzard!


SpartyOn

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It's amazing there wasn't more widespread power outages then there was! I remember the lights flickered and even went out for 10 seconds or so maybe 5 times, but they stayed on! Cable did go out though, and my cell phone signal was weak the next morning!

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The sleet stories from this storm sound nightmarish :yikes:

You couldn't find salt around here for two weeks. We broke off two pick axe handles trying to break through the ice on a sidewalk at the church. We nearly resorted to renting a tile stripper from lowes to clean the sidewalk with, but they were out. Someone else had the idea.

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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.

That's what I'll remember about the storm. There's a corner in the roof just outside my living room, and I'll never forget the hours spent watching the sleet pour off the roof like sugar. The pile underneath that part of the roof was two feet high (I'll have to see where my pictures of it are). It was so deep on the ground, you could kick it around like sand.

Then we got about 15 minutes of freezing rain, and the whole thing turned to cement. Thanks to that, Muncie was consistently three or four degrees colder than the rest of the region for about a month. When it finally got warm enough to melt, it took me two hours to dig a four-inch wide channel down my driveway so the water has someplace to go without turning the entire driveway into a hockey rink.

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Then we got about 15 minutes of freezing rain, and the whole thing turned to cement. Thanks to that, Muncie was consistently three or four degrees colder than the rest of the region for about a month. When it finally got warm enough to melt, it took me two hours to dig a four-inch wide channel down my driveway so the water has someplace to go without turning the entire driveway into a hockey rink.

That's what made it hell. Sleep it just like sand, but once it cemented together, what was on the ground was staying there. I used a bag of salt and a hoe on my driveway over 3 hours and you would barely know I made a diffrence. I don't even remember how long the ice was on the ground for, I just know it was a miserable experience. I had a sore ass for 2 months because I biffed at least 4 times I remember distinctly. Also had to get winched out 3 times in my RWD car, 2 of them were from my front yard.

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That's what I'll remember about the storm.  There's a corner in the roof just outside my living room, and I'll never forget the hours spent watching the sleet pour off the roof like sugar.  The pile underneath that part of the roof was two feet high (I'll have to see where my pictures of it are).  It was so deep on the ground, you could kick it around like sand.

Then we got about 15 minutes of freezing rain, and the whole thing turned to cement.  Thanks to that, Muncie was consistently three or four degrees colder than the rest of the region for about a month.  When it finally got warm enough to melt, it took me two hours to dig a four-inch wide channel down my driveway so the water has someplace to go without turning the entire driveway into a hockey rink.

The sand-like consistency sorta surprised me. I slid several times just trying to walk through it. It didn't take long for it to harden though. :axe:

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love this report lol

0450 PM HEAVY SLEET FRANKFORT 40.28N 86.51W

02/01/2011 M3.00 INCH CLINTON IN TRAINED SPOTTER

WHITE-OUT CONDITIONS DUE TO SLEET.

What could have been! I guess sleet is better than the 1-2 inches of pure ice we were expecting. Could you imagine the amount of damage caused if we had all ZR and the winds? I remember the night of the main event it was hard to sleep cause of the sound of the wind ( I have a forest behind my house ) We would still be recovering from it. Imagine Paducah 09 with 50mph wind gust. That would have been epic, but I honestly dont think I would want to expirence something like that.

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What could have been! I guess sleet is better than the 1-2 inches of pure ice we were expecting. Could you imagine the amount of damage caused if we had all ZR and the winds? I remember the night of the main event it was hard to sleep cause of the sound of the wind ( I have a forest behind my house ) We would still be recovering from it. Imagine Paducah 09 with 50mph wind gust. That would have been epic, but I honestly dont think I would want to expirence something like that.

Did you get hit hard in the Anderson/Muncie ice storm in.... 05 I think it was?

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The sand-like consistency sorta surprised me. I slid several times just trying to walk through it. It didn't take long for it to harden though. :axe:

Lol, I do admit having a lot of fun watching people go down all over Ball State. Of course, I joined them several times.

What could have been! I guess sleet is better than the 1-2 inches of pure ice we were expecting. Could you imagine the amount of damage caused if we had all ZR and the winds? I remember the night of the main event it was hard to sleep cause of the sound of the wind ( I have a forest behind my house ) We would still be recovering from it. Imagine Paducah 09 with 50mph wind gust. That would have been epic, but I honestly dont think I would want to expirence something like that.

This is true. After the storm, I was telling people what our possibilities were: a foot of snow, 3-4" of sleet, 2" of ice or 2" of rain. While the snow would have been the most fun, I think we got off pretty easy all things considered. Certainly could have been a lot worse. The power was out at the house for a week after the ice storm in '05, and I ended up living at my office for three days.

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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.

And whats worse, when I was looking up these pics (its nice because everything on your wunderground photo account is organized by date)...I started looking at pics from other recent years. Looking at data/stats is one thing but its even more pronounced when looking at pics. Man, to say we were due for a stinker winter is an understatement. (Still think we have some better snows coming, but the first half of this winter is definitely a karma one).

Oh, and to those who had sleet, I cant even imagine it. I think the most sleet Ive ever witnessed is 0.5", if that.

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I think it would be kind of cool to see a sleet storm like that. The bad thing though is you know you're missing out on very heavy snow not too far away, which takes all of the "fun" out of it. I remember a few winters ago we had a major sleet storm that piled up to around 1". It was also cemented with freezing rain and took forever to melt. That seemed pretty epic, and hadn't seen anything that extreme before. I can't imagine 3+" of that stuff.

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I think it would be kind of cool to see a sleet storm like that. The bad thing though is you know you're missing out on very heavy snow not too far away, which takes all of the "fun" out of it. I remember a few winters ago we had a major sleet storm that piled up to around 1". It was also cemented with freezing rain and took forever to melt. That seemed pretty epic, and hadn't seen anything that extreme before. I can't imagine 3+" of that stuff.

That second sentence sums it all up. Very heartbreaking last year.

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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

preface = not a complaint post, just a balanced reality check post.

GHD was an incredible and historic blizard/storm/event, but not so much for Michigan. In defense of a few of the MI (especially SEMI) posters I feel compelled to share my thoughts:

I see a whopping (2) MI cities making your list, and they are both in the LES areas of SWMI and are accustomed to getting large totals. Outside of that, this was way over hyped/forecasted and "busted" notably on accumulation totals and "real-feel impact" for the majority of areas covered by all the red-zone, mby included.

The winds were sweet, but the grainy sugar-sand flakes were lame thus the visibilties never seemed worthy of the bliz-warnings.

And, the stretched-out (18 hour-ish) duration to get the 9-11" totals (half what many forecast maps were showing across S. Mich) meant plows had their way with the storm instead of the other way around (as you want to see and would expect from a historic storm).

Nope, this was not historic, let alone epic for S. Michigan. Bliz of '99 easily matched or exceeded GHD (even in the areas that made your list) in both total snowfall and real-feel impacts. And that one ranks only perhaps #3 on the list of modern era mega-storms for our area, and a distant 3rd if it does hold that spot.

One year later, would I take another GHD? You betcha, especially with this season! But those of us in S. Michigan can't pretend it was the epic event like it was for a lot you west and SW of us. I think most of us in S. Michigan are still waiting for that day to dawn..

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What could have been! I guess sleet is better than the 1-2 inches of pure ice we were expecting. Could you imagine the amount of damage caused if we had all ZR and the winds? I remember the night of the main event it was hard to sleep cause of the sound of the wind ( I have a forest behind my house ) We would still be recovering from it. Imagine Paducah 09 with 50mph wind gust. That would have been epic, but I honestly dont think I would want to expirence something like that.

If the original zr forecasts would've panned out around Indy, it would've been a catastrophe. Serious infrastructure damage with that much ice and winds that strong.

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preface = not a complaint post, just a balanced reality check post.

GHD was an incredible and historic blizard/storm/event, but not so much for Michigan. In defense of a few of the MI (especially SEMI) posters I feel compelled to share my thoughts:

I see a whopping (2) MI cities making your list, and they are both in the LES areas of SWMI and are accustomed to getting large totals. Outside of that, this was way over hyped/forecasted and "busted" notably on accumulation totals and "real-feel impact" for the majority of areas covered by all the red-zone, mby included.

The winds were sweet, but the grainy sugar-sand flakes were lame thus the visibilties never seemed worthy of the bliz-warnings.

And, the stretched-out (18 hour-ish) duration to get the 9-11" totals (half what many forecast maps were showing across S. Mich) meant plows had their way with the storm instead of the other way around (as you want to see and would expect from a historic storm).

Nope, this was not historic, let alone epic for S. Michigan. Bliz of '99 easily matched or exceeded GHD (even in the areas that made your list) in both total snowfall and real-feel impacts. And that one ranks only perhaps #3 on the list of modern era mega-storms for our area, and a distant 3rd if it does hold that spot.

One year later, would I take another GHD? You betcha, especially with this season! But those of us in S. Michigan can't pretend it was the epic event like it was for a lot you west and SW of us. I think most of us in S. Michigan are still waiting for that day to dawn..

It definitely lost steam as it got to your area, no denying that. But for areas farther west that went through '99 and GHD, I think many would say that GHD was better/more intense. '99 had a wider snow band but the higher end amounts had less areal coverage than GHD. I can't recall too many storms that have produced 18" or more from Oklahoma to Lake Michigan.

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And whats worse, when I was looking up these pics (its nice because everything on your wunderground photo account is organized by date)...I started looking at pics from other recent years. Looking at data/stats is one thing but its even more pronounced when looking at pics. Man, to say we were due for a stinker winter is an understatement. (Still think we have some better snows coming, but the first half of this winter is definitely a karma one).

Oh, and to those who had sleet, I cant even imagine it. I think the most sleet Ive ever witnessed is 0.5", if that.

Yeah, I've never seen very much sleet either, maybe 0.75". Sleet is usually short-lived here either going to freezing rain or back to snow.

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That second sentence sums it all up. Very heartbreaking last year.

I disagree. Yeah, it would've been more fun to get the massive snow amounts. However, most of us have seen 12-15" of snow in a storm, and most of have seen 2" of ice accumulation, I don't think there are a lot of people out there who have seen 3-4" of sleet.

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i went for a walk prolly around 9 or 10 that night with the camera...there are some open areas around where i live....very very wild storm...great stuff

i do remember during one of my walks that there was a moment were i did get a little freaked out... i think it had more to do with the fact that I had absolutely no bearings with how blinding the falling and blowing snow had gotten...All it did was get my heart pumpin' a little extra...but i could see how it could become quite dangerous for people caught out in those conditions...extremely disorienting

anywho...

This was in front of my house. . .

one of the better gusts hits a little after 30 seconds. . .

footage quality is junk. . .but still tells the story

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Photo's like these tell the severity of the storm well. I believe this was a photo from a car that was left on Lake Shore Drive.

Cool satellite loop of the storm. http://en.wikipedia....oss_the_U.S.OGG

that photo reminds me of a story my dad told me about the '67 blizzzard. . .

he had just bought a brand new car three days before it hit. He was a manager at a local Jewel at the time. He had to work the day the blizzard started, but had a date with a girl after work...(the "girl" would eventually be my mother years later) He was a smoker at the time, but didn't want the "girl" to find out. So after he had his cig on the way to work that day he decided to leave the window cracked a little bit so the car would still smell new for their date, instead of it smelling like smoke. Obviously the blizzard hit while he was at work and most of the employees got shut in for over 24 hours. He eventually made it out to his car the next day and found that it was full top to bottom with snow. All just from the small amount he had left it cracked open. Needless to say, the new car smell was long gone from that point forward. . .

the worst part about it is that my mom new he was a smoker and she was a smoker herself at that time....

they are still married now and they both quit smoking soon after that blizzard . . .

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that photo reminds me of a story my dad told me about the '67 blizzzard. . .

he had just bought a brand new car three days before it hit. He was a manager at a local Jewel at the time. He had to work the day the blizzard started, but had a date with a girl after work...(the "girl" would eventually be my mother years later) He was a smoker at the time, but didn't want the "girl" to find out. So after he had his cig on the way to work that day he decided to leave the window cracked a little bit so the car would still smell new for their date, instead of it smelling like smoke. Obviously the blizzard hit while he was at work and most of the employees got shut in for over 24 hours. He eventually made it out to his car the next day and found that it was full top to bottom with snow. All just from the small amount he had left it cracked open. Needless to say, the new car smell was long gone from that point forward. . .

the worst part about it is that my mom new he was a smoker and she was a smoker herself at that time....

they are still married now and they both quit smoking soon after that blizzard . . .

That's quite a story! Good ending!

Cool video above by the way. You can clearly see how bad the visibility was by pointing the camera towards the street lamp. Snow drifted into my garage through a 1/2" gap along the floor during the storm last February, talk about weird places for snow. I remember I had snow in between some of the windows and the storm pane. Wild.

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And whats worse, when I was looking up these pics (its nice because everything on your wunderground photo account is organized by date)...I started looking at pics from other recent years. Looking at data/stats is one thing but its even more pronounced when looking at pics. Man, to say we were due for a stinker winter is an understatement. (Still think we have some better snows coming, but the first half of this winter is definitely a karma one).

Oh, and to those who had sleet, I cant even imagine it. I think the most sleet Ive ever witnessed is 0.5", if that.

I lived in Lancaster, PA for the Valentine's day storm several years back. It was UNREAL...6 to 8 inches of SLEET that froze solid. It was by far the most dense stuff I have ever had to shovel. On top of that, it froze rock solid the night after, so if you didn't shovel your car out or anything out, it was literally frozen in a block of ice. It took that stuff a loooong time to melt.

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