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May 2020 cold snap; record cold, possible snow?


michsnowfreak
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oh geez I accidentally deleted my post lol. Trying to add a gif I made. Oh well.

 

Anyway, it was just incredible to see the heavy snow for May 10/11. I have never seen anything like it so late in the season. I will look up stats later, because its a May to remember, but seeing the rain suddenly turn to heavy snow and accumulate was just unreal for MID-MAY.

 

I picked up 0.7" of snow, which was all gone by morning (the heavy snow lightened up then turned back to rain as it ended, and the temp rose back to the mid-upper 30s. Unfortunately very few snow reports due to the fact that this was a late evening into early overnight event, and also the accumulation was confined to far eastern MI. West of a DTW-PTK line, only a trace fell. DTW had 0.5", with 0.7" here, and social media reports of around 2", possibly more, in parts of Macomb & St Clair county.

 

96707302_10113320316226323_9347421867868

 

96554572_10113320316845083_6932047709318

 

95734039_10113320353781063_5798246050493

 

97486085_10113320316346083_1788039080538

 

96678536_10113320316695383_3668100442438

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1 hour ago, michsnowfreak said:

oh geez I accidentally deleted my post lol. Trying to add a gif I made. Oh well.

 

Anyway, it was just incredible to see the heavy snow for May 10/11. I have never seen anything like it so late in the season. I will look up stats later, because its a May to remember, but seeing the rain suddenly turn to heavy snow and accumulate was just unreal for MID-MAY.

 

I picked up 0.7" of snow, which was all gone by morning (the heavy snow lightened up then turned back to rain as it ended, and the temp rose back to the mid-upper 30s. Unfortunately very few snow reports due to the fact that this was a late evening into early overnight event, and also the accumulation was confined to far eastern MI. West of a DTW-PTK line, only a trace fell. DTW had 0.5", with 0.7" here, and social media reports of around 2", possibly more, in parts of Macomb & St Clair county.

 

96707302_10113320316226323_9347421867868

 

96554572_10113320316845083_6932047709318

 

95734039_10113320353781063_5798246050493

 

97486085_10113320316346083_1788039080538

 

96678536_10113320316695383_3668100442438

Writing the date in the snow made me lol.  Great pics.

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1 hour ago, IWXwx said:

FWA set a record low this morning of 29°, beating 1946's 31°. We have one more chance of frost tonight before I can put the garden sheets away.

Can't come soon enough.  I am covering close to 1000 sq ft every night it gets this cold.  Survived a hard freeze last week and fortunately only got down to 36 last night so it was a waste of time.  Better safe than sorry though.  As you said, tonight should be the last night.

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26 this morning. I'm purposely sleeping late so I don't have to see or deal with 20's.  Looking forward to 44 and sun today after being in the 30's for the past 5 days, good god!  More seasonal weather starts tomorrow.  

I'm so excited, Several KC-135 Stratotankers are doing flyover's in Houghton and Marquette.  They should fly right over my area around 1:40 on their way from Houghton to MQT!

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YYZ recorded 1.1" yesterday. May 2020 is now the snowiest May ever recorded at YYZ. That brings our winter total up to 56.1". Fookin crazy! 

Got down to 25F last night breaking the previous record of 28F set back in 1939. History has been made. Now it's time for summer. :sun:

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40 minutes ago, Snowstorms said:

YYZ recorded 1.1" yesterday. May 2020 is now the snowiest May ever recorded at YYZ. That brings our winter total up to 56.1". Fookin crazy! 

Got down to 25F last night breaking the previous record of 28F set back in 1939. History has been made. Now it's time for summer. :sun:

So, snowiest May 11 on record, snowiest May day on record, and snowiest May on record.  It's easy when the amounts are all in-and-around an inch. lol.

One more record cold night possible tonight then good riddance.

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9 hours ago, MIstorm97 said:

Going to try for one more record low in Detroit. The record for May 12th is 32F in 1934. The current temp is 34F, with light winds and mostly clear skies. Should be able to drop at least a couple degrees more.

You honestly cannot make this up. Detroit was on the way to a record low when all of a sudden an unforecast deck of clouds and snow flurries decided to develop and roll through from 5-7am. The overcast kept the temp steady at 34゚ for hours, but it added another trace of snow to this crazy May. Ann Arbor actually reported 0.1" of snow this morning. So this is now 5 days in a row Detroit has recorded snow :huh:. In fact, previously no snow had ever been recorded on May 11th or 12th.

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Now to look at some of the records from this May cold snap at Detroit.

 

DAILY RECORDS

May 08 - Record daily snowfall, Trace

May 09 - Record low, 27F

May 10 - Record daily snowfall, 0.5"

May 11 - Record daily snowfall, Trace

May 12 - Record daily snowfall, Trace

 

OTHER RECORDS & ODDITIES

~3rd coldest May temp (27F) on record (only behind 25F on May 10, 1966 & 26F on May 1, 1978)

~2nd latest hard freeze (28 or lower) on record (behind only 25F on May 10, 1966)

~4th snowiest May (0.5") on record, tie w/ 1902 (behind only 1923 (6.0"), 1883 (5.0"), 1912 (1.5"))

~3rd latest measurable snow on record (behind only May 13, 1912 & May 21/22, 1883)

~First May to ever record snow on FIVE separate days (previous record 4 days in 1954...only 3 Mays have ever had snow on 3+ days, 1907, 1954, 2020)

~First May to ever record snow on FIVE CONSECUTIVE days (previous record 3 days in 1954)

~LONGEST snow season on record from first to last measurable snow (186 days, Nov 7 - May 10)

~12th longest snow season on record from first to last measurable flake (195 days, Oct 31 - May 12)

~Snow fell on 11 days from Apr 14-May 12)

~Avg temp for the week of May 5-11 was 44.7F, 2nd coldest on record

~Avg LOW temp for week of May 5-11 was 34.3F, the coldest on record

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4 hours ago, michsnowfreak said:

You honestly cannot make this up. Detroit was on the way to a record low when all of a sudden an unforecast deck of clouds and snow flurries decided to develop and roll through from 5-7am. The overcast kept the temp steady at 34゚ for hours, but it added another trace of snow to this crazy May. Ann Arbor actually reported 0.1" of snow this morning. So this is now 5 days in a row Detroit has recorded snow :huh:. In fact, previously no snow had ever been recorded on May 11th or 12th.

I really put the jinx on it. Have another chance tonight to get a record low. The record for May 13th is 30F from 2013, the last time we got below freezing in May before 2020. With clear skies and a complete decoupling this time, we *should* be able to at least hit the record. Chance of even getting a hard freeze, which would be the latest on record. Thanks for typing out all the records/oddities from this cold wave. Was going to do it myself today, but saw you already did!

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2 hours ago, Chicago Storm said:

No records at ORD or RFD during this period.

So while highly anomalous and unusual/rare, it wasn't record breaking at official sites in the area.

Yeah...partly because many of the daily records (especially lows) during this cold spell at ORD and RFD happened to be colder outliers compared to the surrounding days. And, it didn’t help that it was mostly sunny on Saturday (in May, it’s almost impossible to have cold daytime temps with the sun out)...and that the Sunday precip happened to fall during peak heating, precluding any measurable snowfall amounts despite the extremely cold airmass.
 

In other words, bad timing. If there were “airmass records”, I imagine ORD would have set some new records...

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Another interesting stat from this event is regarding the high temperatures and snowfall. After Detroit recorded a trace of snow this morning, the high today got up to 60F. That means twice during the 5 day stretch of snow, the high temperature still hit or exceeded 60F (61F on 5/10, followed by 0.5" of snow hours later) while the day also recorded snowfall.

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1 hour ago, MIstorm97 said:

Another interesting stat from this event is regarding the high temperatures and snowfall. After Detroit recorded a trace of snow this morning, the high today got up to 60F. That means twice during the 5 day stretch of snow, the high temperature still hit or exceeded 60F (61F on 5/10, followed by 0.5" of snow hours later) while the day also recorded snowfall.

Guessing the summer of 1816 featured a bunch of freakish situations like that. Plummeted to 27F here last night before the cloud deck rolled in and temps shot back up for a while before falling to freezing again towards morning. Freeze Warning in effect but temp is still a comfy 35F attm

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3 hours ago, RogueWaves said:

Guessing the summer of 1816 featured a bunch of freakish situations like that. Plummeted to 27F here last night before the cloud deck rolled in and temps shot back up for a while before falling to freezing again towards morning. Freeze Warning in effect but temp is still a comfy 35F attm

A little batch of clouds is trying to ruin Detroit's chance of hitting the record low or even getting below freezing. Sitting at 36F currently.

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On 5/12/2020 at 11:45 AM, snowstormcanuck said:

So, snowiest May 11 on record, snowiest May day on record, and snowiest May on record.  It's easy when the amounts are all in-and-around an inch. lol.

One more record cold night possible tonight then good riddance.

Got down to -3C (26.6F) last night at YYZ breaking the old record of -1.7C (28.9F) set back in 1967. 7 sub-freezing lows this month after going nearly 2 decades without one. :lmao:

After 5 consecutive days with highs in the 40's, we've finally cracked 50F, and hopefully for good. Still below normal for today and tom tho. Above avg temps begin after the long weekend.  B) 

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11 hours ago, MIstorm97 said:

A little batch of clouds is trying to ruin Detroit's chance of hitting the record low or even getting below freezing. Sitting at 36F currently.

DTW low was 32゚, so no record for the day (if it had been yesterday or tomorrow it would have been a record though). Regardless this crazy may stretch is coming to an end and spring looks to finally have sprung.

 

There were officially 3 freezes at Detroit this May, which ties with 1978 and 1907 for the 2nd most on record. Only 1966 had more with 5. Of course the areas away from the urban heat island had more than 3 freezes this month.

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