Winter 2025-26 Medium/Long Range Discussion

[Harry Perry]

On 2/13/2026 at 7:13 AM, WestMichigan said:

What is your total in the Battle Creek area so far?  I am west of Grand Rapids and we are around 80" so far.

Right around 74” here, was more than I was expecting. 12th snowiest season as of now.
 

All for breaking records.. if we get enough warmth like what’s forecasted this week and  melt all that lake ice then have the bottom fall out toward the end of the month temp wise, we could have a shot at some top notch records. 

[dmc76]

On 2/12/2026 at 11:46 PM, Harry Perry said:

Outside of a couple decent hitters early on, the majority of them were mood flakes to a dusting. It wasn’t all that active in Michigan despite all the talk about it, especially outside of the lake belts. 

44% of the 36.3 DTW received was under 2” events. 

[dmc76]

Living outside of the Lakes region for example like madison, the Quad Cities, Rockford. Even the western suburbs of Chicago. Would be frustrating to me to go days and sometimes several weeks without measureable snows. 
 

especially coming from SE Michigan, where lake-effect bursts and clippers usually give you something to track every week or two around

 

you and watch the radar southern Michigan snows every other day while Madison and Rockford  blue skies for 2-3 weeks in the same cold pattern  that would drive me crazy  

 

and I know places like Minneapolis and Madison averages more than DTW  but that’s DTW  many places west and north of DTW  averages much more outside the belts  the Hills north of detroit averages 60” 

yes  I know  detroit sucks and big snowstorms (Erie Basin effect) 

 

[cyclone77]

Good chance that here and the QC finish Feb with <1" of precip for the year.  Really hope meaningful precipitation events return in March or April.

[frostfern]

15 hours ago, Harry Perry said:

Right around 74” here, was more than I was expecting. 12th snowiest season as of now.
 

All for breaking records.. if we get enough warmth like what’s forecasted this week and  melt all that lake ice then have the bottom fall out toward the end of the month temp wise, we could have a shot at some top notch records. 

Lots of 1-2” snowfalls consisting entirely of dendrite aggregates seems to inflate totals because of extremely low water content.  It counts, but it really doesn’t feel like as much as the numbers indicate.

[frostfern]

3 hours ago, cyclone77 said:

Good chance that here and the QC finish Feb with <1" of precip for the year.  Really hope meaningful precipitation events return in March or April.

Local water levels are REALLY low here even with some snow melt now.  I have former ponds in my area that are now meadows.

[nvck]

midweek system looks interesting. probably not a big snowmaker for anyone but some fzra/mix and even thunderstorms possible for the mitten

[sbnwx85]

10 minutes ago, nvck said:

midweek system looks interesting. probably not a big snowmaker for anyone but some fzra/mix and even thunderstorms possible for the mitten

Def hoping for some boomers around here. May even get a marginal severe risk.

[roardog]

20 minutes ago, sbnwx85 said:

Def hoping for some boomers around here. May even get a marginal severe risk.

At least you should be able to get into the 60s on Wednesday. It’ll probably be foggy and 30s here on Wednesday. 

[michsnowfreak]

3 hours ago, frostfern said:

Lots of 1-2” snowfalls consisting entirely of dendrite aggregates seems to inflate totals because of extremely low water content.  It counts, but it really doesn’t feel like as much as the numbers indicate.

Actually this year is the opposite here. It feels like more snow has fallen because of the consistent deep snowcover. We had a few fluff events but a lot of times it was so cold that we were getting 10-12:1 powder. The 5.2" snowstorm on Jan 25th was like sand and it was so cold, it seemed more like an 8"+ storm.

Definitely due for a couple quick melting snows in Mar/Apr to complete things (and of course hopefully a big storm lol).

[michsnowfreak]

12 hours ago, dmc76 said:

Living outside of the Lakes region for example like madison, the Quad Cities, Rockford. Even the western suburbs of Chicago. Would be frustrating to me to go days and sometimes several weeks without measureable snows. 
 

especially coming from SE Michigan, where lake-effect bursts and clippers usually give you something to track every week or two around

 

you and watch the radar southern Michigan snows every other day while Madison and Rockford  blue skies for 2-3 weeks in the same cold pattern  that would drive me crazy  

 

and I know places like Minneapolis and Madison averages more than DTW  but that’s DTW  many places west and north of DTW  averages much more outside the belts  the Hills north of detroit averages 60” 

yes  I know  detroit sucks and big snowstorms (Erie Basin effect) 

 

This is why many Chicago weenies get annoyed with Steve's constant big dog whining acting like it never snows in SE MI when the exact opposite is true. Id be pissed too if I was sitting in Iowa or Illinois watching one snowfall after another hit Michigan with the consolation being hey, we got a 20" storm a decade ago and Detroit didn't.

[Geoboy645]

7 hours ago, cyclone77 said:

Good chance that here and the QC finish Feb with <1" of precip for the year.  Really hope meaningful precipitation events return in March or April.

Yeah outside of the 11/30 snowfall and a rain event in early January we haven't had a significant precip event essentially since mid August. Hopefully this incoming active Pacific pattern has some widespread precip events in the next few weeks otherwise we are going to have some Problems as early as April. Especially if we have another Smoke Drought in May and June like 2023 which is a distinct possibility this year.