December 2025 General Discussion

[Frog Town]

45 minutes ago, Chinook said:

It looks like the Detroit general area is getting into more accumulating snow now

Does NW Ohio live in a radar gap or does the system truly depend that much on lake enhancement that the returns weaken that dramatically in our area?  Seeking the expertise of an actual met.  I mean, it's still snowing, but has nowhere near the returns it had 10 miles before entering NW Ohio..

 

Thanks!!

[mimillman]

NE IL caught in subsidence as primary band is southwest of model guidance. Actually have light drizzle mixed with some sleet here

[A-L-E-K]

14 minutes ago, mimillman said:

NE IL caught in subsidence as primary band is southwest of model guidance. Actually have light drizzle mixed with some sleet here

Stacking Ls

[Chicago Storm]

NE IL caught in subsidence as primary band is southwest of model guidance. Actually have light drizzle mixed with some sleet here

you’re not missing anything, as it’s not really accumulating much out west here at home.

[KeenerWx]

Nice snowy scene outside even though it’s not stacking. 

[Chinook]

2 hours ago, Frog Town said:

Does NW Ohio live in a radar gap or does the system truly depend that much on lake enhancement that the returns weaken that dramatically in our area?  Seeking the expertise of an actual met.  I mean, it's still snowing, but has nowhere near the returns it had 10 miles before entering NW Ohio..

 

Thanks!!

The NWS radars work well for something like 60+ miles with the low altitude snow, including lake effect snow. Then, I think they overshoot the clouds and snowflakes. You can see it all over the region. It's pretty commonly a problem with detecting lake effect snow. Also, areas in the vicinity of Findlay have the least accurate tornado warnings, given the fact that tornado warnings mainly come from radar. That's bad, but worse radar holes for severe weather exist in the plains such as east of Dallas.

[cyclone77]

Had a 45 min period of very light rain/sprinkles.  Picked up a T.

[Frog Town]

47 minutes ago, Chinook said:

The NWS radars work well for something like 60+ miles with the low altitude snow, including lake effect snow. Then, I think they overshoot the clouds and snowflakes. You can see it all over the region. It's pretty commonly a problem with detecting lake effect snow. Also, areas in the vicinity of Findlay have the least accurate tornado warnings, given the fact that tornado warnings mainly come from radar. That's bad, but worse radar holes for severe weather exist in the plains such as east of Dallas.

Appreciate you.  Thanks! 

[Chinook]

This narrow band is right at the front

[sbnwx85]

Picked up an inch before switching to freezing drizzle. 28 degrees so it’s creating a glaze pretty efficiently on the roads.

[RogueWaves]

Estimating 2.5" here from last evening. 17.1" for the month is 124% average and my second straight AN December. Ended up being an active/stormy holiday season after all - managed to keep power - zero complaints.

[nwohweather]

Does NW Ohio live in a radar gap or does the system truly depend that much on lake enhancement that the returns weaken that dramatically in our area?  Seeking the expertise of an actual met.  I mean, it's still snowing, but has nowhere near the returns it had 10 miles before entering NW Ohio..
 
Thanks!!

@Ohweather has done a great write up on the I-75 hole

[OrdIowPitMsp]

December 2025 in Minneapolis finished with an average temperature of 18.9F which is 3.1F below average. There were 5 morning lows below zero with the coldest being -11F on the 14th.
 

December saw 16.8” of snowfall, and there was at least 1” of snow on the ground everyday this month, with a peak depth of 10” on the 10th-12th

[michsnowfreak]

The New Years Eve snow dropped anywhere from 1.5-3" in southeast MI. It was glittery and beautiful. Both here & DTW picked up 2.1" last evening. Its incredible how well we do the nickel and dime. Now time for a big one.

December snow totaled 11.6" here, season to date 17.3".

At DTW December snow totaled 10.9" with 16.8" season to date. 

 

[Brian D]

Here in TH, Dec ended with 0.65"(avg 1.56") precip with 6.1" (avg 13.6") snow. Another drier month. Oct-Dec ranked 11th driest. Mean temp (adjusted for 7am readings) was 17.8 (36th coldest). A little colder than 2022 (18.5) which was the last colder Dec here. 2017 was 14.8, and 2013 was 9.0. TH co-op switched from pm readings to am readings Oct 2019. So some adjustment is needed in comparing.

Precip for the year was 25.54" (avg 31.72") which is 38th driest out of 129 unique totals in the record. 

[Brian D]

Been 8 years since the sub as a whole has seen a colder Dec.

[Spartman]

First cold December since 2022. Finished with 9.9" of snow for the month, and currently at 14.6" for the season to date.

[OHweather]

On 1/1/2026 at 12:12 AM, nwohweather said:

@Ohweather has done a great write up on the I-75 hole

To answer @Frog Town's question, it is both a radar beam height issue and lake enhancement climatologically weakening across NW Ohio issue. The radar beams are highest over the I-75 corridor between Findlay and Toledo (an FAA radar south of Detroit helps over Toledo, but was down for over two weeks in late December), so lower-level snow such as lake effect will be under represented by radar over that area. @Chinooktouched on that well. However, Northwest OH (particularly the Maumee basin) is also an elevation minimum, so a little bit of down sloping also occurs and weakens any lake enhanced snow showers to an extent. 

[Chinook]

19 hours ago, OHweather said:

To answer @Frog Town's question, it is both a radar beam height issue and lake enhancement climatologically weakening across NW Ohio issue. The radar beams are highest over the I-75 corridor between Findlay and Toledo (an FAA radar south of Detroit helps over Toledo, but was down for over two weeks in late December), so lower-level snow such as lake effect will be under represented by radar over that area. @Chinooktouched on that well. However, Northwest OH (particularly the Maumee basin) is also an elevation minimum, so a little bit of down sloping also occurs and weakens any lake enhanced snow showers to an extent. 

I've always thought TDWRs (range of 50 miles/45 nautical miles) aren't too helpful with light precipitation, but radar composite type maps are better.

[michsnowfreak]

At Detroit, 2025 did finish slightly warmer than avg (51.1F), but it was nearly 3F colder than the warmest year on record of 2024, and it was also the coldest year since 2019.

Precip was below avg (29.81") and it was the driest year since 2022.

Snowfall was ever-so-slightly below avg, but in the avg vicinity, at 40.1". It was the snowiest year since 2022.

It was the most snow-covered year (59 days 1"+) since 2015, despite no warning criteria snowstorms. In fact, the max calendar day snowfall (3.2") was the lowest since 2001. 

Max/Min was 95/-3