January 2026 General Discussion

[Spartman]

The new year is near, but things look rather boring during the first half of January before even anticipating a real pattern change afterwards. Discuss.

[cyclone77]

The final third of Jan will be rockin'.

[Spartman]

The first third of the month's certainly not good. TWC/Wunderground's wanting first full week of January to be repeats of Januaries 1998 and 2023 with a blowtorch. 

[OrdIowPitMsp]

7F with 1mi visibility and snow. What a way to kick off 2026, happy New Year to everyone. 

[cutlew]

7F with 1mi visibility and snow. What a way to kick off 2026, happy New Year to everyone. 

Prettiest of our daily morning snows this week


.

[mimillman]

Heavy virga 

[Frog Town]

If this works out, it will be a repeat of last year.  I've said it a 1000x's before, the cold needs to be centered to our west for this sub to be in any kind of action other than the nickel and diming we've been experiencing.    

[roardog]

16 minutes ago, Frog Town said:

If this works out, it will be a repeat of last year.  I've said it a 1000x's before, the cold needs to be centered to our west for this sub to be in any kind of action other than the nickel and diming we've been experiencing.    

Everyone has been complaining the last few years that we don't get clippers anymore. Well, do you want a clipper pattern or not? lol

[Brian D]

Snow showers this morning. Might have eeked out 0.1" of fluff with that heavier band that went through. +/- sd's across NE MN this morning. Keeping my eye out for something decent 7-10 days out. My modelling method is showing potential, it looks like gov models are picking up on it, too. 

[RogueWaves]

32 minutes ago, roardog said:

Everyone has been complaining the last few years that we don't get clippers anymore. Well, do you want a clipper pattern or not? lol

The only thing wrong with this Nina pattern is his latitude. I'm nearly 50% AN to date on snow fall. I wouldn't complain if it wants to get even better, but nothing wrong here so far.

[cyclone77]

2 hours ago, roardog said:

Everyone has been complaining the last few years that we don't get clippers anymore. Well, do you want a clipper pattern or not? lol

Clippers are just to occupy us between the dogs lol

[Malacka11]

1 hour ago, cyclone77 said:

Clippers are just to occupy us between the dogs lol

I think we also all took it for granted when we were clipperposting previously that such patterns usually don't have staying power issues because it's inherently a deep winter concept to the vibe-driven amateur. That's half of why everyone shit bricks so hard when the snow rug literally melted out from under our feet a few weeks ago.

[RogueWaves]

2 hours ago, cyclone77 said:

Clippers are just to occupy us between the dogs lol

They are nice for keeping a fresh look between dogs of all sizes. Problem is there's been way too many of them vs traditional snowstorms of any size. 

Personally, I'd like more of these to ring in the new year:

[Chinook]

My best estimation is that I got 2.6" to 3.0" combining the last two days. (Now, it's snowing again)

[nwohweather]

If this works out, it will be a repeat of last year.  I've said it a 1000x's before, the cold needs to be centered to our west for this sub to be in any kind of action other than the nickel and diming we've been experiencing.    

I’m perfectly fine with this pattern, great for winter sports. Roads were awful after that band hit last night, I shutter to think how bad they’ll be if we get 8-12” in Toledo

[IWXwx]

1 hour ago, nwohweather said:

I’m perfectly fine with this pattern, great for winter sports. Roads were awful after that band hit last night, I shutter to think how bad they’ll be if we get 8-12” in Toledo

Before I retired from the local Emergency Management Agency, I prayed for 8-12" (besides being a ). Serious accidents go way down because people can't drive like maniacs as they do when there's only an inch or two. Usually the worst issues are fender benders, slide offs or getting stuck. A slick interstate with only a little snow? Carnage.

[frostfern]

2 hours ago, RogueWaves said:

They are nice for keeping a fresh look between dogs of all sizes. Problem is there's been way too many of them vs traditional snowstorms of any size. 

Personally, I'd like more of these to ring in the new year:

Clippers are still better than rainers.

[frostfern]

25 minutes ago, IWXwx said:

Before I retired from the local Emergency Management Agency, I prayed for 8-12" (besides being a ). Serious accidents go way down because people can't drive like maniacs as they do when there's only an inch or two. Usually the worst issues are fender benders, slide offs or getting stuck. A slick interstate with only a little snow? Carnage.

“A little bit of snow” is really common IMBY.  Lots of minor lake effect dusters.  People who don’t know how to drive on snow really shouldn’t live here.  Very typical winter pattern right now.

[Chinook]

December had double high-latitude blocking, with the ridge over the Bering Strait even much more prominent than the high pressures over Greenland. The cold polar vortex air tends to develop quite strongly and head toward us with this scenario. Unfortunately, my friends in the Mountain West discussion group have been in a drought, with temperatures like +10F in Denver.

[Chinook]

As of much earlier this morning the temp dropped to 4 at Toledo (as per the 5:00PM climate report)

[SouthOaklandCtyWX]

Still have light snow falling here in Royal Oak, started around 4:30 PM here.

[michsnowfreak]

Picked up another half inch of fluffy snow last night and another 0.2" this morning. So sparkly. 

At 18.0" on the season now, DTW at 17.5". 

 

[Chinook]

The polar vortex and associated cold 500mb temperatures really sloshed around from December 1-15, really dumping the cold and snow on us. Then we had some varied weather patterns, including a ridge on Christmas Day that split the cold anomalies east, west, and north. High values of Greenland blocking (west negative NAO blocking) came along with the polar vortex motions in the first half of the month.

https://great-lakes-salsite.web.app/Dec_2025_500mb_loop.html

[Brian D]

Snow showers moving through. Big, fat flakes again like the other day. Up to quarter size (~1") with some elongated ones even bigger under calm conditions. 

[Chinook]

I thought my place had been chilly for December, but Fairbanks Alaska had -22.8 as the average

[Brian D]

7 hours ago, Brian D said:

Snow showers moving through. Big, fat flakes again like the other day. Up to quarter size (~1") with some elongated ones even bigger under calm conditions. 

Quick 0.5" of fluff. Looking at 2-4" tomorrow.

[RogueWaves]

Looking forward to Monday's heavier wet snow (my favorite). With the impending torch it'd go a long way towards keeping my 39-day snow cover streak alive. Right now we have about 5" depth with the glacier underneath the high ratio stuff since last Monday's storm. Regardless, looking at a solid plowable event and it should look really nice around here by Monday's drive home. Tues and beyond will do what it pleases.

 

[Brian D]

Looks like a couple inches of snow today with another system bringing some fr drz/rn over to lgt sn overnight Mon. Keep the glacier slowly growing. 

[OrdIowPitMsp]

Light freezing rain here this afternoon. Roads will be a skating rink. Bit of a thaw this upcoming week but nothing unusual. 

[cyclone77]

70s in the Plains and -50s up in northwest Canada.  Only a 120+ degree difference.