January 2026 General Discussion

[Brian D]

Thought I'd post this showing a modelled sounding vs an actual sounding from I-Falls this morning. 

You can find actual soundings here. https://weather.uwyo.edu/upperair/sounding.shtml

[michsnowfreak]

The cobalt blue sky and frigid air following last nights storm makes for a gorgeous afternoon 

[cyclone77]

Won't last long but <1/4 mile in heavy snow right now.  Very quickly whitened up the ground.  Wish this could stay around another 6+ hours lol.

[Baum]

7 minutes ago, cyclone77 said:

Won't last long but <1/4 mile in heavy snow right now.  Very quickly whitened up the ground.  Wish this could stay around another 6+ hours lol.

Detroit special

[RogueWaves]

6 hours ago, michsnowfreak said:

The cobalt blue sky and frigid air following last nights storm makes for a gorgeous afternoon 

Congrats on the surprise over-performer. Rumors are you can thank NWS budget cuts for the "miss" by forecasters. I wouldn't mind a similar surprise tbh.

[RogueWaves]

07-08 Nina was a parade of 8+ inch storms coming and melting off for me. So far, 25-26 Nina has been a parade of 3+ inch storms coming and melting off for me. I know which I'd rather have. But, the drum beat continues this weekend here. Should be a wintry period.

Pulling for the NAM's outcome

 

 

[cyclone77]

Picked up 0.8", most of which came in about 35 minutes.

[sbnwx85]

Two-day lake effect snow total in South Bend was officially 17.1". 

Total for the winter: 54.5"

Another 3.9" will make this the snowiest winter in 9 years.

My backyard event total: 14.5"

Backyard winter total: 52.7"
 

[Brian D]

The initial band that was suppose to bring 1-2" was a flop. 0.1" of sn/sn pellets. But overnight brought 3". 3.1" for this clipper, so far. Will be snow showers later, so hopefully will pick up a little more. A general 3-4" around the head of the Lake with an area of 6-8" in N WI. 2-3" in the N. 

[hawkeye_wx]

1.1 inches of snow here overnight, our first inch since mid December.

[Brian D]

LES has developed this evening. Quite the surprise. Hope it lasts for a few hours. A breezy NW surface wind, but mid levels are NE. That'll work.

[cyclone77]

Hasn't snowed here since very early this morning, as we've been sort of in between all of the rotating bands.  Should finally get into another period of light snow early tomorrow afternoon.  Hopefully we can scrounge up another turd dusting from that.  

[Brian D]

11 hours ago, Brian D said:

LES has developed this evening. Quite the surprise. Hope it lasts for a few hours. A breezy NW surface wind, but mid levels are NE. That'll work.

Well this little surprise netted 2.1". Clipper total of 5.2" Another quick round of snow tomorrow with another clipper. 

[sbnwx85]

Cold day with temps in the teens. Lake effect compaction is real though. Down to about a 6” snow pack. I know you’re all feeling bad for me.

[A-L-E-K]

Just now, sbnwx85 said:

Cold day with temps in the teens. Lake effect compaction is real though. Down to about a 6” snow pack. I know you’re all feeling bad for me.

Stuff starts vanishing as soon as it stops falling lol

Entering the big dog or spring stage of winter fatigue here

[OrdIowPitMsp]

1.3” at MSP with the overnight clipper. Similar results likely with tomorrow’s event. Snow depth 2”
 

Interestingly the snow-depth at MSP went down to T for a few days while I was out of town. My yard has maintained a 1-2” icepack of snow cover through the warmer period. 

[Brian D]

A round of CAA developed, and netted 0.2" yesterday aftrn. Next clipper has started this morning. Hopefully pulls another inch today.

[OrdIowPitMsp]

-3F for the overnight low. Light pixie dust snow now, should pick up around the lunch hour.

[Geoboy645]

Meanwhile here around Madison, we just had one of most localized snowfall events we have had in a while. The original forecast for Friday into Saturday was 1-2" Friday morning and then another Friday night. Instead we had a localized Fgen(?) band setup Friday night over the I-94 corridor and just sit for about 18 hours. With some occasionally heavy rates of 1-1.5" of an hour, Madison ended up recording 5" of snow on 1/16 and 5.6 on 1/17, although the snow depth doesn't quite represent that because of settling.. This was a very dry and fluffy snow too, so we could have localized ground blizzard like conditions tomorrow with the cold blast. Thing is, this band was not much wider than Dane County. I have some snow up here, but like 3-4" not 6+. And if you go N to Portage or S to Janesville they may have like 2-3 OTG. This honestly feels like a summer MCS that forms and doesn't move and dumps 5-6" of rain in a night, but just snow instead.

[CheeselandSkies]

1 hour ago, Geoboy645 said:

Meanwhile here around Madison, we just had one of most localized snowfall events we have had in a while. The original forecast for Friday into Saturday was 1-2" Friday morning and then another Friday night. Instead we had a localized Fgen(?) band setup Friday night over the I-94 corridor and just sit for about 18 hours. With some occasionally heavy rates of 1-1.5" of an hour, Madison ended up recording 5" of snow on 1/16 and 5.6 on 1/17, although the snow depth doesn't quite represent that because of settling.. This was a very dry and fluffy snow too, so we could have localized ground blizzard like conditions tomorrow with the cold blast. Thing is, this band was not much wider than Dane County. I have some snow up here, but like 3-4" not 6+. And if you go N to Portage or S to Janesville they may have like 2-3 OTG. This honestly feels like a summer MCS that forms and doesn't move and dumps 5-6" of rain in a night, but just snow instead.

Yeah. I work in local news and based on our mets' forecasts I was not expecting it to snow at all yesterday beyond the early morning.

[cyclone77]

Picked up 0.3" yesterday.  Should pick up another 0.1-0.3" today, although the majority of today's activity will once again mostly miss northeast.