1/24-1/25 Major Winter Storm - S. IL, IN, and OH

[andyhb]

17 minutes ago, Snowstorms said:

Agreed. YYZ needs a major reform but seems highly unlikely. 

But for once, YYZ is somewhat keeping up. 7 hours of straight +SN and at 36cm (14.1") so far. 

January 2026 will finish as YYZ's snowiest January on record. 

Queens Park just reported 5.5” in the last hour, unbelievable.

[OHweather]

Fluffy/efficient lake effect processes occurring beneath/within a broader synoptic snow are basically magic in terms of getting good snow, but it’s rarely organized into a firehose like what’s been going into Toronto. 

[TimChgo9]

IMBY, we got 6" or so. The dry air took some time to overcome, it would seem. 

[Chicago Storm]

Lake effect saved the day...

Also, an honorable mention of 5.9" at MDW CO-OP.

Final snowfall totals
4.4" - ORD
T - RFD

…2025/26 Season Snowfall...
28.6" - ORD
23.9" - RFD

[TheClimateChanger]

Heard Toronto set a new snowfall record today?

[Powerball]

1 hour ago, Stevo6899 said:

Toronto big dog. Boston big dog. Us 16 hours to get maybe 4 inches. We've discussed this. Im willing to suffer 4 shutout winters in a row if it means I get a big dog every other yr other times. It does look like a winter wonderland back home so it beats tundra and no snow cover I suppose. Im 40 years old so hopefully I can witness a big dog in my backyard and a lions sb b4 I croak.

 

The bolded made me chuckle.

The struggle is real, lol...

[Harry Perry]

Storm total just under 3” here. 

No complaints as it originally looked to be about 200 miles south of here. 

Happy for the Chicago crew. Even the sun shines on a dogs ass some days. 

 

[sbnwx85]

3.4” from the system. Standing by for the lake.

[Powerball]

Preliminary reports suggest a storm total range of 2-5" around the Detroit area, so a bit of an underachiever.

Same thing happened in OK. Inefficient accumulation due to the snow being the sugary/sandy type.

[Harry Perry]

Just now, Powerball said:

Preliminaey report suggest a storm total range of 2-5" around the Detroit, so a bit of an underachiever.

Same thing happened in OK. Inefficient accumulation due to the snow being the sugary/sandy type.

This snow reminded me of the sand in Siesta Key. Impossible to clean up. Like powder sugar. 

[TheClimateChanger]

46 minutes ago, TheClimateChanger said:

Heard Toronto set a new snowfall record today?

 

[McHenrySnow]

January will end up the least snowy month of the season in my backyard with November the most. It's been downhill since the Thanksgiving weekend storm. 

[dmc76]

4” in 22 hours!!!!
 

the other day. From a squall picked 1.0” in 17 mins. lol 

[HillsdaleMIWeather]

Schools here have officially hit 6 school days off in a row, might for 7 or 8 of even more depending on the cold.

[dmc76]

2 hours ago, Stevo6899 said:

Toronto big dog. Boston big dog. Us 16 hours to get maybe 4 inches. We've discussed this. Im willing to suffer 4 shutout winters in a row if it means I get a big dog every other yr other times. It does look like a winter wonderland back home so it beats tundra and no snow cover I suppose. Im 40 years old so hopefully I can witness a big dog in my backyard and a lions sb b4 I croak.

You still all about the big dog, aren’t you.?. In order to get 20”+ storm u need a 2nd moisture source. The one time in recent memory that we did have over 20 inches in 1974 I believe personally it was something similar to what happened in Toronto today. we were getting an East wind/feed right off lake Erie.as well as the Atlantic/Gulf. I could be wrong but that’s what I think may have happened. 
 

I think our winters are not bad. It snows literally almost every day in a cold pattern. I must’ve used the shovel or snowblower 6/7 times in the last 10 days. some of these areas like Boston/NY/Indy they can go weeks or even entire winter with barely any snow. I’m in my 40’s as well. There was times where we were very close. everything is gotta work out perfect here. 

[mimillman]

2 hours ago, Stevo6899 said:

Toronto big dog. Boston big dog. Us 16 hours to get maybe 4 inches. We've discussed this. Im willing to suffer 4 shutout winters in a row if it means I get a big dog every other yr other times. It does look like a winter wonderland back home so it beats tundra and no snow cover I suppose. Im 40 years old so hopefully I can witness a big dog in my backyard and a lions sb b4 I croak.

Bro don’t you live in Florida 

[Snowstorms]

1 hour ago, TheClimateChanger said:

 

Some parts of the city recorded close to 30" today. This was a perfect set up. Extremely rare to get such a potent and persistent lake effect band. 

YYZ recorded 17" making it the largest single day snowfall on record. January will finish as the snowiest January on record, beating the old record from 1999 and 1966. 

[Stevo6899]

18 minutes ago, mimillman said:

Bro don’t you live in Florida 

Snowbird chief

[Roger Smith]

For downtown Toronto the old January daily record was 16.6" set on Jan 23, 1966. The one-day record for all months is 19.5" from Dec 11, 1944. Two-day record I believe is 23.0" Dec 25-26 1872. So yes this looks like an all-timer for January 1d for Toronto City (records began 1840, snowfall 1843). I have a thread on Toronto and New York City climate records in the climate change forum. Will wait for further data before updating and will report back on exact details, there is still a reporting station in downtown Toronto but they only give precip and snow depth obs. I have been going by those and using best estimates on recent snowfall amounts since actual daily snowfall reports stopped happening in 2017. 

Looks like this was 80% lake enhancement and 20% synoptic scale which is similar to the 1872 storm which took place during a frigid spell of record low temperatures with NYC also seeing 18" of snow on Dec 26th (1872).  

Last February Toronto was flirting with Feb 1846 snowfall records. March 1870 is the snowiest month of all time with four big falls that added up to over 60 inches. 

Also the record snow depth for Toronto downtown is 65 cm (around 26 inches) set in January 1999 after a number of snowstorms, including another 15-16 incher on Jan 2 but the record was not reached until nearly mid-January. Famously the Canadian army was called in to shovel the snow on that occasion. 

I have seen 30 inches of snow on the ground north of Toronto as recently as April 3, 1975 after a big storm in that region. 

[michsnowfreak]

3 hours ago, Powerball said:

Preliminary reports suggest a storm total range of 2-5" around the Detroit area, so a bit of an underachiever.

Same thing happened in OK. Inefficient accumulation due to the snow being the sugary/sandy type.

We finished with 5.2". There is 9-10" on the ground. The snow was not fluffy it was like 10-12:1 arctic powder so it had weight to it. With the existing snowpack and snowbanks there are mountains of powder everywhere...its so cold no salt is being used. It looks like pretty much the same as if it was a foot snowstorm lol. It looks fantastic outside.

DTW finished with 4.9" snow on 0.41" liquid so the liquid was actually MORE than the model average forecast of 0.35". It was just pure sugar. Monroe had 6.5". Pretty much 2-4" NW of an Ann Arbor to Livonia to Port Huron line with less than 2" by the time you get to Flint. From Adrian to DTW to Mt Clemens and southeast 4-5" with 5-7" in Monroe Co. 

So basically...model qpf was fine...once again the assumption of cold equals fluff did not work out. It is very rare to get 20-1 ratios in a synoptic system....Lake effect, that's when you can easily get north of 25-1 ratios.

[michsnowfreak]

1 hour ago, Roger Smith said:

For downtown Toronto the old January daily record was 16.6" set on Jan 23, 1966. The one-day record for all months is 19.5" from Dec 11, 1944. Two-day record I believe is 23.0" Dec 25-26 1872. So yes this looks like an all-timer for January 1d for Toronto City (records began 1840, snowfall 1843). I have a thread on Toronto and New York City climate records in the climate change forum. Will wait for further data before updating and will report back on exact details, there is still a reporting station in downtown Toronto but they only give precip and snow depth obs. I have been going by those and using best estimates on recent snowfall amounts since actual daily snowfall reports stopped happening in 2017. 

Looks like this was 80% lake enhancement and 20% synoptic scale which is similar to the 1872 storm which took place during a frigid spell of record low temperatures with NYC also seeing 18" of snow on Dec 26th (1872).  

Last February Toronto was flirting with Feb 1846 snowfall records. March 1870 is the snowiest month of all time with four big falls that added up to over 60 inches. 

Also the record snow depth for Toronto downtown is 65 cm (around 26 inches) set in January 1999 after a number of snowstorms, including another 15-16 incher on Jan 2 but the record was not reached until nearly mid-January. Famously the Canadian army was called in to shovel the snow on that occasion. 

I have seen 30 inches of snow on the ground north of Toronto as recently as April 3, 1975 after a big storm in that region. 

I remember Toronto had so many down winters, even when the rest of us were getting hit good, that @Snowstorms thought Toronto just couldn't get good winters anymore. The last few years have emphatically proved that wrong.

[Torchageddon]

1 hour ago, Roger Smith said:

For downtown Toronto the old January daily record was 16.6" set on Jan 23, 1966. The one-day record for all months is 19.5" from Dec 11, 1944. Two-day record I believe is 23.0" Dec 25-26 1872. So yes this looks like an all-timer for January 1d for Toronto City (records began 1840, snowfall 1843). I have a thread on Toronto and New York City climate records in the climate change forum. Will wait for further data before updating and will report back on exact details, there is still a reporting station in downtown Toronto but they only give precip and snow depth obs. I have been going by those and using best estimates on recent snowfall amounts since actual daily snowfall reports stopped happening in 2017. 

Looks like this was 80% lake enhancement and 20% synoptic scale which is similar to the 1872 storm which took place during a frigid spell of record low temperatures with NYC also seeing 18" of snow on Dec 26th (1872).  

Last February Toronto was flirting with Feb 1846 snowfall records. March 1870 is the snowiest month of all time with four big falls that added up to over 60 inches. 

Also the record snow depth for Toronto downtown is 65 cm (around 26 inches) set in January 1999 after a number of snowstorms, including another 15-16 incher on Jan 2 but the record was not reached until nearly mid-January. Famously the Canadian army was called in to shovel the snow on that occasion. 

I have seen 30 inches of snow on the ground north of Toronto as recently as April 3, 1975 after a big storm in that region. 

I did not have this on my bingo card for today, really besotted. Most insane is the rates, may even have had higher rates than anything I've seen. The LES on radar does look different from the bands I normally get and Huron's belts get. Its very cold but there is more dynamics I'd like to learn about on W Lake Ontario.

What station was the 19.5" record in '44 from? The MSN using YYZ and touting the record snowiest day from that but sounds like they smudged the narrative.

The storm was a bust here, only a few cm if that but days ago 20cm was pegged, while Toronto got their diamond!

[Snowstorms]

1 hour ago, michsnowfreak said:

I remember Toronto had so many down winters, even when the rest of us were getting hit good, that @Snowstorms thought Toronto just couldn't get good winters anymore. The last few years have emphatically proved that wrong.

Hahaha you're right. We did feel hopeless. 

Winters like 2013-14 and 2014-15 weren't really impressive for us and we missed out on all the big events those 2 seasons and  2009-10 where everything was suppressed. And 2010-11 where we got screwed during the GHD blizzard. But those winters were amazing for you especially 2013-14. 

Now we finally got a few good winters over the last couple of years. 21-22 and this year are the two standout seasons for us. And months like Feb 2025, Mar 2023, and Jan 2019. 

Nonetheless, this weekend's storm was impressive and impacted the entire south central-eastern part of the country. I got like 4" of sleet down here in Dallas and tonights lows are dipping down to 7 here. 

Today's event was historic, no doubt, but it was highly localized to Toronto and mostly lake effect. YYZ recorded 18" and will finish January with 35". In my opinion though, January 2022 takes the cake where it was a widespread, purely synoptic 16-24" storm from Buffalo to Toronto. 

Here's me hoping we can go back to the old days where we'd see a classic Chicago-Detroit-Toronto winter storm.