tuanis

Temp has bumped up to around freezing and rates have dropped off - we’re probably done accumulating. Unscientific slant-sticking technique yields around 4” including almost an inch last night. Great kickoff to winter! Gotta love dogs in snow.

Nice to have a cold column and surface temps for once. Felt like every event last year was a drippy slush fest. I know that’s going to change this afternoon, but dammit I’ll enjoy it for now.

Stacking efficiently out there. Pretty sweet first event!

The morning after. Amazing what a few inches of wraparound higher ratio fluff can do.

After melting and compaction almost all day we’re finally accumulating again

Light rain under lighter returns. Big globs of garbage falling off the trees and splashing in puddles. Good times.

This stuff is as wet and heavy as anything ive ever cleared. Nasty slush and the snowblower is struggling. We can’t seem to get a nice cold snowstorm anymore.

All sleet now. Got around 5” this morning but melting pretty quick.

For the Chicago metro it all comes to what falls from the sky this afternoon, where that rain/snow line sets up, and when it crashes southeast. This period has been the concern with the storm for awhile.

Coming down and accumulating well for the moment, but looks to cut off within an hour. While the main show is wrapping up, there will be another slug of precip for about 5 hours this afternoon, but temps look iffy. As the low pulls into Michigan we'll get some wrap around snows as the arctic air spills in adding another inch or two.

Giant parachutes swirling on whipping winds. Power keeps cutting out but is still on. Cool to see these rates, especially during daylight now. Still not convinced we don’t see some rain today. The snow is so wet the east-facing windows are all covered in icy water from the wind blasting them

Just woke up. It’s snowing so hard that all of the motion sensor lights in the neighborhood are triggered at the same time. Everyone’s properties are lit up like a prison yard Looks like it’s about to shut off for awhile per radar.

Flying is truly a lovely experience. As for this storm... lots of dynamics at play and really difficult to make out what will happen, at least locally. The comparison in LOT's AFD to the 1987 heart attack snowstorm was interesting. Like that one, this storm will bomb out quickly. I imagine as that happens rain will quickly flip to snow over a large area. Feels like there are many more surprises to come... hopefully good ones. I really don't know what to expect.

Reschedule that flight. Winds alone are going to screw with everything.

Thoughts on "less slop, more snow"? Hard to really tell, but looks like precip/dynamics may be shutting down by the time the arctic air gets pulled into the system and profiles cool. Could this be another repeat of Mon-Tue when even Rockford was plagued by marginal temps, inefficient accumulation, mixed precip and lousy snowfall for 3/4 of the storm?