fluoronium

Started as snow here! Most guidance had at least a couple hours of rain before switching over so this is a good sign. Wind still coming from the south. not even a single report of rain nearby!! Awesome!

33F and rain in this blob

HRRR is showing some pretty intense snowfall rates with the initial band of precip before switching to rain, along with gusty winds and possible lightning. I don't even care about accumulations at this point, I'm just feeling the hype for even the slightest chance of thundersnow. If models are showing anything like this in the morning, I may drive a little to the NE for some snow chasing. I want to believe.

The thin dying band between Peoria and Bloomington managed to park over my backyard this past hour, so that's pretty nice! Looks like the snow is going to be fairly light from here on out though. I'm guessing there is about 2.5" on the ground now. Season's biggest snow is still Halloween here, so I wonder if there's a chance that will fall today.

Hands down the event of the decade was Morch 2012. The incredible magnitude of temperature departures over a gigantic area and for an extended period of time was unbelievable. Some locations exceeded their all time April high temps in March! There were also daily low temps that exceeded record highs for the date, and Chicago had 10 consecutive days of breaking/tying temp records Some interesting bits from the Wikipedia article : ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_2012_North_American_heat_wave ) In Traverse City, Michigan one day began with a low temperature (67 °F) that was higher than the previous record high for the day. An 84 °F (29 °C) high at Madison, Wisconsin in early March was 43 °F (24 °C) above average and followed an overnight low of 60 °F, 35 degrees above normal[16] the daily high being more than seven standard deviations above the mean. The absolute temperature and departure statistically would be equivalent to a mid-July high at that station in excess of 125 °F or more; the highest temperature recorded there was 107° at least once during the heat waves of the middle 1930s from Accuweather: ( https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/amazing-stats-from-the-march-2-1/197377 ) 26 The number of inches of snow that melted over the course of just seven days in Caribou, Maine, from March 15 to March 22, thanks to the unusual warmth. Also, 18 inches of snow was still on the ground when the first record high fell on March 18 (64 degrees). 32 The gap, in degrees, between the old and new record high on March 21 in Marquette, Mich. The new record high was 81 degrees, obliterating the old record of 49 degrees. The margin of defeat was so great that the low temperature that day was even higher than the old record high temperature. from NWS: " In fact, the warm spell which occurred during the middle of the month is perhaps the most anomalous weather event in Michigan since climate records began 130 years ago. " https://www.weather.gov/dtx/unprecedentedmarchwarmth2012

Chicago already broke the record high for the day at midnight!

Looks like temps really overachieved today! Absolutely amazing outside. Last white Christmas here was 2 years ago, but we've had a white Easter and a white Halloween since.

Torch it! I'm pretty stoked about this one as I can finally catch up on some long overdue yard work. The fact that it'll be fairly sunny with light winds really helps too. I think we'd all rather have a big snow at this time of the year but I'll take a torch over cold and dry any day.

Something to keep an eye on with the upcoming storm system for the southern members of this subforum.

Champaign, IL is down to 0F already! Insane for the first half of November at 9PM. South wind should keep the temp from falling much more though. Downright impressive snowfall and cold snap for November that's for sure. According to coolwx there are a few stations approaching/exceeding all time record monthly lows right now, but to be fair those stations have less than 50 years of data.

Looks like Peoria smashed a lot of records with this event: Plus it looks like the record cold high for the 31st was beaten and the low tonight is forecast to tie the record low for Nov 1.

Widely varying accumulations here, with a light coating on the pavement and places of 3" in the grass. First time I've seen an accumulating snow when the trees are mostly covered with leaves. Crazy to get an event like this after the April 15 storm earlier this year!!

HRRR hinting at some thundersnow It would be crazy to get an accumulating snow this early here, especially after the April 15 storm barely over 6 months ago. Normally I'd complain about the cold at this time of the year but we have actually had good fall temps these past couple months (unlike 2018, the year without transition seasons)

Looks like Lincoln IL only dropped to 76F last night. That would beat the old all time record high min by 5F but it looks like it will cool to lower than that today. Point and click has Lincoln at 72F at 12AM which would still set all time high min for October. That's assuming cutoff time is at 12AM of course.

I I chased that supercell today and saw the tornado near Emden!

Am I allowed to complain about the fantasy range on the forecast models? Reason being is that all of that snow for my area on the GFS/FV3 (and even a bit on the Euro) is a bit frightening. I don't think my morale can handle another "winter in April" like last year, and my plants certainly wouldn't appreciate it either.