Torchageddon

It is so brutally cold out despite warming rapidly from overnight low of -8C to 1.8C, loathe it. Its hard for me to feel warm indoors even with the thermostat cranked. Last day of Feb was also the same.

Mod snow rates have started here, higher winds than the last event that gave me 10cm of snow. The precip started 2 hours faster than advertised; I can't remember when the cf or system ever was slower than the forecast.

I legit laughed harder than I ever have before on here when I saw this, to the point of tears!

Now that is a Feb morning worth its salt. A photogenic one at 8am!?

Hilariously bad algorithm, the temp is off by 5C (its still -5.5C not -2C like it showed this morning) and nothing on radar anywhere to give me freezing drizzle unless it just generates in place. I see nothing of the sort on current radar. 60% POP? lol.

I was wondering why no one here was mentioning this historic warning, I just saw it:

Forecast to get 4.5", got 1" of fluff instead lol. Getting some sun breaks but presently snowing good. Highway 402 is getting crushed by a north band similar to that epic LES in Dec 2010.

A gradient like that would almost make me want to drive to Toledo

Last year I got the BA5 sub-variant in late summer and 5 days in I lost 70% of my taste/smell. I remember well what I was doing when my olfactory nerve cells were being attacked and how fast it set in. Its nothing like I've ever had but the best way to describe that is its like your nasal passages are being inflamed. Not only can you not smell anything but for a day or so in my case there was this "smell" or neuron signal of inside that you couldn't get away from even if you weren't breathing in which was unpleasant. I could still taste certain items but it took over a week to get most of my taste back and over a month+ to get entirely normal again. I never had the fatigue.

Since I got back from my trip, its been terrific weather of pure sunny skies til this afternoon when ripples of light snow that melted on contact lasted 15 mins. I couldn't have received a better gift since it was the opposite when I left of endless overcast crap that I thankfully escaped from. Highs of single digits in C since the start of the weekend. Three blue sky mornings in mid-Feb like this is very rare here, I had trouble even spotting a cloud. It got to 5C for my high today, dropped in mid-afternoon. This felt like the first Spring day honestly its not like it got to 16C but something just feels different; the clouds also had some volume to them another rarity for this time of year. Somehow another sunny day tomorrow and 9C, rain and high winds on Weds, 11C, I'm guessing much of my snowpack will be wiped out by that.

I'm not sure what I got during the 23-25th storm was even a synoptic snow storm since barely anything fell from the low itself! It was all lake-effect that gave me the 40-50 cm. Equilibrium still hasn't been met. This Jan is the classical & ultimate form of boredom. Profane.

I'm impressed by how heavy the rains have been during the last 24 hours. I may reach 30 mm afterall. The returns near Miss and Hamilton are drench-worthy. The squirrels are back out playing and buds are appearing on some bushes. Spring I guess.

All-Time Jan records map, I didn't know Windsor's records go back to 1870s. That may mean there has never been a 20C+ reading in SON since the beginning of records for the month of Jan.

Tues Jan 3 jumped from 8C to 13C in one forecast cycle now with moderate-heavy rain. Sun-ish by next weekend.

Nice to see the sun out again this morning, I've been ahead of temps since last evening so hoping for a 8C reading later on.

This morning winds are still up with more gusts albeit not that crazy with larger flake size, still no distinct bands. I was warming up slowly overnight. Aside from the longevity of the moderate-high winds, a distinct trait with this storm is how even with the high winds everything is plastered with snow like trees and power lines that somehow don't get carried away. Jan 6 2014 had this but there might be even more plastered than that one. Niagara Falls southern half is getting the death LES band that BUF has, rare.

I waited for this thing to start cranking and it did slowly ramp up throughout most of the day til 8 pm but overall this was a big bust and I'm not impressed lol. At no point did I witness any blizzard conditions as forecast for my town and my winds never made it high enough. This is NOTHING like Jan 6 2014, it barely stands out but I would consider it a solid winter storm; I was expecting the basement to be a major winter storm and I don't know if I can even call this that by Christmas Day. The main issues are the same as written above, flake size far too small due to strong winds and lack of moisture. My temp got down to -11.6C and then stabilized with a wind chill of -22C. I doubt I got 40cm (for Fri) as thought - probably 20cm with drifts. The LES mode was totally different from what I expected and never got in the mod returns like the shoreline did and there isn't any bands near me like Parry Sound and Buffalo has. I don't know why my winds were crap other than the orientation but still with the strength of this low it shouldn't have been this zzzz. By 10:30pm the flizzard started winding down when earlier I expected raging blizzard status and a double dip for Eve which my hourlies still show bizz for 8+ hours later on . Amazing that Hamilton got blizz but not me, that's a twist. There is some magic going on near Lake Erie and Ontario for sure in this storm. I did notice areas way south were much colder than me like London and Windsor ON got windchills of -28 to -32 whereas I'm getting -22. Same with air temps.

With the comparisons to the 1977 Blizzard, is it the length of time with 0 vis that is being used to benchmark? It was also a different type. Unfortunately not for me, its been lackluster and an epic bust locally for my region however its a solid winter storm. For my lake (Huron), its annihilating Parry Sound currently with a dream band. Wish I was in Buffalo rn.

Coincidentally as I was reading the ongoing LES blizzard for Buffalo I watched this and 12:07 is pretty relevant! I didn't catch which storm he referenced at 10:40 for BUF.

Mainly the underwhelming part so far is the lack of strong gusts which I assumed would be fierce by 10am, few of them and not big but I did get a coupe shortly before noon and then suddenly a calm with sustained. Temp drop is ahead of schedule. My snowfall has been okay but with the recent calm also diminished. On radar I see something trying to get going north of Sarnia but only some lake enhancement just along the shore.

I woke up to some modest winds but just light/mod snow, temp was crashing by 9:00 am from -1 to -5C in 90 mins. Lowest pressure recorded was 982 mb. I expected winds to ramp up out fast around 10am and that never happened, in fact they might have even subsided!! I did some shopping in this so-called "blizzard" that has been rock solid consistent in guidance and my unreliable local forecast, outdoor conditions were okay! The winds will have to ramp up majorly from this even in my neck of the woods or this pre-LES phase will be a major/epic bust. Now my station is showing pressure is actually going up now, that wasn't suppose to happen til early tomorrow morning!!! I'll give this til 10pm tonight to impress otherwise I'd be a fool for not being stronger in the face of temptation but I couldn't handle it

While on the subject of pressure, I've fallen 28mb since midnight to now so sitting at 999 mb. The lowest since I've started tracking was 985 mb so I'm eager to experience what ~976 mb feels like (I feel different during low pressure events). The critical hour of change will be 9-10 am tomorrow.

Agree, more like 2012 I think here. When I meet new people something I like to ask is if they perceive storms as being worse in the far past than they are now and only 1 out of a dozen said no. The one who stated nah thought heavier rains were occurring in present t-storms but I haven't noticed. Everyone else knows storms are mostly bark no bite in current times.

From TWN. That 50-75 contour is incredible and I'm smack in the middle of it. Sorry Toronto however I don't buy one bit into maps like this and it was a snapshot from this morning.

Its about time I get some interesting wx, amazed at how stupidly boring most of the recent years have been so maybe this blizz will make up for it, unlikely but I expect an equalizer. My t-storm season started off better than other years with more in the early warm season but then became a joke by June. Not a single one was memorable, even regular t-storms were weak caliber, forget about any possible severe here. Last exciting event was tor warned storms in Sept 2021. I wrote in one of these banter threads we haven't gotten a synoptic snow storm for Dec IMBY since 2008 so I went with the trend for another Dec shutout - jinx.