Chicago Storm Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 DTX and GRR are doing the same. Wtf? NWS offices used to always consider a situation like this a storm total, now they are all gypping the waa snow. DTWs Feb 1/2 total is 10.3" but the storm total goes in at 9.0". I know we have someone from the LOT office who posts here, so maybe they could help us out with the thinking behind the decision. I just find it odd that they added some, but not all of it to the final total for ORD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoar_Frost Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 I know we have someone from the LOT office who posts here, so maybe they could help us out with the thinking behind the decision. I just find it odd that they added some, but not all of it to the final total for ORD. I feel that this leaving out of the WAA snows is inappropriate. At both De Kalb (where I attend NIU) and Geneva (where I live), it snowed nearly continuously from Monday night until the end of the storm early this morning; in both those areas, a lake-effect band provided the bridge between the WAA snows and the "main" snows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeenerWx Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 That would be close to the biggest storm you can remember, no? From the measurements I obtained, it will be the largest storm that I can remember, and effectively the 2nd largest snowstorm on record (only missing the largest snowstorm on record by about an inch). However, I cannot really attribute everything to the "snowstorm". We got dumped on by both the blizzard itself and the lake effect afterwards. I don't see any reports from around here yet (and extreme Northern Jasper County's amounts are going to be vastly different from the rest of Newton/Jasper...we were under several hours of 1-2" per hour rates from lake effect). I'm going to wait till I see some close location's report before I officially pen in my own result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Organizing Low Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 OMG what a lot of work to dig the cars out. My SO's car had snow drifts up over the trunk and about as high on the passenger side as well. My car had about three to three and a half foot drifts pretty much encasing it. I have spent half of my waking hours today digging out our cars and a couple of the neighbors as well. This is by far the most snow I have personally ever seen from one storm. Looks like the heaviest totals were from Racine down thru Chicago and back towards RFD, MLI, then right down to about Joplin Mo and Tulsa Ok. Another little zone appears to be centered from Galesburg to Macomb as well. Something though doesn't add up with MLI's totals.... total snow yesterday, the first bought Monday afternoon/evening, and this morning doesn't come up to 16.7 by my counting. Seems like they are leaving off the snow from Monday in the totals. congrats man, that is awesome! :thumbsup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-Rent Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Spent an hour trying to get my car out. Finally had to get pulled out. Its so slick and hard it won't even make it up a gradual slope. Took a couple of big falls too. My hand looks like hamburger and my back feels like a 90 yearold. This sleet was cool when it was still pellets, but now that its a big ice rink not so much. When the snows come, would it be better to leave it on, or brush it off the ice? Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayuud Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 my friend lake Ontario is making sure we get a foot before this storm is all done for us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkeye_wx Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Ok, I was finally able to do some measuring. I used my neighbor's yard because, while it has plenty of drifting in a few parts, it has a more uniform snow depth in general. I took 43 measurements, about every 4-5 feet. I included a couple huge drifts as well as spots where no new snow had accumulated on top of the few inches of old crusty snow. The average total depth is about 14.5 inches. Subtract from that about 3.5 inches of old snow and I get 11 inches, which includes the 1 inch from the lousy WAA event. That would make it 10 inches that fell from the big storm, which is about what I was thinking. It also puts my total about in the middle of the wide range spotters in my area have reported. I've also been wondering if the spotters in my area are including the WAA snow in their totals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicago WX Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Spent an hour trying to get my car out. Finally had to get pulled out. Its so slick and hard it won't even make it up a gradual slope. Took a couple of big falls too. My hand looks like hamburger and my back feels like a 90 yearold. This sleet was cool when it was still pellets, but now that its a big ice rink not so much. When the snows come, would it be better to leave it on, or brush it off the ice? Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk Don't think it matters man. The glacier isn't going anywhere anytime soon. BTW, still gets LES sloppy seconds here tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicago WX Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 You need a hoe and a pick ax. And a blow torch and/or flame thrower. How's the sleet pack over there in Lima? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicago WX Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Porbably about the same as in LAF. Bad. Must been several inches of sleet and snow mixed together. Didn't help that it started to melt last night before the freeze returned. Just poured sleet. Yeah, hate to beat the dead horse, but it was something...wasn't it? We only got to 28º for a short time overnight with a bit of FZDZ to coat things nicely. Add in the snowfall as frosting and things are rockin' here. Roads are a complete mess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier Posted February 3, 2011 Author Share Posted February 3, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicago WX Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Then the snowtrucks blow in your driveway with more ice. The roads are worse than any of last years storms here. For real. I read on the local news websites here that the county plow drivers would much prefer this have been all snow. Supposedly the primarily sleet w/ snow on the roads is a real b**** for them. Can't go more than 10MPH or the front ends of the trucks want to lift up and they lose control. Not mention this stuff was drifting like crazy. Nightmare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicago WX Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 LOT storm summary: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=lot&storyid=63527&source=0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicago WX Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Yeah, they up and down and up and down just slopping more ice all over the place. Just give it up guys. You have cleaned what you can clean and it is to cold for the salt to do much. The roads are a ice rink. The roads here in town are like going over hard gravel...only with little traction because it's packed down ice in a lot of places. And then there's the intersections, medians, and turn lanes where the snow/sleet has been pushed by the plows. Just have to widen your turn and gun it. Front or all wheel drive FTW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCNYILWX Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 I know we have someone from the LOT office who posts here, so maybe they could help us out with the thinking behind the decision. I just find it odd that they added some, but not all of it to the final total for ORD. It was felt that there was enough of a gap between the first shortwave that produced the initial snow and the main event, but that's a good point about the 0.2" that fell after midnight Monday night being counted toward the daily ORD total and thus the storm total when it was all said and done, but not the 1" before midnight Monday night. I'm assuming that's how it was done, but I don't have the data in front of me to check. And the other poster's point that for some locations, the snow was basically continuous, is well taken. For record purposes, even counting the 1.2" would've left this storm just under January 1999, and also the official total, once reported to the media, for all intents becomes set in stone. It probably looks worse to change something like a snow total for a high-profile, historic blizzard, even if there's sound reasoning behind the change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stebo Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Looks like a question mark. Riddle me this.... When will we have another epic storm like this for the region Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicago WX Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Riddle me this.... When will we have another epic storm like this for the region Octobomb...Feb Chicago Paralyzer...June Derecho From Hell? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo6899 Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Octobomb...Feb Chicago Paralyzer...June Derecho From Hell? What makes this storm even more impressive was that not all of the energy came out together. The storm this weekend I believe is from left over energy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpartyOn Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Riddle me this.... When will we have another epic storm like this for the region Yea these monsters don't role in all that much. Its kinda rare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stebo Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Octobomb...Feb Chicago Paralyzer...June Super Outbreak From Hell? corrected Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KokomoWX Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 You need a hoe and a pick ax. There was a guy chopping the ice away from his tires with an axe on the new tonight. I was hoping for one slight miss and his tire getting chopped instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stebo Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 There was a guy chopping the ice away from his tires with an axe on the new tonight. I was hoping for one slight miss and his tire getting chopped instead. That would be failblog worthy there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KokomoWX Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 For real. I read on the local news websites here that the county plow drivers would much prefer this have been all snow. Supposedly the primarily sleet w/ snow on the roads is a real b**** for them. Can't go more than 10MPH or the front ends of the trucks want to lift up and they lose control. Not mention this stuff was drifting like crazy. Nightmare. It took our maintenance staff at school (work) significantly longer to clear the parking lots. They started before 7 and were still working when I left at 3:30. Usually they are done with big snows before noon and smaller snows in a couple of hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo6899 Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 That would be failblog worthy there. LOL speaking of that, I had to post one of my favs I saw on there today... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicago WX Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Has anyone heard from BowMe? Last I thought he was around was sometime last evening.. but haven't seen him post since then. I thought for sure he would've been on here posting pics and regaling in all the glory by now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nevermind Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 The first time-lapse video I have a few more but there's so many images it's choking iMovie. It's going to take hours so I'll let it work overnight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-Rent Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 I just talked to my mom in Missouri, she lives off of I-44 NE of Springfield. 5'-6' drifts in their hood. Said in the 30+ years shes lived there she has never seen anything like it. They live on a state highway and it got touched for the first time this afternoon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclone77 Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Ok, I was finally able to do some measuring. I used my neighbor's yard because, while it has plenty of drifting in a few parts, it has a more uniform snow depth in general. I took 43 measurements, about every 4-5 feet. I included a couple huge drifts as well as spots where no new snow had accumulated on top of the few inches of old crusty snow. The average total depth is about 14.5 inches. Subtract from that about 3.5 inches of old snow and I get 11 inches, which includes the 1 inch from the lousy WAA event. That would make it 10 inches that fell from the big storm, which is about what I was thinking. It also puts my total about in the middle of the wide range spotters in my area have reported. I've also been wondering if the spotters in my area are including the WAA snow in their totals. I reported only the main storm (15.8") since MLI didn't include the WAA snows. I only picked up 0.5" from the WAA, so the total including the WAA wasn't much different. Around here there were times where it wasn't snowing at all between the WAA event and the main show. Maybe that's why they didn't include it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thundersnow12 Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 I'm guessing around 20% of my total posts went to this storm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jebman Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 To deal with the sleet pack you need a square edged shovel and a pick. It's gonna take a long time and it's gonna kick your ass all the way from here to Sunday and back. Get soccer shoes with steel cleats or you're gonna mess up your back something terrible from fallin on your ass. Shoveling sleet is not too bad right after it has fallen or while it is comin down. But once it glaciates it is a pain in the butt to remove. When you are dealing with multiple inches of the glaciated sleet even high 40s weather won't help - All your gonna get is a few small pools of water on the surface that will ice right back up as soon as the sun goes down. You're not gonna get highs in the 40s - You're gonna fall right below zero. That's a really bad place to be, especially with a ton of ZR on trees and powerlines with strong winds and power outages. Believe me I know - I went thru this hell on 1993-1994. It was hell to remove - we were all getting around on friggin' sleds. The alternative was to try and walk on it - Glaciated sleet is no place to try a jebwalk - You better be an expert (like the one and only Jebman) or you are gonna fall hard and break legs, hips, you name it. I saw people tryin to get around crawlin on all fours they were so damn desperate - sure that'll work. That glacier was so damn slick well they just wound up like puppies. You know when a puppy, a real young puppy tries to stand? It sort of just goes down and its legs splay out. Well - That's what happened to those poor bastids that tried crawlin on a glaciated sleetpack. You probably should just stay home. With no power in subzero weather, I know, it's cold as a b**ch, but just pile on blankets or hope you just happen to be with the gf. You don't walk down a sleet glaciated incline - you slither down it on your ass. Don't put your hands down on the glacier to try and slow your descent - that ice'll tear up your hands like hamburger. No, it'll tear up your hands WORSE than hamburger. Let friction slow you down. Try real hard not to careen into parked cars or other objects. I really feel for all of you in the midwest. You got a sleetpacked glacier, You got 25 inches of snow, you got 55 mph North winds piling 4 feet of snow on your driveway and you gotta shovel it. All by yerself. It's ten below zero fahrenheit. That's not even countin the wind. You're breakin' my heart. I don't hardly have a snowpack. It hit 63 degrees here yesterday afternoon. I live in the tropics. I was wearin a summer t-shirt before the milquetoast cold front hit at 310pm. You guys are the luckiest bastids that ever did walk the earth. You got to experience the worst midwestern blizzard in probably two hundred years. Enjoy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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