2011 GHD Blizzard images for AMS talk

[Harry]

It's noteworthy that as you work your way down in snow accumulations numbers - you don't have to go very far down in inches before you start seeing storms every 3 years or so that produce around 15", 16" around here and southern WI.

Outside of lake effect, it is really hard to get a storm to produce over 20". Coastal zones it's no problem in the NE, but the Midwest... it's hard.

 

Thus what made 67 so special and in a class of it's own.. It was a moisture bomb..Not like anything we normally see.  Heck there was widespread 20+ totals from IL/WI to east of here. Total here was 28.6" at kbtl and about 31" at another on nw side of this town and that is without any help from the lake. Then there was the inches of ice from IN into IL if i recall correct? Even the se part of the state got a ton of ice as well as snow from it. Too bad there is no water vapor images etc from back then. Have a hunch the moisture feed went very deep into the tropics with this thing.

 

Oh and 78 managed that feat ( 25" ) and 79 came very close with about 18.. 99 was tainted with lake stuff and i was't here to know how much was a result of the system vs the lake.. Many totals around here were 18+ but i know the lake played a roll as well and thus was included in the total..

[DAFF]

Locally this storm was a total bust.... Se Michigan did better than SW Ontario, think our totals were near the 2" mark In Windsor. Dry slot was an understatement.

[Harry]

Locally this storm was a total bust.... Se Michigan did better than SW Ontario, think our totals were near the 2" mark In Windsor. Dry slot was an understatement.

 

Yeah.. That dryslot is what kills it for GHD..

 

Still though make no mistake GHD was a very decent storm for this region and is up there with some of the best.. Just not in the class of 67 or heck even 78 for that matter.. imo Despite the shaft dryslot it is still among my favs for this area since i moved here.. First and only time i have seen true blizzard conditions here at this location.. Last time was back east at the coast..

[Hoosier]

1 in 50 years maybe more.

That's my gut feeling but there's just not a detailed sleet climo out there that I'm aware of.

[DAFF]

Since 2002 I have seen a few good storms but nothing more than a few minutes of white out and thundersnow. Perhaps this season the dry slot can be replaced with a 1 in 50 event !!

[Hoosier]

It's hard to make these comparisons unless you're very specific about the area you're talking about. Don't forget that GHD actually produced a huge swath of 15+" amounts from Oklahoma northeastward.

But from a pure meteorology standpoint, none of these are in the class of events like Nov 1950, Jan 1978 etc.

[Jonger]

1999 had a good storm for Windsor, but most of the 1980's and 1990's were worse than 2000-2011.... That was the snowiest decade in metro Detroit history, Josh can confirm or refute this, but I'm pretty sure I'm right.

Since 2002 I have seen a few good storms but nothing more than a few minutes of white out and thundersnow. Perhaps this season the dry slot can be replaced with a 1 in 50 event !!

[Geos]

I love the wrap around LES, just to pad a bit on at the end.

 

 

 

That was about the most impressive LES I've ever seen here. Huge flakes that were mostly 1.5" in diameter. Epic radar loop...never get tired of watching that.

[Harry]

It's hard to make these comparisons unless you're very specific about the area you're talking about. Don't forget that GHD actually produced a huge swath of 15+" amounts from Oklahoma northeastward.

But from a pure meteorology standpoint, none of these are in the class of events like Nov 1950, Jan 1978 etc.

 

Flip side 67 had the big severe event as well if i recall correctly?? But yeah good points.. I really don't know what happened east of the region with 67 so cannot say? For THIS region though i believe 67 trumps it because of the widespread 20+ totals..I believe winds nearly the same as strong with both systems.. Alot of similarities except moisture which 67 had a ton more of ( in this region ) and thus the edge i would give it...

[cyclone77]

That's my gut feeling but there's just not a detailed sleet climo out there that I'm aware of.

 

It's sort of weird that I'm kind of intrigued about how witnessing a sleet storm like that would have been.  Obviously we all love snow, and that's the priority, but witnessing a tremendous sleet storm like what you guys had is pretty rare.  It's kind of weird that I wish I could have experienced that, but in no way would I want to miss what we had happen here.  Sucks you guys missed out on the major blizzard aspect of the storm, but at least with heavy sleet it's better than 35 and rain.

[DAFF]

I remember the one in 99, side roads were more like goat trails and it was almost a week before the city got back to normal.

[Geos]

Hoosier~ how close were you to the freezing rain for GHD Blizzard?

 

Wondering how wide the heavy sleet band was.

[Harry]

1999 had a good storm for Windsor, but most of the 1980's and 1990's were worse than 2000-2011.... That was the snowiest decade in metro Detroit history, Josh can confirm or refute this, but I'm pretty sure I'm right.

 

For many areas of S.MI it was the snowiest decade by far.. For here nothing comes close unless you go way back to the 1800s but no decent data for this location back then.. GRR had a write up about this several years ago during 08-09 winter and i believe Deedler did one as well for out that way?? yeah Josh will confirm..

[Harry]

Hoosier~ how close were you to the freezing rain for GHD Blizzard?

 

Wondering how wide the heavy sleet band was.

 

That is one of the unknowns with 67? Know about all the snow and epic ice storm ( freezing rain ) but nothing on sleet which i have to imagine there was plenty of somewhere in that zone between the heaviest snows and freezing rain?

[cyclone77]

Just uploaded a new version of the LOT GHD vid a bit ago.  This one takes the original loop speed and increases it by 2x/4x/6x speed.  The really fast loop speed sort of "cheapens" up the event since it goes by so fast, but it helps illustrate a few things you wouldn't see in a slower animation.  In the faster loops you can pick out the transition from synoptic to LE snows a bit better...

 

 

EDIT:  Watch in full screen on youtube.  Looks much better viewing it that way.

 

EDIT2:  I used my winter color table when I generated this animation originally.  I may go back and redo this using a more traditional, unsmoothed base-reflect using non-winter colors.

 

[Hoosier]

It's sort of weird that I'm kind of intrigued about how witnessing a sleet storm like that would have been. Obviously we all love snow, and that's the priority, but witnessing a tremendous sleet storm like what you guys had is pretty rare. It's kind of weird that I wish I could have experienced that, but in no way would I want to miss what we had happen here. Sucks you guys missed out on the major blizzard aspect of the storm, but at least with heavy sleet it's better than 35 and rain.

Yeah, I was strangely ok with it. Don't get me wrong, it sucked to miss out on such an epic snowstorm, but it definitely would've been worse if we got plain rain. Conditions were brutal for a while...heavy sleet being whipped around by 40-50 mph winds. It was like walking on sand until it froze into a glacier. The most sleet I had seen prior to that was like .5" so it was quite an experience.

[Hoosier]

Hoosier~ how close were you to the freezing rain for GHD Blizzard?

Wondering how wide the heavy sleet band was.

The main area of freezing rain was down toward Indy, though I think our posters northwest of Indy had some.

The band of heavy sleet was probably like 30 miles wide, but lighter amounts fell over a much bigger area.

[Hoosier]

That is one of the unknowns with 67? Know about all the snow and epic ice storm ( freezing rain ) but nothing on sleet which i have to imagine there was plenty of somewhere in that zone between the heaviest snows and freezing rain?

Storm Data for January 1967 just mentions snow and ice so not sure how bad the sleet was.

[Harry]

Storm Data for January 1967 just mentions snow and ice so not sure how bad the sleet was.

 

Too bad nobody is here that remembers it.. Around here people tend to either forget it or mix it up with the blizzard of 78.. Tip lived in Kalamazoo and claims to remember it but ala just the crap load of snow Kalamazoo got and supposedly massive flakes.. sigh.. Speaking of i need to get on this lady i know who supposedly has a crap load of pictures from the blizz of 78.. I want to atleast make copies of them so i can share them.. And yeah i'll post them here.. I have never seen any from this location posted anywhere..

[Hoosier]

Too bad nobody is here that remembers it.. Around here people tend to either forget it or mix it up with the blizzard of 78.. Tip lived in Kalamazoo and claims to remember it but ala just the crap load of snow Kalamazoo got and supposedly massive flakes.. sigh.. Speaking of i need to get on this lady i know who supposedly has a crap load of pictures from the blizz of 78.. I want to atleast make copies of them so i can share them.. And yeah i'll post them here.. I have never seen any from this location posted anywhere..

Cool...I'd love to see them. I'm still amazed at what that storm did around here...the temps at the height of it and duration of really low visibility really make it stand out from other blizzards.

[Geos]

Too bad nobody is here that remembers it.. Around here people tend to either forget it or mix it up with the blizzard of 78.. Tip lived in Kalamazoo and claims to remember it but ala just the crap load of snow Kalamazoo got and supposedly massive flakes.. sigh.. Speaking of i need to get on this lady i know who supposedly has a crap load of pictures from the blizz of 78.. I want to atleast make copies of them so i can share them.. And yeah i'll post them here.. I have never seen any from this location posted anywhere..

 

My parents remember the Blizzard of 67 in this area. They said it was pretty much the same as the GHD Blizzard, but with less wind. Quite a few more people in my family remember the Blizzard of 78. I can't remember the specifics with that as well, but I do know that winter - the snowbanks were so high along the roads, it was like driving through tunnels of snow!

[Harry]

Cool...I'd love to see them. I'm still amazed at what that storm did around here...the temps at the height of it and duration of really low visibility really make it stand out from other blizzards.

 

Yeah i personally cannot recall too many blizzards with that kind of cold and such heavy amounts of snow and wind as that had? Ofcourse i think 1950 came close?

 

 

 

My parents remember the Blizzard of 67 in this area. They said it was pretty much the same as the GHD Blizzard, but with less wind. Quite a few more people in my family remember the Blizzard of 78. I can't remember the specifics with that as well, but I do know that winter - the snowbanks were so high along the roads, it was like driving through tunnels of snow!

 

I always forget 78 dumped a decent amount of snow on that side of the lake as well. Pretty amazing especially for such a cold storm as Hoosier pointed out. Jan 67 was a much warmer blizzard by contrast.. Heck per KBTL it was straight 10-1 ratios as the liquid total was 2.86 ( 28.6" snowfall ) at KBTL..

[A-L-E-K]

so much thundersnow, such sick winds. it puts all other boring blizzards to shame and made 1999 look boring. 

 

 

never again.

[dmc76]

Several areas cracked 20" December 1, 1974.

So once every 88 years wiil get a storm of 18"+ Next storm is in 2062... Can't wait! It's going to be epic  

 

 

I might be wrong but wasn't the 74 (19.1") storm a long duration event that pounded the area for nearly 48 hrs? 

[dmc76]

Surprised you only got 6". Got 10" here though obviously it was a disappointment. DTX forecast like 10-16" I believe, never 18"+, but we would have had an unheard of snowpack if we had 18-24" (had 6" on the ground before the storm and the snows that followed the storm). Quite a shame that one of Detroits snowiest months on record has the taint of beginning with a bust.

 

Did you measure the disturbance that came in 12-18 hrs before hand as part of the GHD? 

[dmc76]

Its a 1-100 year event here, since we haven't cracked the 20 inch mark in probably 90 years.

 

127 year drought!! 

[SchaumburgStormer]

so much thundersnow, such sick winds. it puts all other boring blizzards to shame and made 1999 look boring.

never again.

Indeed. I had only seen thundersnow one other time prior to that, but GHD blew it out of the water. As demonstrated by the video clip of Cantore ****ting himself downtown during the storm.

[A-L-E-K]

The winds down on the lakefront we're more impressive than just about any severe thunderstorm i've ever experienced, maybe not quite the top end gusts but nearly constant 40+...totally unrelenting. Add to that a true whiteout (not 15 minutes of +SN...a real whiteout), frequent thunder, and graupel/hail....epic stuff. Even inside the apartment, the storm was so loud and raged for hours.  The next morning, when it was all over....the lawn outside my building was bare grass.  Feel sorry for everyone who never gets to experience such hardcore rippage.

[SchaumburgStormer]

The winds down on the lakefront we're more impressive than just about any severe thunderstorm i've ever experienced, maybe not quite the top end gusts but nearly constant 40+...totally unrelenting. Add to that a true whiteout (not 15 minutes of +SN...a real whiteout), frequent thunder, and graupel/hail....epic stuff. Even inside the apartment, the storm was so loud and raged for hours. The next morning, when it was all over....the lawn outside my building was bare grass. Feel sorry for everyone who never gets to experience such hardcore rippage.

At my apartment, the parking lot was shielded with buildings and was down in a depression. All you could see were antenna sticking out, while on the other side of the building, bare grass. Simply epic.

[RogueWaves]

Flip side 67 had the big severe event as well if i recall correctly?? But yeah good points.. I really don't know what happened east of the region with 67 so cannot say? For THIS region though i believe 67 trumps it because of the widespread 20+ totals..I believe winds nearly the same as strong with both systems.. Alot of similarities except moisture which 67 had a ton more of ( in this region ) and thus the edge i would give it...

 

I can confirm that the epic 2-foot totals continued NE of your back yard. Up thru Lansing & Flint/Saginaw areas. Beyond that into Ontario I can't say for sure but believe it was past peak strength, thus lower totals. I was only 2-1/2, so have to rely on folk's stories (which my dad never tired of recounting) and old photo album pics. Also have read old newspaper articles, etc.. The very heavy stuff was a fairly narrow band (i.e. both GRR and S. Bend had 18", so between those two sites) only a couple counties wide for the more epic totals. Not sure if it ranks as Flint's biggest single storm, but very likely imo as '78 was not generous with totals to SEMI areas the way it was in SWMI. Chicago and SE Wisconsin had a solid foot so they actually did better than most of SEMI. Interesting to note that in the Saginaw news article, '67 was their worst on the official records but there was mention of a 30" storm in the early days of that area (1850's) before any wx records were being kept. Now, their location often gets the same help as Chicago with a NE wind down Saginaw Bay, but even then it would have to have been a strong and/or long duration event to pick up 2-1/2 feet there.