Chinook Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 January 18-19 1996 featured a full-blown blizzard in the northern Midwest, a severe weather outbreak in Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan, and a cold front that dropped the temperature 40 degrees in 24 hours. Also I believe this storm caused roof collapses on the East Coast, due to rain being absorbed by snow. At my location in the Ohio Valley, the temperature dropped from 60 to 11 within 18 hours, and never climbed much above 11 during the day of January 19th, with wind chills below 0 (maybe -10 or -20.) These are temp maps from the NARR on Jan 18 and Jan 19 This is a temp map from the NARR on Feb 2 (Groundhog's Day) 1996. This was one of the coldest days in Minnesota in the last couple of decades. The NARR doesn't quite do it justice-- one location got to -60. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thundersnow12 Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 one of the sickest low-level baroclinic zones I've seen from eastern MN to MI....20 degree C gradient across WI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#NoPoles Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 just wanted to pop in let y'all know that my birthday is Jan 18th i love big events that happen on my birthday! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mnweather Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 Remember this event all too well. -60 in Tower was the new state record. Just incredible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WxMidwest Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 I was in Central Wisconsin, 21.6 inch total , then the huge cold wave, and -20's for highs.... amazing storm with TSSN, Heavy Snow, blizzard conditions shut down I-90/94, then the Cold Wave of 1996.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 There was a tornado a few miles north of LAF during this event. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wishforsnow Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 I believe that storm happened just after I moved to Houghton, MI. It ended up getting enhanced by the big lake. The Airport reported 54 inches of snow when it was over with. I know they closed the highway south of town all night. Also, some crazy decided to rob the bank downtown and only got to the end of downtown and his car got stuck in the snow. They pulled all the plows off the roads. You know it is bad when they do that around here. They ended up shooting the guy and the hostage he took also got shot. I was living in an apartment building and when Michigan Tech would cancel the landlord wouldn't plow the parking lot. So since I only had a RWD van and the snow bank at the end of the drive was up to my hood I ended up walking to work which was 1/4 of a mile since I just started this job and didn't have anytime available to me to take off yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daddylonglegs Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 That would have been a Thurs/Fri...If I remember correctly, we had little snow on the ground prior to this event and ended up getting to leave school early and they cancelled school for Friday. Everyone was like "wtf" because you could see grass still and school was being cancelled. I remember that night driving my truck through the alley and hardly making it into the driveway (4 wheel drive truck). Walking to the house, the drifts were waist deep at that point. I think the next day I drove to my buddies and got stuck in a huge drift and his neighbor was all pi##ed because I shouldn't ever tried driving through that spot. EDIT: After some digging, I think I'm thinking of the Jan 25/26th storm (18 inches) ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daddylonglegs Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 La Crosse... low temps Feb 1-4 -26F -34F -36F -31F Didn't go above 0F for 5 days...ouch. I'm pretty sure my truck was frozen solid during that one. High temp of -20F... nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beavis1729 Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 La Crosse... low temps Feb 1-4 -26F -34F -36F -31F Didn't go above 0F for 5 days...ouch. I'm pretty sure my truck was frozen solid during that one. High temp of -20F... nice! That's amazing. I knew the 1996 cold wave was impressive, but that's crazy to have a daytime high of -20F in southern MN. Officially in Chicago (ORD),I believe the lowest min. temp of the entire cold wave was -19F. Sure, that's a bit chilly, but nowhere near as impressive (relative to average) as what occurred in MN/WI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicago WX Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 That's amazing. I knew the 1996 cold wave was impressive, but that's crazy to have a daytime high of -20F in southern MN. Officially in Chicago (ORD),I believe the lowest min. temp of the entire cold wave was -19F. Sure, that's a bit chilly, but nowhere near as impressive (relative to average) as what occurred in MN/WI. Right you are for ORD. Like you said, decent cold for Chicago (min temps), but nothing like up north. 1996-01-30 7.0 -4.0 1996-01-31 6.0 -11.0 1996-02-01 10.0 -8.0 1996-02-02 -5.0 -16.0 1996-02-03 -5.0 -19.0 1996-02-04 2.0 -14.0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beavis1729 Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 Right you are for ORD. Like you said, decent cold for Chicago (min temps), but nothing like up north. 1996-01-30 7.0 -4.0 1996-01-31 6.0 -11.0 1996-02-01 10.0 -8.0 1996-02-02 -5.0 -16.0 1996-02-03 -5.0 -19.0 1996-02-04 2.0 -14.0 Cool...thanks. I guess two consecutive high temps of -5 is not too bad for ORD! I was at NIU in DeKalb at that time...I remember a few of us were jumping people's cars with a 1982 Pontiac Grand Prix...that car was a beast. I forgot about that major snowstorm that occurred prior to the cold wave, as Chinook and wishforsnow mentioned. Nice storm for LaCrosse up through the Keewenaw. Looking on the USU website, it looks like Houghton picked up about 5 feet of snow between Jan. 16 and Feb. 1, 1996. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinook Posted November 29, 2011 Author Share Posted November 29, 2011 http://nsidc.org/snow/blizzard/plains.html Jan 18 12z 6-panel ETA analysis Jan 19 12z 6-panel ETA analysis ILN soundings. 850 temp went from 10C to -20C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wisconsinwx Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 I was in Central Wisconsin, 21.6 inch total , then the huge cold wave, and -20's for highs.... amazing storm with TSSN, Heavy Snow, blizzard conditions shut down I-90/94, then the Cold Wave of 1996.... I don't remember this, but I think it was all the better; probably a slushy, sloppy mix given the low passed almost right on top of MKE. Where in C Wisconsin? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wisconsinwx Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 I was in Central Wisconsin, 21.6 inch total , then the huge cold wave, and -20's for highs.... amazing storm with TSSN, Heavy Snow, blizzard conditions shut down I-90/94, then the Cold Wave of 1996.... Are you sure you're not talking about the Jan. 26, 1996 event. Looked it up, and found amounts w/ this event were generally less than a foot, but MSN got over a foot w/ Jan. 26, 1996. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mnweather Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 I don't remember this, but I think it was all the better; probably a slushy, sloppy mix given the low passed almost right on top of MKE. Where in C Wisconsin? Milwaukee had hardly any snow with this event. Temp was 54 on the 18th and 14 on the 19th! 0.3" qpf which was mostly rain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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