Jump to content
  • Member Statistics

    17,606
    Total Members
    7,904
    Most Online
    ArlyDude
    Newest Member
    ArlyDude
    Joined

January 12-14 Winter Storm Part 2


Hoosier

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 846
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Lincolnwood...a couple miles to my northwest saw 8.2"

and Gurnee, Waukegan and Beach Park saw 5, 5.5 and 4.8" respectively :whistle:

http://www.crh.noaa....=77632&source=0

It's legit. FWIW I learned how to measure, snow, rain etc. from a professor/meteorologist!

Waukegan and Beach Park are underdone, Gurnee is further from the lake - so I can see that being legit. I am 2+ miles north of KUGN. The lake enhancement was hit and miss/localized. I could be 0.2-0.3" off, but I'm close, lol!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Currenlty snowing here on the other side of the lake from many of you. We recieved between 2 and 3 inches of heavy, wet snow since 4:30. Waiting for the colder temps to move on in and change it to white powder!

Spent 3 hours this morning on the slops on a good 6" of fresh snow here in SW MI. Lunch break right now. Heading back out soon. :snowing: Good 5-8"+ in the area & still snowing right now. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This storm overperformed big time here. 4.4" here so far and it's ripping heavily out there. I was honestly expecting no more than 1-2" at best. It looks absolutely gorgeous out there.

Today marks the first day I have had to shovel the driveway. A snowplow drove by twice already and the roads are getting snow-covered today. I think it's safe to say that nobody here expected nearly this much snow.

jan13_2.jpg

jan13_3.jpg

jan13_4.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I measured one final time this morning. The average of 30+ spots in my yard was 5.8 inches. That is a nice total, but the core sample I melted this morning actually had 0.61" of liquid, which is easily more than any model ever predicted. As odd as it sounds, that makes for only a 9.5 to 1 snow to water ratio. Apparently the mostly tiny flake size combined with wind and 30+ hours of settling/compaction really took a toll.

I just noticed a couple cocorahs reports from the Cedar Rapids area totaled about 7 inches when the last two days were added together. I did not have a snow board in the yard that I could clear halfway through the storm, which would have negated some of the settling/compaction issue. Clearly 7 inches would give a more reasonable-sounding 11.5 to 1 ratio.

Edit: There are a lot of wildy different liquid totals from the cocorahs observers, from <0.40" up to 0.68". I'm guessing that maybe the lower totals are from observers who collected snow in their gauges as it fell.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I see two reports of 4.0" from LAF CoCoRaHS observers, so unless Hoosier, Keener, and/or blue have something different...that's what I'm putting in the sig as the "official" total.

Seems about right to me. Thought we might be a tad over 4 but I haven't been outside today :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's legit. FWIW I learned how to measure, snow, rain etc. from a professor/meteorologist!

Waukegan and Beach Park are underdone, Gurnee is further from the lake - so I can see that being legit. I am 2+ miles north of KUGN. The lake enhancement was hit and miss/localized. I could be 0.2-0.3" off, but I'm close, lol!

I would definitely not accuse you of intentionally inflating your totals. However, I have to say that those numbers in your sig seem unusually high for your location, even taking into account that the last several years have been good for the MKE-ORD corridor.

Have you considered that you might be measuring too close to your house or some other structure causing contamination via blowing snow?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would definitely not accuse you of intentionally inflating your totals. However, I have to say that those numbers in your sig seem unusually high for your location, even taking into account that the last several years have been good for the MKE-ORD corridor.

Have you considered that you might be measuring too close to your house or some other structure causing contamination via blowing snow?

Here's how I measured yesterday. Let me know if I'm messing up somewhere - because I want to take accurate measurements. 90% of the time I'm within 0.5" of the other Beach Park observer.

Wind wasn't an issue until after 8pm, so I used my white colored snowboard. The snowboard is about 2' x 2', about 25feet from the north side of the house. No trees within 40 feet, few bushes about 10 feet away. The snowboard is elevated off the ground about a foot. So during the day I measured the real wet snow first, cleared it off - then repeated that until the wind picked up. The wind was northwest last night so the any drifting was very minimal on that side of the house. Once the wind kicked up, I took an average of 5 snow depths - not from the grass, but on wooden railroad ties, the driveway - solid surfaces. Then this morning I took measurements both on the back porch and grass. I summed up the total from all my snowboard and solid surface measurements at about 8am this morning.

About 6.5" on the porch and about 7.2" on the grass. I always try to measure on a solid of surface as I can, because the grass is uneven. I also try to measure the snow before it settles. Whether it settled overnight to give a lower back porch total - not sure. There's at least 6.5" here. I'm in the northern top 3 miles of Lake County, 4.5 miles from the lake - and about 6-7 miles from the 7"+ totals on the southwest side of Kenosha. I'm north of the Waukegan, Gurnee, and I think the Beach Park observer site too. So that's what I did- my snow measuring reasoning! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's how I measured yesterday. Let me know if I'm messing up somewhere - because I want to take accurate measurements. 90% of the time I'm within 0.5" of the other Beach Park observer.

Wind wasn't an issue until after 8pm, so I used my white colored snowboard. The snowboard is about 2' x 2', about 25feet from the north side of the house. No trees within 40 feet, few bushes about 10 feet away. The snowboard is elevated off the ground about a foot. So during the day I measured the real wet snow first, cleared it off - then repeated that until the wind picked up. The wind was northwest last night so the any drifting was very minimal on that side of the house. Once the wind kicked up, I took an average of 5 snow depths - not from the grass, but on wooden railroad ties, the driveway - solid surfaces. Then this morning I took measurements both on the back porch and grass. I summed up the total from all my snowboard and solid surface measurements at about 8am this morning.

About 6.5" on the porch and about 7.2" on the grass. I always try to measure on a solid of surface as I can, because the grass is uneven. I also try to measure the snow before it settles. Whether it settled overnight to give a lower back porch total - not sure. There's at least 6.5" here. I'm in the northern top 3 miles of Lake County, 4.5 miles from the lake - and about 6-7 miles from the 7"+ totals on the southwest side of Kenosha. I'm north of the Waukegan, Gurnee, and I think the Beach Park observer site too. So that's what I did- my snow measuring reasoning! :)

Is the board near a fence at the opposite end of your yard? Also how frequently to clear your board?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is the board near a fence at the opposite end of your yard? Also how frequently to clear your board?

Better yet, here is pictures. Fence is 40 feet away (to the east). About every 4 hours during a storm (while I'm at home or not sleeping!) The big tree to the right side does mess up totals if the wind is ESE/SE. Snow board may be more like 18-20 feet from the house. Ruler in picture is a 12" ruler - snow is just below 7" mark. --One thing I thought of... in geology you learn about orographic lift. I am at 750 feet - the highest spot in the eastern half of the county. Probably not enough elevation change to impact snowfall amounts too much. I do know the Kettle Moraine west of Milwaukee is known to get higher totals due to their 1200'+ elevation.

384146_3037680987950_1440765701_3072650_1119665147_n.jpg _ 405287_3037682267982_1440765701_3072652_893546583_n.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...