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February 20-21 Potential Storm


wisconsinwx

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Oh I fully agree that March snows do not have the lasting power of DJF and that is sun angle right there. But every year this time we start hearing of sun angle as a hinderance for snowfall accumulations when thats not the case....a snowstorm in March can often have the same immediate affect as if it had hit in January...the difference is say you get a 6" snowstorm with temps in the upper 20s followed by two days of sun and low 30s. Whether the storm hits in Jan or Mar, the storm post-mortum is snow-choked roads, travel nightmares, and snowbanks. The difference is after two days of sun in Jan, the snowpack looks nearly identical, maybe having settled to 5" if that, while in March two days later you see about 5" in the shade with a few inches and grass patches in the sun.

The point is it's not as easy as saying "Snow can accumulate in March despite the sun angle/boundary temps" and "Snow can't accumulate in March due to the sun angle/boundary temps."

If every snow event was like the one we had yesterday (or especially that event on November 30th which produced 1-2" per hour rates just SW of here), then of course the snow won't have any problem accumulating.

The snow MUST be steady AND heavy for a significant period of time to overcome boundary layer or sun angle problems.

If you're talking fine flakes with poor large scale forcing (which means in between the suppsoedly heavier bursts, there are areas with very little precipitation and subsidence), then the snow will very much have trouble accumulating. We saw that exactly with most of the snow events in December around here, even if they fell mostly during the nighttime hours.

On the other hand, you had the February 5th-6th storm, which started out with warm boundary temps, but then when it completely changed over the snow came down fast and furious non-stop for 2-3 hours and most around the area (except along the DTW-ARB-Downriver corridor) areas picked up 4-6" of PACKED POWDER in that little bit of time.

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On the other hand, you had the February 5th-6th storm, which started out with warm boundary temps, but then when it completely changed over the snow came down fast and furious non-stop for 2-3 hours and most around the area (except along the DTW-ARB-Downriver corridor) areas picked up 4-6" of PACKED POWDER in that little bit of time.

What storm are you referring to here?

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