Hoosier Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 After scanning through 40 years of hourly obs at KLAF (a long task but made easier by Wunderground custom search!), I have put together a list of blizzard events since 1973. I would've gone back farther but hourly obs are scarce prior to then. This post will be amended in the unlikely event that a blizzard occurs before the end of this year. First off, a blizzard is officially defined as a weather event producing sustained winds or frequent gusts of 35 mph or greater and considerable falling and/or blowing snow frequently reducing visibility to less than 1/4 mile for a period of 3 hours or longer. In my search of observations, I found several events that clearly met or may have met (more on that below) the criteria. This thread is only about one observation site and not necessarily representative of the remainder of the state or even the county. January 28, 1977 surface map near the onset of blizzard conditions Prevailing wind direction during blizzard conditions: W Near blizzard conditions began during the early morning with criteria officially being met early through late afternoon. Only a few inches of snow from this event, however. January 25-27, 1978 surface map near the onset of blizzard conditions Prevailing wind direction during blizzard conditions: WNW to WSW Quite simply, this event blows everything else away in terms of duration. Blizzard conditions developed late on the 25th and continued into the early part of the 27th. 26 consecutive hours with 1/4 mile or less visibility. January 10-11, 1982 surface map near the onset of blizzard conditions Prevailing wind direction during blizzard conditions: SW This event did not produce much snow locally. Nonetheless, blizzard conditions developed around 9 PM on January 10 and continued until about 2 AM on January 11. February 27, 1984 surface map near the onset of blizzard conditions Prevailing wind direction during blizzard conditions: NNE At first glance, this event appears to fall just short of blizzard criteria as reported visibility comes up to 3/8 of a mile on a couple of observations: SPECI KLAF 271539Z 04020G29KT 1/4SM +SN -BLSN OVC001 A2987 RMK SLPNO METAR KLAF 271600Z 03017G25KT 3/8SM +SN -BLSN OVC001 M03/M07 A2986 RMK PRESFR VSBY 1/4V5/8 SLP119 T10271066 METAR KLAF 271700Z 02020G29KT 3/8SM +SN -BLSN OVC001 M03/M07 A2982 RMK VSBY 1/4V5/8 SNOINCR SLP105 T10271066 510/1 SPECI KLAF 271722Z 03019G35KT 3/16SM +SN -BLSN OVC002 A2980 RMK SLPNO METAR KLAF 271800Z 03015G25KT 3/16SM +SN -BLSN OVC002 M03/M07 A2980 RMK SLP098 60015 4/002 T10271066 57041 METAR KLAF 271900Z 03015G27KT 1/2SM SN -BLSN OVC003 M03/M06 A2976 RMK SLP084 T10271060 However, a closer examination of obs 2 and 3 shows varying visibility with periods of 1/4 mile visibility. Hourly winds are also marginal but the intrahour ob we have from 1722z does show a gust of 40 mph which may suggest other higher intrahour gusts. For these reasons I decided to include it on the list though it is one of the borderline cases. January 2, 1999 surface map near the onset of blizzard conditions Prevailing wind direction during blizzard conditions: E Blizzard conditions developed shortly after 4 AM and lasted until about 7:45 AM. Gusty winds continued into the afternoon but visibilities came up. February 13, 2007 surface map near the onset of blizzard conditions Prevailing wind direction during blizzard conditions: ENE This is another interesting case. Winds gusted AOA 35 mph for much of the morning/afternoon with visibility oscillating between 1/4 and 1/2 mile. The period of sustained 1/4 mi visibility did not have many 35 mph gusts but the shorter stretches of 1/4 mi visibility did. This gets into the what is "frequent" question of the definition but to me, given the long duration of low visibility and gusty winds, it is close enough. I tried to apply a fairly strict definition so a few other events were left off. For Lafayette, there is a decided preference toward the month of January for blizzards, although the near-miss cases occurred during a wider range of months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicago WX Posted November 30, 2012 Share Posted November 30, 2012 Very nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier Posted November 30, 2012 Author Share Posted November 30, 2012 February 84 system is one of those underrated systems that would have been fun to track. Really a strong system. Yeah, it was a good event that doesn't get mentioned much. Dumped a pretty wide area of heavy snow. There were localized amounts up to 2' west of St Louis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowlord81 Posted November 30, 2012 Share Posted November 30, 2012 February 84 system is one of those underrated systems that would have been fun to track. Really a strong system. Is there anymore info on this storm system? I've never heard much about it but it seems IND recorded over 13 inches of snow with this one. How much did LAF get? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier Posted November 30, 2012 Author Share Posted November 30, 2012 Is there anymore info on this storm system? I've never heard much about it but it seems IND recorded over 13 inches of snow with this one. How much did LAF get? Download Feb 1984 from here: http://www7.ncdc.noaa.gov/IPS/sd/sd.html I've seen varying totals for the LAF area...it was somewhere between 4 and 12 inches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowlord81 Posted November 30, 2012 Share Posted November 30, 2012 Download Feb 1984 from here: http://www7.ncdc.noa.../IPS/sd/sd.html I've seen varying totals for the LAF area...it was somewhere between 4 and 12 inches. Wow, thanks Hoosier. Up to 14 inches of snow here. That would be an awesome storm for a good bit of our subforum. I swear one of these days we will get hit with a freak snow event and get over 20 inches in one storm. Its happened all around the midwest and ov. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier Posted November 30, 2012 Author Share Posted November 30, 2012 Wow, thanks Hoosier. Up to 14 inches of snow here. That would be an awesome storm for a good bit of our subforum. I swear one of these days we will get hit with a freak snow event and get over 20 inches in one storm. Its happened all around the midwest and ov. Indianapolis sure has been unlucky relative to surrounding areas. Give it enough time and it will happen. Looking through IND obs from that day, it looks like they met blizzard criteria during the late morning/early afternoon. Some of the gusts are missing but what's there is over 35 mph and sustained winds were 25-30 mph during that period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier Posted December 24, 2012 Author Share Posted December 24, 2012 Might pull it off on Wednesday? I'd say it's a coin flip at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csnavywx Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 Might pull it off on Wednesday? I'd say it's a coin flip at this point. You're in a really good spot. The real question for you is the winds meeting criteria, not the snow. If the SREF is right, you might. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicago WX Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 Considering we're on the anniversary date, here's something I put together for LAF for the January 1999 blizzard. Observations during the storm, from start to finish...snow start to end. Figured this was the appropriate place to put it. I'm gonna do Jan 1978 next. That should be a fun one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicago WX Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 January 1978 at LAF. We need to do another one like this soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier Posted January 2, 2013 Author Share Posted January 2, 2013 Nice work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IWXwx Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 Single digit temps, SN, 0 - 0.1 vis., 40 - 45 mph gusts, continuing for hours and hours. :weenie: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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