December Winter Storm Memories

[hm8]

Yep, that was a really big one. Very impressive storm.

 

 

Map impresses me every time I see it

[Gilbertfly]

The "wall of snow" storm. It went quickly from first flakes to mod/heavy snow here in the LAF. A relatively quick hitter, but it poured snowed for awhile.

 

 

Probably one of my favorite non-major storms.  It ramped up from nothing to heavy snow very fast.

 

yeah, def not a big dog....but I do remember standing out front of my house laughing to myself at the rates at one point...which I only have maybe 3 or 4 of the "lol to myself" occurrences with snow rates

[Thundersnow12]

The 12/25-26/2009 occludedsystemvorthighratiofluffevent is probably the best December event here. 

 

If you cover my whole lifetime, you can add in the aforementioned 12/10-12/2000 snowstorm, but that occurred just outside of my good weather memory. Then the 90's were not great for big dogs here.

 

[Hoosier]

Map impresses me every time I see it

 

 

Me too.  Anytime you drop 30" way away from the Lakes...good stuff.

[Chicago WX]

Ran across this snowfall map from MKX by accident today, for the aforementioned December 2000 storm.

 

[Stebo]

Ran across this snowfall map from MKX by accident today, for the aforementioned December 2000 storm.

 

snow_12-11-00-rgn.gif

For some reason this storm doesn't strike a bell with me, even though where I lived at the time was in the 14-16" range.

[Chicago WX]

For some reason this storm doesn't strike a bell with me, even though where I lived at the time was in the 14-16" range.

 

That storm was in my early years of weather board participation, so it holds a little extra significance for me. And that being said, it makes me feel a little old.

[snowstormcanuck]

December 11, 2000 was an awesome storm in an awesome month. Only 8" because of ZR contamination but also TSSN and near blizzard conditions with wind gusting 50mph+. Then 36 hours later a 6" for dessert.

[dmc76]

Ran across this snowfall map from MKX by accident today, for the aforementioned December 2000 storm.

snow_12-11-00-rgn.gif

17.5" I measured in Oakland TWP from this

[Chicago WX]

December 11, 2000 was an awesome storm in an awesome month. Only 8" because of ZR contamination but also TSSN and near blizzard conditions with wind gusting 50mph+. Then 36 hours later a 6" for dessert.

Yeah, the follow up snow was a nice touch. Like you, I had an additional 6" with that one. Then a bunch of nickels and dimes thereafter to end it all with a rather nice snowpack by the end of the month.

[Snowstorms]

December 11, 2000 was an awesome storm in an awesome month. Only 8" because of ZR contamination but also TSSN and near blizzard conditions with wind gusting 50mph+. Then 36 hours later a 6" for dessert.

 

Looks like YKZ escaped the ZR and ended up staying as SN. Recorded 19.3" in total from Dec 11-12, lol.

[Chinook]

Nice posts, people. I remember many of these well

 

December 8-10, 2005. I got 8" in my backyard in Toledo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[snowstormcanuck]

Yeah, the follow up snow was a nice touch. Like you, I had an additional 6" with that one. Then a bunch of nickels and dimes thereafter to end it all with a rather nice snowpack by the end of the month.

 

There was probably stuff from my early childhood (say Jan 1994) that rivaled or exceeded it, but December 2000 was the first truly wall to wall wintry month I can vividly remember. Even Jan 1999 was only a wintry half month. 

 

And IIRC, that follow up storm on the 13th trended mad NW within the final 24-36 hours. May have even been an ETA coup. Damn, brain starting to fail me.

[stormtrackertf]

December generally hasn't been a notable month for snowstorms IMBY until 2000 (at least during my lifetime) but a lot of the great ones since then have been mentioned. December 11, 2000, December 24-25, 2002, December 22-23, 2004, December 16(I think?) 2007 with 6-12" of snow and 40 mph wind gusts. 2008 was awesome for snow until right up before Christmas, which was a huge bummer. The depth in the days preceeding Christmas was awesome by December standards.

Since then, none really stick out to me. December 13, 2010 was a great plastering and was top notch as far as presentation goes. Started as rain, changed to snow and stuck to everything as it piled up. Then it was frozen solid as arctic air rushed in behind it. Actually stuck around for the first "white Christmas" since 2004...unless you count 2005, which I don't like to, since it literally poured rain all Christmas day, and 2008 which was an abomination of a white Christmas with rain falling on Christmas eve turning the snowpack into a disgusting grey crust.

[buckeye]

I remember the storm 2 years ago on Boxing Day.   Leading up to it, the track continued to waiver, but favored areas immediately n and w of us.   Then, xmas eve, the 00z runs came out and the track shifted southeast just enough to hammer us.   I remember looking at the 00z nam run before leaving for xmas eve midnight mass and it had about a foot of snow forecasted for us.....the nam was in my prayers that evening.

 

By the xmas 12z runs the track shifted back nw a bit, blizzard warning went up to our immediate west.  We ended up with like 4 or 5 inches, but still a nice event.

[Gilbertfly]

Going to a parochial school....this was my only day off K-8 (graduated in '91)....

 

DECEMBER 15, 1987: A SEVERE WINTER STORM LAID 6 TO 12 INCHES
OF SNOW ACROSS MUCH OF NORTHERN ILLINOIS. WINDS GUSTING AS HIGH AS
75 TO 90 MPH PRODUCED BLIZZARD CONDITIONS...DOWNING POWER LINES AND
DRIFTING SNOW WHICH RESULTED IN NUMEROUS ROADS BEING CLOSED. SNOW
TOTALS INCLUDED 11.4 INCHES IN ROCKFORD AND 9.1 INCHES AT O'HARE. THE
STORM SYSTEM ALSO PRODUCED THUNDERSTORMS WITH THE SNOW WHICH LASTED FROM TWO TO FOUR HOURS...A VERY UNUSUAL DURATION FOR THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY ASSOCIATED WITH SNOW. A FEW OF THESE THUNDERSTORMS ALSO PRODUCED SLEET AND HAIL...WITH THREE-QUARTER INCH HAIL REPORTED IN JOLIET.

 

 

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1987-12-16/news/8704040230_1_biggest-snowfall-snow-related-heavy-snow

 

 

http://weather.ou.edu/~hblue/metr6413/Schneider90.pdf

 

 

 

Personally....I remember this being the first time I saw thundersnow.  My parents woke me up around 5 am and stood me in front of our picture windows and raised the blinds.  Still crusty-eyed I asked what was going on....they said, just stand there for a minute and wait....then boom, lightning and thunder and piles of snow (that weren't there when we went to bed) were lit up!  We then gathered around the radio and listened to school closures and eventually heard my school listed.  It was such a memorable moment that whole morning...I remember every moment from that morning from about 5am on.  Truly magical memory of a December storm for me. 

 

Clearly it resulted in deaths which sucks....but from an innocent child's perspective...it was awe inspiring and prolly was my original winter weenie moment...

[hawkeye_wx]

My snowstorm memory is pretty poor, so the storm I remember the most is the December 2007 ice storm, the worst in my lifetime.  My back tree crumbled and destroyed part of the fence.

[michsnowfreak]

Ran across this snowfall map from MKX by accident today, for the aforementioned December 2000 storm.

 

snow_12-11-00-rgn.gif

Interesting.....as that is way too high over extreme SE MI. The south have of Wayne county should be 6-8" and Monroe should be 4-6".

[dmc76]

Interesting.....as that is way too high over extreme SE MI. The south have of Wayne county should be 6-8" and Monroe should be 4-6".

Your right south of 696 had alot of mixing from what I remembered.

[cyclone77]

My snowstorm memory is pretty poor, so the storm I remember the most is the December 2007 ice storm, the worst in my lifetime.  My back tree crumbled and destroyed part of the fence.

 

Yeah that was a fun one.  Probably the last ice storm of consequence here.  Several trees around the neighborhood lost some large limbs. 

 

The worst ice storm I've ever been through also occurred in December.  I think it was Dec 8th or 9th of 1994.  IIRC we were forecast to have a mix of precip change to snow with several inches of accum.  The freezing rain that developed that afternoon didn't change over until close to dawn the next day, and only dusted the ground.  During the evening the freezing rain came down pretty heavily at times, and by midnight power was going out all over the QC.  You could hear branches breaking from time to time that night.  Lots of tree damage around the QC with that one.

[michsnowfreak]

December generally hasn't been a notable month for snowstorms IMBY until 2000 (at least during my lifetime) but a lot of the great ones since then have been mentioned. December 11, 2000, December 24-25, 2002, December 22-23, 2004, December 16(I think?) 2007 with 6-12" of snow and 40 mph wind gusts. 2008 was awesome for snow until right up before Christmas, which was a huge bummer. The depth in the days preceeding Christmas was awesome by December standards.

Since then, none really stick out to me. December 13, 2010 was a great plastering and was top notch as far as presentation goes. Started as rain, changed to snow and stuck to everything as it piled up. Then it was frozen solid as arctic air rushed in behind it. Actually stuck around for the first "white Christmas" since 2004...unless you count 2005, which I don't like to, since it literally poured rain all Christmas day, and 2008 which was an abomination of a white Christmas with rain falling on Christmas eve turning the snowpack into a disgusting grey crust.

Both 2005 & 2008 count lol, there was a solid snowpack, even if it wasnt a Courier & Ives scene. 2005 was a soggy mess, but it was white. It was raining all day but there was still a solid snowpack. I have to disagree on 2008...while Christmas Eve was ugly, the snow froze up nicely on Christmas Day as the cold rushed back in, and it didnt look so bad, in fact the rain that soaked into the pack made it glisten amazingly Christmas Night.

 

Went through my Wunderground library to see what Christmas pics Ive posted thru the years. Since 2002

 

Dec 25, 2002 - before sunrise

 

Dec 25, 2003

 

Dec 24, 2004 - bitterly cold, plenty of snow from the Dec 22/23 storm

 

Dec 25, 2005 - evening after the all-day rain turned to snow

 

Dec 25, 2006 - no pic, green Christmas with rain

 

Dec 24, 2007 - the deep mid-Dec snowpack melted, a fresh dusting for mood

 

Dec 25, 2008 during the evening

 

Dec 25, 2009 - no pic....white Christmas Eve (1") then a bare, rainy Christmas

 

Dec 25, 2010 - right around midnight Dec 24/25

 

Dec 25, 2011 - mild and breezy, green Christmas

 

Dec 24, 2012 - Christmas Eve snow set the mood...winters best snowstorm would hit Dec 26, a day late

 

Dec 25, 2013 - just a touch of white..ironic coming in a winter with record-smashing snowdepth/snowcover

[michsnowfreak]

Your right south of 696 had alot of mixing from what I remembered.

It wasnt mixing so much...it went from heavy snow to ice storm, ended as snow. It was a winter wonderland of snow and ice, but jealousy raged as the deep powder was mere miles away. We got 5.5" the next day though so still went up to a foot depth.

[OntarioChaser]

The worst winter event I have ever seen was hands down last year's historic ice storm.  I will never forget the frequent power flashes lighting up the sky like lightning flashes while hearing the constant snapping and crashing of trees all around me.  Safe to say I got no sleep that night.  I live right in the heart of the greatest swath of damage from that storm and was without power for 4.5 days. I hope you guys will enjoy looking through my Flickr album.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidpiano/sets/72157639155839635/

[michsnowfreak]

The worst winter event I have ever seen was hands down last year's historic ice storm.  I will never forget the frequent power flashes lighting up the sky like lightning flashes while hearing the constant snapping and crashing of trees all around me.  Safe to say I got no sleep that night.  I live right in the heart of the greatest swath of damage from that storm and was without power for 4.5 days. I hope you guys will enjoy looking through my Flickr album.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidpiano/sets/72157639155839635/

nice pics!

[Snowstorms]

The December 19, 2008 storm dropped 6-8" in Toronto. We got another 4.4" a few days later but then we got some rain on Christmas eve. However, we still had 12" of snow left on the ground on Christmas so it ended up being a White one.