January 2017 General Discussion

[IWXwx]

Unless you live in the belts or like mood flakes zzzzzzzzzz.....(To be continued)

[harrisale]

Finally re-established snow cover last night with about 1.5" of nice fluff. Almost forgot what this looked like. 

[KokomoWX]

2 hours ago, IWXwx said:

Unless you live in the belts or like mood flakes zzzzzzzzzz.....(To be continued)

The local cooperative observer has recorded 7.85" of precipitation since 11/1 and just 1.6" of snow.

[DAFF]

C-1 as far as one could forecast.... Loving the daily chemical plowing in my future.

[geddyweather]

Finally getting a taste of the lake belt here north of Lima. First decent snow showers in almost two weeks. 

[michsnowfreak]

Had a coating here this morning of 0.3". Just a trace at DTW. Should see off and on snow the next 3 days with lake effect and weak shortwaves. Hopefully at some point we score a full ground covering. 

[hawkeye_wx]

The sun is out here for the first time in about twelve days.  

[hawkeye_wx]

There has been a good band of Mississippi River effect snow south of the Quad Cities today.  DVN said 2-4 inches was possible in a very narrow area under the band.

[Jackstraw]

 

1 hour ago, hawkeye_wx said:

There has been a good band of Mississippi River effect snow south of the Quad Cities today.  DVN said 2-4 inches was possible in a very narrow area under the band.

I thought you were joking until I read it.  Never heard of such a thing.

Update to add very localized higher POP swath acrs portions of
southeastern Rock Island Co and into southwestern Henry Co IL.
This for a unusual phenomena of a "River Enhanced" or effect
nearly stationary snow plume streaming off the large open water
west-to-east stretch of the MS RVR near Buffalo IA. Ideal west-to
northwest LLVL flow and fetch off this area utilizing some similar
processes that go into making lake effect snow, producing a
moderate to locally heavy and very localized band of snow in this
area. Reports from a Rock Island COOP observer under the western
portion of this band, suggesting occasionally reduced VSBYs under
a quarter mile to near white-out conditions at times, and measured
1.6 inches of new snow this morning at around 940 AM CST.

The plume shows up well on RADAR, and interesting "interruption"
in the denser stratocu deck seen on the latest VIS satellite loop
where the snow is occurring. Currently low confidence on how long
this process will last, maybe for a few more hours which could
lead to these very localized areas getting from 2-4 inches by the
time it wanes later this afternoon. Due to the very localized
nature of the event, will keep covering it with Special Weather
Statements if needed.   ..12..

[Hoosier]

6 minutes ago, Jackstraw said:

 

I thought you were joking until I read it.  Never heard of such a thing.

Update to add very localized higher POP swath acrs portions of
southeastern Rock Island Co and into southwestern Henry Co IL.
This for a unusual phenomena of a "River Enhanced" or effect
nearly stationary snow plume streaming off the large open water
west-to-east stretch of the MS RVR near Buffalo IA. Ideal west-to
northwest LLVL flow and fetch off this area utilizing some similar
processes that go into making lake effect snow, producing a
moderate to locally heavy and very localized band of snow in this
area. Reports from a Rock Island COOP observer under the western
portion of this band, suggesting occasionally reduced VSBYs under
a quarter mile to near white-out conditions at times, and measured
1.6 inches of new snow this morning at around 940 AM CST.

The plume shows up well on RADAR, and interesting "interruption"
in the denser stratocu deck seen on the latest VIS satellite loop
where the snow is occurring. Currently low confidence on how long
this process will last, maybe for a few more hours which could
lead to these very localized areas getting from 2-4 inches by the
time it wanes later this afternoon. Due to the very localized
nature of the event, will keep covering it with Special Weather
Statements if needed.   ..12..

Yeah it's cool.  Usually you won't get that much snow from a small scale body of water though.

[osubrett2]

Snow globe days like today are very deceiving to to the seasonal snow total. 0.6" recorded so far today at CMH, yet a snow depth of 0 (yes due to less than 1") with nothing on the ground. Heavy mood flakes all day but the roads aren't even wet.

[cyclone77]

3 hours ago, hawkeye_wx said:

There has been a good band of Mississippi River effect snow south of the Quad Cities today.  DVN said 2-4 inches was possible in a very narrow area under the band.

Pretty cool.  If I was off today I probably would have chased that lol.

[Jackstraw]

Pretty cool Sat loop of the "RES".  Wish I knew how to save it......

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/east/mw/mflash-vis.html

[SchaumburgStormer]

2 hours ago, Hoosier said:

Yeah it's cool.  Usually you won't get that much snow from a small scale body of water though.

I believe terrain plays into it as well. I read somewhere about the bluffs playing a part.

[Powerball]

14 hours ago, IWXwx said:

Unless you live in the belts or like mood flakes zzzzzzzzzz.....(To be continued)

Yep.

[madwx]

Finally saw the sun today for what felt like the first time in weeks.  Hopefully we can get a peak of sun tomorrow and maybe a few days next week. 

Madison is still 2.3" above the normal snow for the year, thanks to a combination of the storm this week(where we receive 6.3") and the weekly storms in December

[Stebo]

What is this thing you guys keep talking about, the sun? I never heard of such a thing in this slate grey atmosphere we live under.

[Stebo]

In all seriousness though, would be nice to see the sun again, its been probably 2 weeks almost at this point outside of some sun on Saturday last weekend.

[janetjanet998]

never heard of river effect snow around the quad cities

looking at the satellite shot there are no clouds over the river itself but they start to form about where the bluff is at the edge of the river valley it seems

anyone have anymore info on this 

I don't fully understand how this happened since the fetch wasn't huge because the river runs almost WSW-ENE and the plum is WNW-ENE ....

I have seen very weak returns form off upper Peoria lake(IL river is wide there)  before from a north wind

 

[janetjanet998]

13 minutes ago, janetjanet998 said:

never heard of river effect snow around the quad cities

looking at the satellite shot there are no clouds over the river itself but they start to form about where the bluff is at the edge of the river valley it seems

anyone have anymore info on this 

I don't fully understand how this happened since the fetch wasn't huge because the river runs almost WSW-ENE and the plum is WNW-ENE ....

I have seen very weak returns form off upper Peoria lake(IL river is wide there)  before from a north wind

 

QUAD CITIES (KWQC) – We have all heard the term “Lake Effect Snow”.  This usually impacts areas in the Great Lakes regions not areas in the QCA.  However, this morning the perfect ingredients came together to allow for a rare “River Enhanced” snow squall.
According to Andy Ervin, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in the Quad Cities, you need an environment that will support flurries (like this morning), and air getting channeled through bluffs and going over the open waters of the Mississippi for at least 45 minutes.  This will give the snow squall enough moisture and instability to produce heavy snow in a very localized area such as Rock Island and Henry counties this morning.    If the wind direction and or speed change the intensity of the snow squall will change as well.
This is very similar to lake effect snow that requires cold air being blown over warm waters before moving on cold land depositing snow.  With the perfect ingredients coming together this morning, a 4-5 mile wide band of snow produced whiteout conditions and accumulating snow between 1″-3″ while much of the QCA saw zero.

 

http://kwqc.com/2017/01/27/river-enhanced-snow-responsible-for-accumulating-snow-in-rock-island-and-henry-il-counties/

[Chicago Storm]

Mississippi River and Rock River effect snow happened once or twice during one of the cold spells a few winters ago. It's rare, but does happen.

[Jackstraw]

I don't know if anyone saw that Vis. Sat. loop while the event was taking place but it was really weird.  There was the consistent Strat deck but where the bands set up it almost looked like a snake weaving through the deck.  One of the strangest thing's I've seen.  They mentioned it in the discussion as an "interesting "interruption" in the denser stratocu deck".  Really was freaky looking.

[cyclone77]

Yeah there are some pretty decent size bluffs on the south side of that stretch of the river that runs all the way to near the MLI airport.  In fact, there's a golf course called Indian Bluff, which is about a mile south of MLI.  God I hate that course.  Lots of blind shots, and just a tough course in general to score good at lol.  At least for me lawlz.

[janetjanet998]

7 hours ago, Jackstraw said:

I don't know if anyone saw that Vis. Sat. loop while the event was taking place but it was really weird.  There was the consistent Strat deck but where the bands set up it almost looked like a snake weaving through the deck.  One of the strangest thing's I've seen.  They mentioned it in the discussion as an "interesting "interruption" in the denser stratocu deck".  Really was freaky looking.

yes I noticed it..had to do a double take..almost posted In here about it

also there were more east along the IND/MI border

[Hoosier]

The Chicago January futility drama is building.  Quite simply it's going to come down to what happens with the early week system.  The GFS has been running farther north (NAM as well) while the GGEM has been fairly consistent in a somewhat farther south solution.  

In any case, the track looks to be north of Chicago.  Typically these types of systems have limited precip south of the track, and there's no gulf connection to help out in this case.  Even the farther south GGEM tries to change Chicago to rain as surface temps warm above freezing, despite 1000-500 mb thicknesses well below 540 dm.  

 

 

[michsnowfreak]

Chicago will have had the 15th snowiest December and 3rd snowless January.

[slimjim101]

Just a trace of snow  IMBY however I was downtown last night and there is around a half inch there there is more snow to the south of me than here.  Grand Rapids is now at 8.5" for January and 46.3" for this winter season so thanks to the 37" we receive in December we are are believe it or not just about average for the season at this point. Also of note is that GRR is +5.1° for January and there now has been 15 days in a row of above average temperatures and just 7 days this month have stayed below 32° 

[Jonger]

On 1/25/2017 at 8:32 AM, slimjim101 said:

As of this morning the snow for for this season here in west Michigan 45.6" at Grand Rapids and 41.7" in Muskegon. Also of note. As of this morning Grand Rapids and Muskegon are running as the warmest January’s in history. With 7 more day to go Grand Rapids mean in now at 34.6° the record for any January at Grand Rapids is 34.2° in 1932 and in second place is a 34.0° in 1933. In Muskegon the mean as of today is 35.5° and over there the current record is 34.8° also in 1932 with 34.2° in 2006 in second place.  And the warmth is widespread as up in the Sault the mean so far this month is 30.0° that is +9.5° and the current record warmest January there is 27.0° set in 1932. At this time there don’t look to be enough cold coming to drop this January from being one of the warmest on record here in many areas of Michigan

Just double checking on this, I think you were looking at the average daily max, the average Jan 2017 temp today is 29.5F. Is that even a top 20?

[Jonger]

On 1/25/2017 at 10:36 AM, slimjim101 said:

Here is the of list of the top ten warmest Januarys in Grand Rapids. The current mean is 34.6°

1.   1.    34.2° in 1932

2       34.0° in 1933

3.       33.2 in 2006

4.       32.4 in 1894

5.       32.0° in 1990

6.       31.6° in 1906

7.       31.0° in 1934

8.       30.4° in 1989

9.       30.2° in 2002

1 0     30.0° in 1919

And in 11^th place is 29.7° in 2012

I think you were looking at the daily max.

[Chicago Storm]

A few days ago it was river effect snow off the Mississippi, and now its factory effect snow in NW. Indiana.

 

LSR of 1.1" of snow in Portage, coming off the factories in Gary.

 

Actually, there's river/bluff effect snow coming off the Mississippi in the DVN CWA once agin too.