Nov. 25th-26th Midwest Snowstorm Potential

[wxmeddler]

6 minutes ago, boiler1111 said:

Just had a few lightning flashes in Aurora — or transformers popping.

 If it's blue, it's a transformer. If it's purple, it's lightning. On most cameras at least, unless you have some crazy white balance.

[Malacka11]

My friend down the road lost power a little bit ago

[donsutherland1]

10 minutes ago, miamarsden8 said:

Do you know how rare it is for Macomb to actually get hit by something good? We used to make a joke in our professor's class that he was a bad luck charm and kept tornadoes from hitting Macomb.

This could be a pretty special event.

Some November snowfall records for Macomb:

11/25 daily record: 1.2", 1993
11/26 daily record: 2.8", 1940

November daily record: 6.0", 11/15/1925

Biggest November snowstorm: 8.5", 11/17-18/1926

November snowstorms with 6" or more snow: 3

[miamarsden8]

Knox County update for all of you in/interested in Galesburg...

The situation has degraded in the most recent (attached) Situation Report from the National Weather Service. Wind speeds are now up to 50 mph and our snowfall will likely hit 10". Looks like several more hours of snowfall yet to come.

Even with 4 dispatchers and three call-takers working non-stop, Knox County Dispatch is inundated with calls. A large number of motorists are stranded on area roads, mostly I-74. In particular are quite a few WIU students apparently trying to get back to Macomb following the Thanksgiving break. With little to no visibility, most all response capability to these motorists is on hold. Tow vehicles have suspended operations and the local Snowmobile Team is only responding to high priority calls. Most Township Road Commissioners have also suspended operations. IDOT and ISP are swamped as well as the situation north of Knox County is apparently even worse. Most Township Road Commissioners have also suspended operations. We will attempt to get to these folks as conditions and responder safety improves which could be toward morning.

Here in Galesburg, the snowplows have been out for a few hours but are finding the wind and new snow filling the streets pretty quickly after plowing. They are concentrating on priority routes and working with emergency response agencies to insure they can get in and out of the stations and to the life-safety related calls.

Ameren is telling us the power outage in Galesburg will likely be for another 6 hours. There are currently about 1600 residents without power. There are smaller outages out in the county.

Galesburg Fire has been running non-stop on calls since around 5:30. Many of these are arcing and sparking wires and transformers. A few trees have fallen on utility lines. We had smoke in a big box retail store earlier that was caused by a heating unit on the roof. We have also answered calls for stranded motorists. Fortunately, we have not had an excess of medical related calls since the storm began.

In Galesburg, we have received no calls for shelter needs as yet which is a testament to the character of our Midwestern folks. Rio and Oneida have opened their fire stations as warming centers and have some customers there.

WGIL is typically not manned on Sunday nights, but they have been great to get down there to broadcast some of our information.

Kudos to all our emergency response people for their great work and for those citizens who chose to stay in and watch the ballgame tonight.

Chief Simkins

[miamarsden8]

Just now, donsutherland1 said:

This could be a pretty special event.

Some November snowfall records for Macomb:

11/25 daily record: 1.2", 1993
11/26 daily record: 2.8", 1940

November daily record: 6.0", 11/15/1925

Biggest November snowstorm: 8.5", 11/17-18/1926

November snowstorms with 6" or more snow: 3

Yeah, we've shattered most of those.

[tuanis]

Transformer just blew down the road and the power’s out in the hood. Heard a nice pop.

[donsutherland1]

Moderate snow (0.50 mile visibility) has finally begun to fall at ORD.

[nwburbschaser]

My power has gone out twice, but came back on quickly both times. The snow falling off trees onto my roof is making a nice thud. 

[Snowstorms]

16 minutes ago, mimillman said:

Torrential rain with some snowflakes mixed in, about 34 degrees.

Would be nice to switch with the Des Moines folks right around now 

Wow, that's the worst. I know exactly how you feel. 

What part of Chicago do you reside? I'm assuming (without looking at the maps), lack of dynamic cooling and warmer lake temps. definitely playing a role. 

[cyclone77]

Yep, this one's gonna make my top 5 list. On track for over a foot, it's only November, had thundersnow, had a half inch of rain to kick it off, and had near-blizzard conditions at times. Man what a storm.

[Chicago Storm]

4.1" here as of 9:15.

It has been rip city since this area of precip moved in around 6PM. There is widespread tree damage and power outages in the area, due to the wet snow/high wind combo.

Confident I end up around 12" when it ends in the morning.

[sbnwx85]

Moderate to heavy rain at times in South Bend/Mishawaka. Some ponding on roads and leaves down on roads make it slick in spots. That should be an interesting dynamic for roads when/if the snow starts overnight.

[donsutherland1]

From NWS LOT:

At 8:00 PM CST, Mount Morris [Ogle Co, IL] TRAINED SPOTTER reports HEAVY SNOW of 12.50 INCH. VIA FACEBOOK.

 

[CoalCityWxMan]

Went for a quick walk, saw 5 spin outs/fishtails/cars getting stuck on main roads. Ended up helping 3 people get unstuck in that short amount of time 

[Castaway]

Going to chime in also on the totals starting to seem short currently. One hand, here in eastern dupage it’s definitely messy but nothing big dogish so far. 

Other hand the winds have started to kick up with good amount of time left. White out non existent so far. 

I’d say, 6” total from 7-11” that was expected here. 

I’d put a freak snow squall white out that came and went in a hurry a few years ago in late February/early March one night over this from a memorable stand point. That thing had visibility where I could barely see the house across the street. 

Still time left. Not throwing in the towel overall here in imby. Solid wind though 

[Hoosier]

Gusts continue to amp up here.  Part of the neighbors Christmas lights fell from their house.  The winds would be even more impressive if this system had a delayed occlusion.

[mimillman]

6 minutes ago, Snowstorms said:

Wow, that's the worst. I know exactly how you feel. 

What part of Chicago do you reside? I'm assuming (without looking at the maps), lack of dynamic cooling and warmer lake temps. definitely playing a role. 

I’m right on the lake just south of the river. We’ve gotten use to these outcomes though for early season storms. Just gotta hope we can nickel and dime it back with minor lake effect later in the season.

[DaveNay]

Radar returns over the far NW counties appear to be collapsing.

[Hoosier]

2 minutes ago, mimillman said:

I’m right on the lake just south of the river. We’ve gotten use to these outcomes though for early season storms. Just gotta hope we can nickel and dime it back with minor lake effect later in the season.

Looks like the rain/snow line has moved very little in the past 60-90 minutes.

[Kaner88]

Kinda get the feeling north Cook is going to underperform. Radar still looks iffy with returns getting cut quite a bit moving through downtown Chicago. Looks fantastic out by DeKalb.

[Snowstorms]

2 minutes ago, mimillman said:

I’m right on the lake just south of the river. We’ve gotten use to these outcomes though for early season storms. Just gotta hope we can nickel and dime it back with minor lake effect later in the season.

Wow, that's an insane cut-off. It's common up our way as well, thanks to the lake. Still got the whole season to get through so don't sweat it. It's only November. 

[Castaway]

4 minutes ago, Kaner88 said:

Kinda get the feeling north Cook is going to underperform. Radar still looks iffy with returns getting cut quite a bit moving through downtown Chicago. Looks fantastic out by DeKalb.

Starting to hold the towel now.

[Hoosier]

3z HRRR is botching the location of the rain/snow line in northeast IL.

[donsutherland1]

It will be interesting to see if this storm is the biggest November snowstorm on record for Rockford. At 6:45 pm, the city was 2.5” from matching the total for its biggest November snowstorm. The snow has continued to fall at a generally moderate rate since then.

[ILwxchr]

23 minutes ago, miamarsden8 said:

Knox County update for all of you in/interested in Galesburg...

The situation has degraded in the most recent (attached) Situation Report from the National Weather Service. Wind speeds are now up to 50 mph and our snowfall will likely hit 10". Looks like several more hours of snowfall yet to come.

Even with 4 dispatchers and three call-takers working non-stop, Knox County Dispatch is inundated with calls. A large number of motorists are stranded on area roads, mostly I-74. In particular are quite a few WIU students apparently trying to get back to Macomb following the Thanksgiving break. With little to no visibility, most all response capability to these motorists is on hold. Tow vehicles have suspended operations and the local Snowmobile Team is only responding to high priority calls. Most Township Road Commissioners have also suspended operations. IDOT and ISP are swamped as well as the situation north of Knox County is apparently even worse. Most Township Road Commissioners have also suspended operations. We will attempt to get to these folks as conditions and responder safety improves which could be toward morning.

Here in Galesburg, the snowplows have been out for a few hours but are finding the wind and new snow filling the streets pretty quickly after plowing. They are concentrating on priority routes and working with emergency response agencies to insure they can get in and out of the stations and to the life-safety related calls.

Ameren is telling us the power outage in Galesburg will likely be for another 6 hours. There are currently about 1600 residents without power. There are smaller outages out in the county.

Galesburg Fire has been running non-stop on calls since around 5:30. Many of these are arcing and sparking wires and transformers. A few trees have fallen on utility lines. We had smoke in a big box retail store earlier that was caused by a heating unit on the roof. We have also answered calls for stranded motorists. Fortunately, we have not had an excess of medical related calls since the storm began.

In Galesburg, we have received no calls for shelter needs as yet which is a testament to the character of our Midwestern folks. Rio and Oneida have opened their fire stations as warming centers and have some customers there.

WGIL is typically not manned on Sunday nights, but they have been great to get down there to broadcast some of our information.

Kudos to all our emergency response people for their great work and for those citizens who chose to stay in and watch the ballgame tonight.

Chief Simkins

Yeah its really bad. I'm from Galesburg and a friend of mine is stuck in the country and I'm up here and its just not a good situation. Officials know about everything that is going on, but just nothing anyone can do right now because the conditions are so bad.

[miamarsden8]

Just now, ILwxchr said:

Yeah its really bad. I'm from Galesburg and a friend of mine is stuck in the country and I'm up here and its just not a good situation. Officials know about everything that is going on, but just nothing anyone can do right now because the conditions are so bad.

It's especially crippling for rural areas when this stuff happens because seriously, how do you go around to every spot in the county to help people? You just can't.

[Chinook]

Hoosier - scattered purple is on your way

[Castaway]

Not sure why they would close down College of Dupage. 

Im going to take a break and watch a movie or something. I’ve been staring at a light post across the street past couple hrs now shifting windows seeing solid wind but decent visibility. 

Going to back off and see what she materializes later.

[CoalCityWxMan]

Lights are flickering quite a bit here in Dekalb.

 

[Hoosier]

4 minutes ago, Chinook said:

Hoosier - scattered purple is on your way

The changeover time looks to basically be on schedule with what I was thinking (between now and 2 hours from now), but temps are still way above freezing so it will have trouble sticking much right away.