February 2022 General Discussion

[Snownado]

1 hour ago, weatherbo said:

MQT(Negaunee) averages 29.4 in March and 17.6 in April, not sure where the 22 inches is from.  

I'm roughly a half hour nw of Marquette the city.

According to wikipedia, Marquette averages 14.2" in March and  8.4" in April. It says the source is NOAA.

[weatherbo]

8 hours ago, Snownado said:

According to wikipedia, Marquette averages 14.2" in March and  8.4" in April. It says the source is NOAA.

Yeah, I just took a look.  You're using the stats from the city waste water treatment plant downtown.

https://www.weather.gov/media/mqt/MQTCityMarch.pdf

  I'm using the stats from MQT the NWS office in Negaunee that's in the snowbelt, closer to what I experience.

https://www.weather.gov/media/mqt/MQTWFOMarch.pdf

 

[weatherbo]

MQT WFO, Negaunee February stats:

Average temp 10.5 (5.3 below average)

snow 59.6 inches

Coldest temp -17

warmest 37

 

Estimate 65- 70" of snow up here at my place this past month.

[WestMichigan]

3 hours ago, weatherbo said:

MQT WFO, Negaunee February stats:

Average temp 10.5 (5.3 below average)

snow 59.6 inches

Coldest temp -17

warmest 37

 

Estimate 65- 70" of snow up here at my place this past month.

That is a year or more worth of snow for 95% or more of this forum in a single month.

[Hoosier]

February was -1.4 at ORD.

[Hoosier]

Here's the meteorological winter recap for Chicago and Rockford.  

Interestingly, the high temps were above average and the low temps were below average at both sites.  Not the easiest thing to pull off in such urbanized areas.

 

Public Information Statement
National Weather Service Chicago IL
1136 AM CST Tue Mar 1 2022 /1236 PM EST Tue Mar 1 2022/

...A Look Back at the Climate for Meteorological Winter (December,
January, February) 2022 for Chicago and Rockford...

At Chicago, the average high temperature for the winter season
was 36.6 degrees, which is 2.0 degrees above the 1991 to 2020
average. The average low temperature was 20.8 degrees, which is
0.8 degrees below normal. The mean temperature for the season was
28.7 degrees, which is 0.6 degrees above normal.

A total of 5.73 inches of precipitation was recorded during this
past winter, which is 0.34 inches below normal. There was a total
of 28.6 inches of snow recorded at Chicago, which is 1.0 inch
below normal.

Records established or tied during the winter months:

December:
* Record daily maximum temperature of 66 degrees on the 15th.
* Record daily highest minimum temperature of 50 degrees on the
  15th.
* Record daily maximum temperature of 66 degrees on the 16th.

**6th warmest December on record since 1871 with a mean average
 temperature of 38.0 degrees.

January: None.

February: None.


At Rockford, the average high temperature for the winter season
was 34.9 degrees, which is 2.6 degrees above the 1991 to 2020
average. The average low temperature was 16.3 degrees, which is
1.2 degrees below normal. The mean temperature for the season was
25.6 degrees, which is 0.7 degrees above normal.

A total of 4.05 inches of precipitation was recorded during this
past winter, which is 1.11 inches below normal. There was a total
of 15.7 inches of snow recorded at Rockford, which is 13.1 inches
below normal.

Records established or tied during the winter months:

December:
* Record daily maximum temperature of 69 degrees on the 15th.
* Record daily highest minimum temperature of 50 degrees on the
  15th.
* Record daily maximum temperature of 68 degrees on the 16th.
* Tied daily maximum temperature of 55 degrees on the 24th.

**4th warmest December on record since 1905 with a mean average
 temperature of 34.9 degrees.

January: None.

February: None.

$$

Kluber

[Hoosier]

^There's an omission in the Chicago records.  There was a record high min in February that I remembered Chi Storm posting about.  Checked it out and it happened on Feb 16 (low of 41 degrees).

[Chicago Storm]

^There's an omission in the Chicago records.  There was a record high min in February that I remembered Chi Storm posting about.  Checked it out and it happened on Feb 16 (low of 41 degrees).

Correction has been completed.


.

[weatherbo]

9 hours ago, WestMichigan said:

That is a year or more worth of snow for 95% or more of this forum in a single month.

It's crazy.  I received over 50 inches each month this winter. 

At MQT, snow fell to some degree every single day in January and everyday but one in February and the Dec/Jan/Feb period as a whole, there was at least a trace of snow 82 of the 89 days and measurable snow on 70 days.

Add the two 30+ inch storms in and it's been a really nice winter and It's far from over.

Last year I barely cracked 150.

 

 

[frostfern]

On 2/26/2022 at 4:36 PM, Hoosier said:

Was thinking about beavis' comment about summer wx being more reliable in JJA in contrast to winter wx not being as reliable around Chicago.  I think there's some merit to that.  Think about it.  Summer months and months that are adjacent to summer have a tighter range of temperature anomalies than what can occur in winter.  It simply cannot get as far above or below average in summer.  Around Chicago, a few degrees below average in summer still feels reasonably summer-like, but a few degrees above average in winter means you are probably going to start melting any snowcover that you have, and it has been a struggle to build up any decent snowcover this winter especially north/west of the city. 

Chicago is better than a lot of other places for wintry wx, but it's still kind of living on the margins with not a whole lot of room for error.

Are there temperature weenies here?  I think most of us only care about snow.  Jan and Feb were consistently below freezing with fewer thaws than normal, but there weren't many extreme events.   There was no brutal cold outbreak and the only major snow event was a localized lake effect event.  Nothing memorable at all, despite being a typical cold winter.

[Hoosier]

Here are the DJF maps.  Sort of an average temperature winter in the bulk of the sub, with colder than average north and warmer than average south.

 

[OrdIowPitMsp]

February 2022 in Minneapolis had a -6.1 temperature departure. 11 days went below zero. 
 

0.78” of Precipitation, -0.09” below normal. 10.3” of snowfall for the month, 0.8” above normal.

 

Overall a solid month of winter weather. I’m both a cold and snow weenie, so while we didn’t see extremes of either, solid snowpack and entrenched cold all month was very satisfying.

[madwx]

4 hours ago, Hoosier said:

Here are the DJF maps.  Sort of an average temperature winter in the bulk of the sub, with colder than average north and warmer than average south.

 

Minnesota stands out like a sore thumb in both these maps.   Pretty crazy localized pattern for them

[WestMichigan]

14 hours ago, Hoosier said:

Here are the DJF maps.  Sort of an average temperature winter in the bulk of the sub, with colder than average north and warmer than average south.

 

Links are broken on my end.

[beavis1729]

14 hours ago, frostfern said:

Are there temperature weenies here?  I think most of us only care about snow.  Jan and Feb were consistently below freezing with fewer thaws than normal, but there weren't many extreme events.   There was no brutal cold outbreak and the only major snow event was a localized lake effect event.  Nothing memorable at all, despite being a typical cold winter.

On some level, cold and snow are linked...as you need a good amount of fresh snow cover imby and upstream to maximize the cold potential (whether advective or radiational).

While Jan and Feb were a bit below normal here (though still not truly cold), there was too little snow here to maximize the cold potential.  We never had more than 3" on the ground at any point. And Dec was horrible; that month ruined winter here. 

[WestMichigan]

You can definitely see the south and east trend from February in this graphic.

While I am at it, here is the DJF summary also.

[michsnowfreak]

The 20.4" of snow that fell in February in placed Detroit at 14th snowiest February on record, adding to the traffic jam of 21st century dates in the snowiest Februarys list.

 

Only 2 days this February had a snowdepth of 0, after no such days last February. 

 

Detroit finished met Winter with an average temperature of 28.0ﾟ. After a very mild December quite a come back to finish -0.4ﾟ.

Dec +5.9°

Jan -5.5°

Feb -1.6°.

 

The 32.5" of snow of snow that fell during met Winter, 20.4" of it coming in February, was just slightly below average, however due to a snowy November, season to date snowfall began March slightly above average.

[michsnowfreak]

On 3/1/2022 at 8:57 AM, weatherbo said:

Yeah, I just took a look.  You're using the stats from the city waste water treatment plant downtown.

https://www.weather.gov/media/mqt/MQTCityMarch.pdf

  I'm using the stats from MQT the NWS office in Negaunee that's in the snowbelt, closer to what I experience.

https://www.weather.gov/media/mqt/MQTWFOMarch.pdf

 

I was able to witness it with my own 2 eyes and it was like nothing I'd ever seen. I'm talking about the difference between snowfall in Negaunee/MQT versus Marquette city itself.  I think downtown Marquette is only 8 miles east of of MQT.  Drove through that area the day after that storm. I'm still a bit surprised at how high of a total MQT reported because of snowdepth apparently settling 15" from beginning to end of the storm. But having 40" on the ground was legit. 8 miles away in Marquette? Maybe 18" if I'm being generous.. A little bit West of MQT? Back to around 2 feet.  It's very interesting how they place the official weather site in the micro climate of heaviest snow. 

[michsnowfreak]

6 hours ago, beavis1729 said:

On some level, cold and snow are linked...as you need a good amount of fresh snow cover imby and upstream to maximize the cold potential (whether advective or radiational).

While Jan and Feb were a bit below normal here (though still not truly cold), there was too little snow here to maximize the cold potential.  We never had more than 3" on the ground at any point. And Dec was horrible; that month ruined winter here. 

Your depth never exceeded 3"? Did you miss out on the heavier snows at ORD? I think many of your expectations are unrealistic however that is definitely a kick in the pants to not exceed 3" depth.

[michsnowfreak]

20 hours ago, Hoosier said:

Here are the DJF maps.  Sort of an average temperature winter in the bulk of the sub, with colder than average north and warmer than average south.

 

Can you post for just Jan-Feb?

[michsnowfreak]

Certainly not perfect but a good idea. Here is season to date snowfall through the end of February

[Hoosier]

35 minutes ago, michsnowfreak said:

Can you post for just Jan-Feb?

Well, this is close enough

[weatherbo]

1 hour ago, michsnowfreak said:

I was able to witness it with my own 2 eyes and it was like nothing I'd ever seen. I'm talking about the difference between snowfall in Negaunee/MQT versus Marquette city itself.  I think downtown Marquette is only 8 miles east of of MQT.  Drove through that area the day after that storm. I'm still a bit surprised at how high of a total MQT reported because of snowdepth apparently settling 15" from beginning to end of the storm. But having 40" on the ground was legit. 8 miles away in Marquette? Maybe 18" if I'm being generous.. A little bit West of MQT? Back to around 2 feet.  It's very interesting how they place the official weather site in the micro climate of heaviest snow. 

It's definitely a micro climate driven area.

As far as the storm goes, I started with a depth of 28" and had a 50" depth at the end of the storm, while receiving around 40" of snow.  So it was a 22" depth increase over a 54 hour period.  The snow ratios were averaging 15:1 and there was quite a bit of wind as well that I believe accounted for the quick settling.  Highest reported total was 6 nw Negaunee with 45".

MQT peaked at 43" and have a current depth of 30".  My depth of 50"  has settled to an average of 38".  Very similar rise and fall in depth as MQT.  I just started with much more otg.  

Kudos to anyone who can accurately measure feet of snow on top of feet of snow.  My snow stake that drifted well over the 60" mark has settled down to 50".

Just a great long duration winter storm no matter what amount fell.

[michsnowfreak]

44 minutes ago, weatherbo said:

It's definitely a micro climate driven area.

As far as the storm goes, I started with a depth of 28" and had a 50" depth at the end of the storm, while receiving around 40" of snow.  So it was a 22" depth increase over a 54 hour period.  The snow ratios were averaging 15:1 and there was quite a bit of wind as well that I believe accounted for the quick settling.  Highest reported total was 6 nw Negaunee with 45".

MQT peaked at 43" and have a current depth of 30".  My depth of 50"  has settled to an average of 38".  Very similar rise and fall in depth as MQT.  I just started with much more otg.  

Kudos to anyone who can measure accurately feet of snow on top of feet of snow.  My snow stake that drifted well over the 60" mark has settled down to 50".

Just a great long duration winter storm no matter what amount fell.

I thought about going up to the huron mountains but I didn't know how the roads would be lol. You are in another micro climate in addition to MQT so your winters are exponentially more severe than Marquette city! Your pics are always awesome. 

 

I'm sure measuring is a pain when there's a lot of old snow on the ground and also a lot of plowed, shoveled, or blown slow.  I did tons of depth measurements in Au Train & Munising and came up with a much lower depth then they reported. But when you go to the residential areas there's 5 to 6' snow mounds everywhere.  Storm measurement from Munising (9.3") was dead on with what I was estimating.

[IWXwx]

The yoopers measure in inches. Down here I'm on my knees in front of my snowboard trying to get every last tenth. Bo gets more settling from one storm than my yearly total!

[bowtie`]

1 hour ago, IWXwx said:

The yoopers measure in inches. Down here I'm on my knees in front of my snowboard trying to get every last tenth. Bo gets more settling from one storm than my yearly total!

weatherbo measures by the foot or two.

[michsnowfreak]

12 hours ago, IWXwx said:

The yoopers measure in inches. Down here I'm on my knees in front of my snowboard trying to get every last tenth. Bo gets more settling from one storm than my yearly total!

Jokes aside they definitely measure every tenth of an inch, but that lake effect up there is so fluffy you can honestly get a half an inch of snow with a trace water content. Our last day up there there was a fresh inch of fluff on the car when I did not even think it was supposed to snow that night. it was pretty isolated to the area I was staying in, but still. unless there's a abnormal torch or rainstorm you pretty much have to forecast at least a chance of snow almost every day in the superior snowbelt during the Winter.

[Up_north_MI]

On 3/2/2022 at 4:14 PM, weatherbo said:

It's definitely a micro climate driven area.

As far as the storm goes, I started with a depth of 28" and had a 50" depth at the end of the storm, while receiving around 40" of snow.  So it was a 22" depth increase over a 54 hour period.  The snow ratios were averaging 15:1 and there was quite a bit of wind as well that I believe accounted for the quick settling.  Highest reported total was 6 nw Negaunee with 45".

MQT peaked at 43" and have a current depth of 30".  My depth of 50"  has settled to an average of 38".  Very similar rise and fall in depth as MQT.  I just started with much more otg.  

Kudos to anyone who can accurately measure feet of snow on top of feet of snow.  My snow stake that drifted well over the 60" mark has settled down to 50".

Just a great long duration winter storm no matter what amount fell.

We just returned from your area, Big Bay. I can definitely see why you chose that area to live, it’s easily the most beautiful part of MI if you’re looking for a true rugged outdoor paradise. It had been years since I’ve snowmobiled in that area and forgot how beautiful it truly is. We stopped Friday night to take a break and have some water about 9:00 about half way up trail 5, about 30 miles or so south of Big Bay, it was so dark and quiet it truly is a deep remote wilderness in the middle of the Huron’s. 

[weatherbo]

4 hours ago, Up_north_MI said:

We just returned from your area, Big Bay. I can definitely see why you chose that area to live, it’s easily the most beautiful part of MI if you’re looking for a true rugged outdoor paradise. It had been years since I’ve snowmobiled in that area and forgot how beautiful it truly is. We stopped Friday night to take a break and have some water about 9:00 about half way up trail 5, about 30 miles or so south of Big Bay, it was so dark and quiet it truly is a deep remote wilderness in the middle of the Huron’s. 

Nice.

Glad you enjoyed the area. It really is a beautiful and unique place with its remoteness, ruggedness, lack of roads, people.  I love it because of the quiet and peace I feel, and you get the sense of being part of your surroundings not just a spectator in it (if that makes sense). 

In the summer I spend quite a bit of time riding my dirt bike on and near trail 5... you can pick and putter your way through trails and old logging roads that disappear in the winter, and explore in a way you can't with a sled and 4 feet snow.  I recommend to anyone who enjoys this area to come in the summer as well.  The wilderness comes alive.  It will almost make you believe in the boogieman. 

[Up_north_MI]

4 hours ago, weatherbo said:

Nice.

Glad you enjoyed the area. It really is a beautiful and unique place with its remoteness, ruggedness, lack of roads, people.  I love it because of the quiet and peace I feel, and you get the sense of being part of your surroundings not just a spectator in it (if that makes sense). 

In the summer I spend quite a bit of time riding my dirt bike on and near trail 5... you can pick and putter your way through trails and old logging roads that disappear in the winter, and explore in a way you can't with a sled and 4 feet snow.  I recommend to anyone who enjoys this area to come in the summer as well.  The wilderness comes alive.  It will almost make you believe in the boogieman. 

Actually them logging roads with the 4’ of snow on them off the trail are the reason we’ll be heading back next winter, the trails are nice but the off trail/two track/fire and logging roads are where the fun is especially with deep untouched snow on them. It’s not as steep and deep as what we ride out west but there’s something to be said for only being 6 hours from home and nearly 10,000 feet lower in elevation and able to breathe.