May 2023 General Discussion

[madwx]

frost/freeze likely tonight, then it's up up and away from here

[weatherbo]

Completely blizzard-like buried. Guessing somewhere around 30" has fallen.  No power for 16 hours but geni is keeping the two freezers, fridge, and a few lights going and that's it.  Roads are not passable and the power and plow trucks are reporting getting stuck.

STILL snowing!

[SolidIcewx]

6 minutes ago, weatherbo said:

Completely blizzard-like buried. Guessing somewhere around 30" has fallen.  No power for 16 hours but geni is keeping the two freezers, fridge, and a few lights going and that's it.  Roads are not passable and the power and plow trucks are reporting getting stuck.

STILL snowing!

That’s insane… I hope it stops soon for y’all. Plows getting stuck is crazy to hear. Do all the trees look like Dr Seuss inspired fiction?

[weatherbo]

12 minutes ago, SolidIcewx said:

That’s insane… I hope it stops soon for y’all. Plows getting stuck is crazy to hear. Do all the trees look like Dr Seuss inspired fiction?

Pines are caked because the snow started briefly as rain and coated them but the winds gusting into the 40's here in the higher terrain really helped to keep the snow from accumulating on hardwoods... thankfully.  

Will post some pics after I coffee up and get outside.  Gonna be a long day.  The denseness and depth of this snow is at the top end of what my equipment is designed for.  I purchased a new Kubota tractor last week with a commercial blower but delivery isn't until next week. go fig.

 

[SolidIcewx]

2 minutes ago, weatherbo said:

Pines are caked because the snow started briefly as rain and coated them but the winds gusting into the 40's here in the higher terrain really helped to keep the snow from accumulating on hardwoods... thankfully.  

Will post some pics after I coffee up and get outside.  Gonna be a long day.  The denseness and depth of this snow is at the top end of what my equipment is designed for.  I purchased a new Kubota tractor last week with a commercial blower but delivery isn't until next week. go fig.

 

Of course it comes it after an event like this. That’s good it’s not sticking to hardwoods much other than softwoods. The wind can be a blessing and a curse. Down here when we had our heavy wet snow with winds ended up doing my area a favor in knocking off some of it

[CoastalWx]

You got to post some pics!

[michsnowfreak]

1 hour ago, weatherbo said:

Completely blizzard-like buried. Guessing somewhere around 30" has fallen.  No power for 16 hours but geni is keeping the two freezers, fridge, and a few lights going and that's it.  Roads are not passable and the power and plow trucks are reporting getting stuck.

STILL snowing!

This may snowstorm was historic even for the UP, and its a great lesson in geography because the storm was HUGELY dependent on elevation and proximity to the lakeshore. Just looking at pics and comments on nws mqt Facebook page, the variability is wild. Naturally, you're the winner.

[Met1985]

1 hour ago, weatherbo said:

Pines are caked because the snow started briefly as rain and coated them but the winds gusting into the 40's here in the higher terrain really helped to keep the snow from accumulating on hardwoods... thankfully.  

Will post some pics after I coffee up and get outside.  Gonna be a long day.  The denseness and depth of this snow is at the top end of what my equipment is designed for.  I purchased a new Kubota tractor last week with a commercial blower but delivery isn't until next week. go fig.

 

Keep us updated! This has to be historical for that area. What you where saying yesterday with the density being 5:1 is crazy. 

[michsnowfreak]

7 minutes ago, Met1985 said:

Keep us updated! This has to be historical for that area. What you where saying yesterday with the density being 5:1 is crazy. 

I had a 5:1 ratio 6" snowstorm this winter that my snowblower couldn't handle so I had to shovel. 30" of 5:1? Bo might as well hunker in and let the May sun take care of it the next week lol.

[Stebo]

1 hour ago, michsnowfreak said:

I had a 5:1 ratio 6" snowstorm this winter that my snowblower couldn't handle so I had to shovel. 30" of 5:1? Bo might as well hunker in and let the May sun take care of it the next week lol.

Honestly, this is what I would do, at least until its down to a foot. No way you can shovel it, except maybe off the roof.

[josh_4184]

I ended up with about 7-8" really hard to tell with the melt, but the ratio has to be the lowest I have ever seen. Power been flickering all night, luckily the winds were lower here or no doubt would have had outages. The Western UP on the other hand was almost as bad as we had around Christmas down here, I ended up with about 36" snow but ratio was much higher compared to what Bo has, I cant imagine having to plow clear 5-1 ration over 2' deep.  Good news is that it will melt fairly fast but still will take several days. 

[madwx]

overperforming again today, up to the mid 50s. when as recently as yesterday it looked like we'd struggle to hit 50.  Maybe a rumble of thunder Thursday evening

[Brian D]

3 hours ago, weatherbo said:

Completely blizzard-like buried. Guessing somewhere around 30" has fallen.  No power for 16 hours but geni is keeping the two freezers, fridge, and a few lights going and that's it.  Roads are not passable and the power and plow trucks are reporting getting stuck.

STILL snowing!

Yeah, insane dude. Winter heaven, Spring nightmare!

[Brian D]

Temps are in the 50's right now here, with some wind (25-35 mph) that will die down later today. Looks pretty seasonable in the coming days with generally E winds, and temps in the 50's n 60's. Pretty dry conditions on tap.

[hawkeye_wx]

The wind has lightened up today.... from 47 mph to 43 mph.  The third straight day of howling wind really begins to get to me.  Thankfully, the wind finally drops off Wednesday as ridging moves in.

[TheClimateChanger]

16 hours ago, michsnowfreak said:

I love reading about those old pre-record days. I have a book by bella hubbard called "memorials of a half century" which details his time in the detroit area from 1837 to present-day 1887. It's fascinating and he goes into detail on weather/seasons. Maybe in the summer if I have time I will do a post detailing some of that. 

 

May 2020 had snow fall on 5 days (consecutively no less) which had never happened before (May 8-12, with 0.5" on the 10th). May 2016 had exceptionally late snow (15-16th). The latest official flakes for Detroit were May 31, 1910 and the latest measurable was an incredible 5.0" on May 21/22, 1883.

Fascinating stuff. Detroit used to have such a lovely summer climate.  While the means aren't quite Yooper-esque, some of the individual months [especially warm-season months] were certainly Yooper-esque, like that 60.5F from August 1836. But it is certainly a northern Michigan climate, comparing very favorably to Traverse City's modern annual mean temperature of 46.9F [mid-19th Century Detroit being about 0.3-0.4F warmer, and Port Huron about 0.6F colder].

That 1836-1838 period was really something else. Just happened to correspond to the beginning of systemized weather records in Detroit too. Allegedly, this was assisted by the 1835 eruption of Cosiguina in Nicaragua, but curiously that eruption wasn't even as impressive as Pinatubo in 1991.

Port Huron, Michigan:

[weatherbo]

Hey all. Snow is done, estimate 31-33 inches fell... power still out.  It's going to take me all day to clear snow.  I'm not gonna wait and let it melt because it will settle and refreeze tonight (and make it even tougher to remove), and I need to be able to get out if I have to. Not that it matters much now because I wouldn't be able to go far.

Just some pics from around the house...  most y'all are familiar with these shots... but it is remarkable to see in May.  And this was probably the second best storm of the season and pushes me very close to the 300 inch mark.

[Met1985]

46 minutes ago, weatherbo said:

Hey all. Snow is done, estimate 31-33 inches fell... power still out.  It's going to take me all day to clear snow.  I'm not gonna wait and let it melt because it will settle and refreeze tonight (and make it even tougher to remove), and I need to be able to get out if I have to. Not that it matters much now because I wouldn't be able to go far.

Just some pics from around the house...  most y'all are familiar with these shots... but it is remarkable to see in May.  And this was probably the second best storm of the season and pushes me very close to the 300 inch mark.

Good Lord that is remarkable for this time of the year. Wow just wow!

[Chicago Storm]

Blowing dust/dust storm conditions once again today in Montgomery Co, in Central Illinois.

[CoastalWx]

Holy shit. Those pics!

[Stebo]

2 hours ago, weatherbo said:

Hey all. Snow is done, estimate 31-33 inches fell... power still out.  It's going to take me all day to clear snow.  I'm not gonna wait and let it melt because it will settle and refreeze tonight (and make it even tougher to remove), and I need to be able to get out if I have to. Not that it matters much now because I wouldn't be able to go far.

Just some pics from around the house...  most y'all are familiar with these shots... but it is remarkable to see in May.  And this was probably the second best storm of the season and pushes me very close to the 300 inch mark.

How much did you have on the ground before this storm?

[roardog]

I guess the sun angle didn’t stop it from accumulating. 

[Stebo]

21 minutes ago, roardog said:

I guess the sun angle didn’t stop it from accumulating. 

My chase partner went up and at one point last night he said, "it is so weird for it to be so bright out at 9pm and snowing like crazy"

[weatherbo]

2 hours ago, Stebo said:

How much did you have on the ground before this storm?

Had received 1.16" in rain the 2 days leading up to the storm and that had cleaned a lot of the remaining snow up.  There were piles from shoveling and blowing yet, and the yard and woods had about a 60/40 mix of bare ground and patchy snow of a few inches left.

 

Was looking at some climate info for MQT and this is how wet it is.

Storm total snow 28.7" (liquid 5.15")

Total qpf the past 5 days including the rain 6.26"

Needless to say there will likely be some serious flooding issues, as river/streams were running high and the ground already saturated.

 

 

 

 

[Stebo]

Just now, weatherbo said:

Had received 1.16" in rain the 2 days leading up to the storm and that had cleaned a lot of the remaining snow up.  There were piles from shoveling and blowing remaining, and the yard and woods had about a 60/40 mix of bare ground and patchy snow of a few inches left.

 

Was looking at some climate info for MQT and this is how wet it is.

Storm total snow 28.7" (liquid 5.15")

Total qpf the past 5 days including the rain 6.26"

Needless to say there will likely be some serious flooding issues, as river/streams were running high and the ground already saturated.

 

 

 

 

 

If you get a chance get over to a waterfall in the next few weeks, they are going to be wild.

[SolidIcewx]

4 hours ago, weatherbo said:

Hey all. Snow is done, estimate 31-33 inches fell... power still out.  It's going to take me all day to clear snow.  I'm not gonna wait and let it melt because it will settle and refreeze tonight (and make it even tougher to remove), and I need to be able to get out if I have to. Not that it matters much now because I wouldn't be able to go far.

Just some pics from around the house...  most y'all are familiar with these shots... but it is remarkable to see in May.  And this was probably the second best storm of the season and pushes me very close to the 300 inch mark.

That is insane… it’s just a dense sheet. And that qpf is just off the charts.. glad your doing alright tho love the pics!

[beavis1729]

[cyclone77]

This time last year we were one week away from a 4-day stretch of mid 90s.  DVN hit 97 on May 12.  Peak heat indices reached around 105.  That was an extraordinary stretch of early season heat.  The mid 70 dews made it even more impressive.  Usually to get that hot this early you need a dry heat.

[rainsucks]

1 hour ago, cyclone77 said:

This time last year we were one week away from a 4-day stretch of mid 90s.  DVN hit 97 on May 12.  Peak heat indices reached around 105.  That was an extraordinary stretch of early season heat.  The mid 70 dews made it even more impressive.  Usually to get that hot this early you need a dry heat.

lowkey sucked tbh. Thankfully, nothing like that looks to be happening this year.

[Brian D]

13 hours ago, TheClimateChanger said:

Fascinating stuff. Detroit used to have such a lovely summer climate.  While the means aren't quite Yooper-esque, some of the individual months [especially warm-season months] were certainly Yooper-esque, like that 60.5F from August 1836. But it is certainly a northern Michigan climate, comparing very favorably to Traverse City's modern annual mean temperature of 46.9F [mid-19th Century Detroit being about 0.3-0.4F warmer, and Port Huron about 0.6F colder].

That 1836-1838 period was really something else. Just happened to correspond to the beginning of systemized weather records in Detroit too. Allegedly, this was assisted by the 1835 eruption of Cosiguina in Nicaragua, but curiously that eruption wasn't even as impressive as Pinatubo in 1991.

Port Huron, Michigan:

You can see from the annual values in the charts above to the official record starting in the 1870's how things line up. Warming started in the 20's there. Would be interesting to know the locations of the measurements back then, but Detroit grew pretty fast, with landscape changes, all helped change the temp profile some. Pretty cool historical record.

 

Added the MSP chart for comparison starting in 1820, and it's pretty similar. The 1850's - mid 1870's were a bit cool, and that data is missing with your charts, and the Detroit graph. But prior to the 1850's it was pretty back and forth overall from warmer, and cooler years. Wonder what kicked off those cooler decades? But at the same time during then, a big drought was going on in the western half of the country, although not as bad as centuries before. Very interesting.

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/climate/twin_cities/pioneer.html