2024 Year in Review

[Geoboy645]

With the New Year here and final climactic data in for 2024 in, I figured it would be a good time to make the 2024 year in review thread.

[hawkeye_wx]

We had some long dry stretches again this year, but I finished with 41" of precip, a whopping 16" more than 2023.

Two periods that stand out are the very wet July (almost 9") and the 2-week period from late October to early November during which I received 7" of rain.

[Maxim]

The February torch was the highlight of the year IMO

[A-L-E-K]

Tor outbreak 

[buckeye]

I believe 2024 was central Ohio's worst tornado/severe season in our history.   As far as mby, we dodged every bullet.   Late summer, early fall drought was also notable.

[A-L-E-K]

very mild but never really hot or oppressive imby, received well timed rains just when drought started to flex, p boring tho with limited exceptions 

[Geoboy645]

My top weather events, in chronological order:
#1: The 1/6-1/13 snow and subsequent cold period: This one week of snow gave Madison almost 20 inches of snow, including 8.6 on 1/12 and 5.7 on 1/9. Madison had a maximum snow depth of 12 inches, a rare mark for any winter let alone the warmest winter on record. The snow, particularly the 1/12 storm, was incredibly wet and heavy and was an absolute pain to shovel. ANd the pack was so frozen by the cold thereafter that it took a solid 2 weeks to melt with sunny days in the 30s and 40s. If it was a normal winter, that pack would have lasted well into March. The subsequent cold lead to 5 consecutive subzero nights, and one of the deepest winter stretches that I have personally been around for in the last 10 years. Pretty crazy considering it was a strong Nino winter.

#2: The 2/8 tornadoes: And less than three weeks later we had one of the most unusual tornado setups in WI history. The day wasn't really all that warm, only in the 50s, and yet somehow there was enough instability to not only get storms, but thanks to some favorable storm interactions a cell dropped multiple tornadoes. Including a 25 mile long sig-tor, in Wisconsin, in February. In a month that previously had no tornadoes recorded ever in the state of WI. And the tornado was a high end 2, and barely missed going through Evansville. Such a strange event to say the least.

#3: The warm and dry February and March. February and March were both very warm and dry months relative to the time of year. Madison recorded barely any precip, and had a +10.8 departure for February. And had a +5.1 departure in March. It was genuinely nice out for most of the month, and was capped off by the earliest 70 degree day in Madison's history. Which was then followed by a 73 degree high on 03/03. Easily the nicest weather stretch ever for that time of year, even more than 17 and 12 IMO because of how long it was like that. 

#4: The 4/2 mix/snowstorm: This one is more Green Bay than Madison, but the 4/2 storm was also an incredibly odd storm. It came up very suddenly, with models only catching on about 48 hrs before the start of precip, and had some pretty major totals forecasted with up to 12 inches of snow forecasted for the city at one point. While these totals did not come to pass, it was an incredibly close call and one of the rare times where terrain played a role in accumulation in Wisconsin. In Green Bay along the river, there was maybe 3-4" of snow. But on top of the Ledge and the Appleton moraine, there was easily 8+" of snow in spots. The warm ground, plus some very low-level marine influence from the Bay led to most of the snow in the Fox valley switching over to sleet. Was a wake-up call after the previously mentioned warm and dry February/March.

#5: The 5/21 severe storms: Back home around Madison, we got hit hard locally by the severe storms on 5/21. MKX issued 42 severe warnings and 13 tornado warnings for their CWA for the event. The environment that afternoon was highly conducive for supercells along the warm front, and the only reason we did not have an outbreak along the warm front that afternoon was a deck of stratus to the N of the front that did not move out as quickly as modeled. Forcing the warm front further S and capping it all afternoon with only a couple attempts at initiation. We got very lucky around here considering what happened further W in IA. After the cells from IA congealed into a line, they rapidly advanced into the area. The first round of cells had some significant wind develop with them prompting a PDS severe warning at one point for Dane, Lafayette, and Green counties. This line also had several broad areas of rotation, leading to an absolute mess of tornado warnings. While the main show was happening to the S, we had a downburst move up from the S through my area. This downburst easily had 60-70mph winds, and the winds from the SW meant no terrain protection unlike our usual NW or W winds during squall lines. This led to several trees down in the area, including a particularly bad area right off the lake where going by tree damage, they may have had up to 80-85 mph winds. To add insult to injury, about 30 mins after the winds came through, a second cell developed and came through with at least quarter if not ping-pong sized hail for about 2 mins. Between these two events, the rest of the summer was busy with contractors through the area fixing roofs and siding. Oh, and we also got 4" of rain which ended up becoming a common theme the following two months. This rain was very poorly timed for farmers in the area, as it was just after planting but before emergence. During this period of time, if you get a heavy enough rain you can have something called bedpanning where essentially the soil becomes very hard from the erosion of the heavy rain and it becomes much harder for plants to emerge. There were several fields in the area that ended up not really emerging all that well because of this phenomenon, as well as the river and marsh flooding that resulted from this first round of heavy rain. 

This is long enough so I will put #6-10 in another post. 

[Chicago Storm]

The July 15th derecho easily was the top weather event of the year around here, and it probably was the top weather event in general in many years.

[CheeselandSkies]

Kick myself for not chasing 2/8 but come on...the dewpoint was like 48. The better potential (and even that was marginal) was thought to be further south in IL.

From April-May had probably my greatest number of local/regional chases than any prior year, and was on more tornadic storms than any previous year, but reverted solidly to form and managed to miss all potential dramatic intercepts like Keota.

Coming home from my May 21 chase in IA I had to detour around multiple roads blocked by downed trees/power lines, and nearly ran out of gas as a result. There were broken trees less than two blocks from my apartment. Going to work the next morning (3 AM start), some neighborhoods were pitch black with all street lights and even traffic lights out. One of the more widespread and impactful severe wind events for southern Wisconsin, and west Madison in particular in probably over 10 years.

Didn't go out for the big Northern Lights display in May because I didn't think the clouds would clear around here, but it definitely put photographing an aurora high on my bucket list. Finally did it with the display on the night of October 10-11, although my shots aren't the most stellar, it's a start.