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I went on a rather difficult, yet scenic hike yesterday morning tucked in the northeast valley. The trail, Tom’s Thumb, was 5.1 miles round trip (1,045 elevation gain) and a peak elevation of 3,868 ft. At the base, the temp was 50F but up top it was quite breezy and chilly. I’d guess in the low/mid 40’s. The skies very deep blue and clear. It was a very busy day on the trails (snow birds, vacationers) are the usual culprits this time of year. IMG_0212.MOV This is a view of Pinnacle Peak in the north valley looking due north... This is a view E/SE on top of the trail towards Fountain Hills where you can see the man-made pond in the middle of the picture.

Still an outside chance that DSM loses another tenth - but as of 8:35pm the avg temp for FEB for KDSM is 15.3F. That puts FEB 2021 as the 7th coldest FEB on record. Here are the top 10. FEB 2021 was also the 34th coldest month ever recorded including Jan and Dec going back to 1878. TOP 10 Coldest FEB for KDSM 1936- 8.0F (one of DSM top 5 weather/climate stats of all time imo) 1978 - 13.3F 1979 - 13.8F 1885 - 14.4F 1905 - 14.8F 1929 - 15.2F 2021- 15.3F 1989- 15.4F 1899- 15.6F 1904- 16.7F

9" down from 9:30 to 2:30! Sun is out now! 20210228_122553_1.mp4

wow 20210228_095235.mp4

Looking at radar, I think I have a good chance of overachieving on tonight's clipper.

With no snow in todays forecast and yesterdays official 1” of new snow at GRR that brings this February’s total snow fall to 30.6” and guess what that will make this February the 6 snowiest February at Grand Rapids. For the meteorological winter Grand Rapids will end up with just 45.4” that is about a foot below “average” and for the season so far Grand Rapids is at 45.8” and that is over a foot and a half of where GR should be going into March.

puking fatties

Same here. Monster band about to roll in. Enjoy it over there! Sunday Funday!

about to get dumped on 1-3" per hr rates

It's unbelievable have this kind of radar look just 11 days after LNK was -31 degrees

Heavy rain with occasional lightning and thunder! Still piles of snow on the ground here and there too. February 2021 is going out with a bang.

Interesting photos from a few days ago.

That's an impressive list to join by any regard. What a February that was! It had everything, but shaking up the top 10 all-time list is pretty special.

NAM wants to leave me with one last memory of the winter past in a couple days. If it does, it will be a beautiful upper country snow day here. Just one more.

Phil has talked a little bit about this, and I have seen some research on it as well. The general thought is it was quite a bit cooler than present. Pretty much all we have is tree ring and sediment data. I think I remember something about the amount of a certain isotope of carbon seen in sediment samples indicate it was colder. There is also evidence that blocking was much more prevalent during the winters over the NE and NC Pacific, as evidenced by the fact AK was not colder during the little ice age, and may have been slightly warmer. We can also extrapolate what it might have looked like based on what happened in Europe during that time. Probably more events like Jan 1880, and some winters that were long, drier than normal, and cold. I would bet a lot less warm core / southerly flow thunderstorms.

I went out wearing shorts in 20° weather like a frat boy today lol. Must say, with the high sun angle it didn't feel half bad.

I'm digging what the 00z Euro is showing for the system this Wed/Thu...this would be a major blessing for the valley to score a widespread soaker in excess of 0.50" of rainfall...

Extended forecast just keeps getting warmer and warmer.

Quite a bit of snow here still..

The moisture southwest is a blessing. No doubt. I wonder how long it will last for the western (Cali)and southwestern US before the southern jet shuts off or reverts back to the GOM side. Be an interesting month to see where the pattern goes for a lot of us.

Satellite shows the snow cover gone south of Des Moines. That part of Iowa is rising into the 50s this afternoon.

Overperforming again today. Already up to 55 when the forecast was for 52.

How do I reach him? He never answers his inbox? 1600s to 1800s really fascinates me as I'm curious if hot weather like 2014-2015 was the norm then which the rest of the US was colder more often or vica versa?