Troop

Off topic, but have been a member of this forum since 2014 and rarely miss a post but also rarely offer up a comment. Just wondering if it isn't time to consider splitting this west or east "of the rockies" group into a Great Plains and Great Lakes group, for those east of the Rockies. So often, the Cornhuskers take over a post in which a storm is hitting them, but not impacting east of the Mississippi. Conversely, storms that track through WI/IL/MI/IN don't always have impact in the Plains states and those living within 10 hours of Chicago take over a post. It's a BIG area that the jet stream impacts very differently - I always enjoy the information and discussion that Tom provides here on the forum, but would like to see it split back up again into separate boards for the Great Plains and Great Lakes. Just my two cents. For this current storm that is blowing hard through NB and working across IA and into WI, its a solid one - enjoy it, but go ez on your backs when digging out.

Always the optimist you are, you seem to be indicating a disbelief in the weather pattern described by Tom and others above. Meterologically, could you offer anything to the message board to support the ho-hum, yet articulate, post you offered us?

Thanks NEJeremy for saying something that needed to be said. (You can add Money to that list too). I have a business that depends on winter weather (skiing) and this December has been a killer for us, but daily groaning of my worries here won't change Mother Nature one bit. Now, back to the posts that off substantive weather information...

Nice surprise finish to a winter that was often lackluster in the snow department. Have seen 2.5" here in NW IL. Now headed up to Granite Peak for some late season skiing - today starts their "Avalanche Days" so this snow came at a great time. Gotta enjoy winter while we still can.

Good job calling this one Tom. You had it from the get go and stuck with it. Well done.

Snow is snow, at this point I'll take what I can get. The only thing more depressing than the lack of snow so far this winter is Madtown's constant pitty parties. Lighten up or shut up.

NOAA is upgrading it's supercomputers and taking a big leap forward in the accuracy of the GFS and other forecast models, all by October of this year, at a cost of 44 million dollars. Story here: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2015/20150105_supercomputer.html

Been prowling on the site for years and years but never posted. Makes you wonder how many are following this blog from the shadows. What a winter its been though - and it keeps getting better. One favor to ask - so many of us post about how a storm will hit them, miss them to the north, be stronger to the east, etc. but they don't have their location listed in their profile. It would help a lot for the frequent bloggers to have their locations in their profile so we know where they're at and can better figure out how the weather is behaving around them. Just a friendly suggestion from a long time fellow weatherhound.