March 2017 Observations and Discussion

[St Paul Storm]

The cell around Redwood Falls MN looks interesting. It's still going solo and has the best chance at this point of popping a tor. Would make history if it did.

That same cell is now tornado warned NW of the metro. Radar indicated tornado.

[St Paul Storm]

Tornado on the ground in Zimmerman, MN east of St Cloud. Reports of trees and power poles down. Debris ball on radar. Minnesota's earliest tornado ever.

[gosaints]

Lol warning east of st cloud in early march

[Tom]

Tornado on the ground in Zimmerman, MN east of St Cloud. Reports of trees and power poles down. Debris ball on radar. Minnesota's earliest tornado ever.

Broken record!

[St Paul Storm]

Nothing severe here but great to see vivid lightning and hear the boomers again. Spring can stay as long as it wants.

[Tom]

KC area getting rocked also...good to see Gary Lezak's region finally see some wx action...

[james1976]

Crazy weather pattern!!

Lost power half hour ago. Storm is letting up. Had several mins of very heavy rain wind lightning and sounded like small hail.

[Hawkeye]

A lot of excitement over here.  There was 80-90 mph wind reported west of Cedar Rapids.  Then we had sirens going off for a possible brief spinup sw of the city.  There was a lot of nice lightning with fairly calm conditions, then a wall of 50 mph wind, torrential rain, and small hail hit instantly.

[Tom]

A lot of excitement over here. There was 80-90 mph wind reported west of Cedar Rapids. Then we had sirens going off for a possible brief spinup sw of the city. There was a lot of nice lightning with fairly calm conditions, then a wall of 50 mph wind, torrential rain, and small hail hit instantly.

Do you know if there were any confirmed tornados? Warnings still up east of you.

[Hawkeye]

Do you know if there were any confirmed tornados? Warnings still up east of you.

 

Haven't heard of any, but it may be tough to confirm any brief spinups in the dark.  Mostly, there are just a lot of 60-70 mph wind reports.

[james1976]

Barn was blown down 10 miles from me

[Tom]

Severe T-Storm Watch issued for SE WI/N IL...

[St Paul Storm]

Was 60° with heavy t-storms at 6pm last night. Woke up to 27° and a dusting of snow on the ground.

[Tom]

What an active day yesterday in the severe wx dept.  Saw this tweet:

 

 

 

29 reported tornadoes yesterday, 253 wind reports, 93 hail reports; Total 375 severe wx reports. Most tornadoes in March since 3/2 2012

[hlcater]

At least the third 500+ report day and it's only early March, been an active late winter severe season.

 

[Tom]

At least the third 500+ report day and it's only early March, been an active late winter severe season.

 

image.png

Quite the fast start to severe wx season.  I know the Insurance companies aren't ready for this.

[Tom]

Blizzard Warnings still ongoing for ND where their winter started in late November and prob won't end till sometime in April.  Pretty good snow depth for parts of that state.  

 

http://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/snow_model/images/full/Upper_Midwest/nsm_depth/201703/nsm_depth_2017030705_Upper_Midwest.jpg

[NEJeremy]

Quite the day yesterday weatherwise. I saw a note somewhere that Sioux City, IA made it to 80 during the day and had a dusting of snow last night. It was amazing to see the continuous huge line of storms from MN/WI all the way down to AR/OK, and almost the entire line was warned. I'm not sure I remember having so many tornado warnings come out of a line of storms. Sure you can get QLCS spinups, but there were a lot last night. 

I went out for a close chase since the storms basically formed just west of me. I ventured into western Iowa and eventually gave up trying to stay in front of the line north of Atlantic IA. Experienced some gusty winds and pea sized hail. I started to head back home and within 30 minutes the line had a tornado warning to my northeast but no chance of catching anything that was moving 55-65 mph. I saw one warning had storm motion at 90 mph! Here in Omaha, there was a report of 70 mph winds in northwest Omaha and some hail up to one inch.

 

It looks like there was quite a bit of damage in northeast KS to near and just northeast of Kansas City last night. Several confirmed tornadoes there.

[St Paul Storm]

Dry thunderstorms....where am I the desert southwest??

 

MPX:

A rather unusual convective scenario develops this afternoon.

Despite the very dry dew points, an extremely deeply mixed

atmosphere to 500 mb (and therefore nearly dry adiabatic lapse rates

throughout a large portion of the atmosphere) will still allow for

150-300 J/kg of surface-based CAPE to develop late this

afternoon. Added isolated thunderstorms to the grids from south

central MN to west central WI after 3 pm where a subtle mid level

speed max is evident. These thunderstorms could be dry, a very

rare occurrence in this area of the country. Localized higher wind

gusts would be the sole threat.

[Niko]

Nice, mild day today with temps in the upper 50s to near 60. Cannot wait for Spring to arrive.

[Niko]

Any thunderstorms really weaken as they moved east last night across MI.

[Niko]

I am under a High Wind Warning.

[james1976]

29 tornadoes???!

Waterloo set a record high yesterday 72

[St Paul Storm]

Currently 46F but a huge snow squall just went through. Went from sun to convective looking clouds within a few minutes. Anvils building to the west. Wild stuff.

[gabel23]

If you guys get a chance, go to Dodge City, KS NWS page. You can see the wild fires that are burning out of control on radar. CRAZY!

 

 

[gabel23]

Here is Hastings write up about yesterday's winds and blowing dust. I never knew a 'brown out' occurred around the Hastings area leading to a multi-car pile up. 

[NEJeremy]

Our dewpoint has dropped to 4 degrees with 12% humidity! 57 degrees outside with winds gusting to 40 mph. Ouch!

[Tom]

The entire Lakes region is underneath either a Wind Advisory/Warning.  Haven't seen the wind roar for 2+ days in a row in a long time.  Lot's of buds and tree branches are being knocked down.  Literally, I can hear nature "roaring" as March rolls on.

[westMJim]

The word today is “windy” looks like GRR has recorded a wind gust of 53MPH. Right now here at my house it is of course windy the sun is out and the temperature is now 43°

[Grizzcoat]

Several stations in ND reported 64mph gusts yday. Staples,MN at midnight last night had sustained at 45mph G 58mph.

Wind chills Fri AM are going to be in -25 F to -35F in the N.DAK and N.MN----- ahhhh  Jan in March!!!!!

[westMJim]

Right now, it is the windiest it has been all day here at my house. I have power poles waving in the wind. And of course, whole trees and waving in the wind as well. Last report from GRR was SW winds of 40 MPH with gusts of 51. Temperature there is 42° here at my house the temperature is 43° with full sun.

Update!

10:30 am – gust to 67 mph west of Walker, 64 mph last hour at Grand Rapids and 62 mph in Ionia.  Over 81,000 Consumers Energy customers without power – including 6.5% of Kent Co.

[Niko]

Extremely windy here today. Definitely some power outages will be occurring. Trees limbs are likely to fall off from trees as well. I put my garbage bins inside my garage, otherwise, they will end up in Korea with all of that wind.

[Tom]

Right now, it is the windiest it has been all day here at my house. I have power poles waving in the wind. And of course, whole trees and waving in the wind as well. Last report from GRR was SW winds of 40 MPH with gusts of 51. Temperature there is 42° here at my house the temperature is 43° with full sun.

Update!

10:30 am – gust to 67 mph west of Walker, 64 mph last hour at Grand Rapids and 62 mph in Ionia.  Over 81,000 Consumers Energy customers without power – including 6.5% of Kent Co.

The friction-less body of water to your west is not your friend today!

[WBadgersW]

Just been upgraded to a high wind warning

[Tom]

A day like today, pilot's need a steady hand...the amount of turbulence likely will be rocking aircraft a bit.

[VMB443]

Just been upgraded to a high wind warning

It's like one continuous gust of wind. Just crazy - was in the grocery store and the power went out, thankfully they must have generators because it was crazy dark in there.

[westMJim]

At their 2 PM reading at GRR the wind was reported at 51 MPH out of the west and gusting at 62 MPH. the wind looks to be dying down a bit as at 3 PM the winds were reported as west at 32 with guest at 55 MPH. With the sun out I have 46 here at my house and its 45 out at the airport. 

[Madtown]

[Niko]

Lots of branches on the streets and even a few street lights were knocked down. Winds are howling tremendously. I had a wind gust of 68MPH. The air is also extremely dry with a RH @ 19% and DP at 11F and a temp of 46F. Skies are mostly sunny.

[NEJeremy]

scary incident for the Michigan basketball team trying to take off in the winds today.

 

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/18856011/michigan-wolverines-team-plane-involved-accident-school-says-injured