Pre-Christmas Storm Plains/MW/GL 12/21-12/22

[Stacsh]

48 minutes ago, westMJim said:

The Blizzard conditions continue here at my house with heavy snow and blowing snow. The current temperature here at my house is 5 with that heavy snow. I will take some snow measurements later. The last visibility at GRR was just 0.13 mile. 

I concur.  It’s nasty out. 

[jaster220]

Sure has taken on the looks of a monster lol

[westMJim]

9 PM update. As of 6PM the official snow fall total for today at Grand Rapids was 4"  The official snow depth at was 7" Here in MBY the average snow depth is 8" the wind has put a crust to the snow. The deepest depth is 16" It is still snowing and blowing but the flake size is very small that and the wind has held the snow amounts down. The temperature is up to 7 it was down to 5 earlier. Heavy snow has been reported in 10 of the last 11 hours at GRR.  At Muskegon they have reported heavy snow the last 15 hours and in the last 11 hours the visibility has been reported at just 0.13 mile. 

[Ottawa CO, MI]

20 minutes ago, westMJim said:

9 PM update. As of 6PM the official snow fall total for today at Grand Rapids was 4"  The official snow depth at was 7" Here in MBY the average snow depth is 8" the wind has put a crust to the snow. The deepest depth is 16" It is still snowing and blowing but the flake size is very small that and the wind has held the snow amounts down. The temperature is up to 7 it was down to 5 earlier. Heavy snow has been reported in 10 of the last 11 hours at GRR.  At Muskegon they have reported heavy snow the last 15 hours and in the last 11 hours the visibility has been reported at just 0.13 mile. 

I was wrong. It’s a full blizzard. 9 inches of new snow today. 18 inches on the ground and visibility is not much above zero. 

[Stacsh]

5 minutes ago, Ottawa CO, MI said:

I was wrong. It’s a full blizzard. 9 inches of new snow today. 18 inches on the ground and visibility is not much above zero. 

Told you you’d get buried!  

[Madtown]

Just starting up...pretty nasty drive home tonight...12-18 is what the final call is from pretty much all forecasts

[Stacsh]

I’m the dot.  Snowing but missing out on the heavy stuff 

[OmahaSnowFan]

 

[OmahaSnowFan]

Had roughly 37 hours below zero before we warmed above zero this afternoon.

[OmahaSnowFan]

UNBELIEVABLE!!

 

[hawkstwelve]

 

[westMJim]

Good morning.  Here at Grand Rapids, it has been snowing since 2PM on Thursday. Here in MBY it is hard to get good snowfall measurements but of the 6 that I took the range is from 8” to 15” and I have a drift of just over 2 feet. Note this is the total on the ground not the amount that has fallen in the last 30 plus hours. The amount of snow has been held down by small snowflake size and the winds have blowen the snow around a lot. In last week’s snow event when there was around 14” of lake effect I had amount that much on my roof and I used the snow rake to pull down snow at the edge of the roof there is not much new snow on the roof this time.  

Even with the small snowflake size Grand Rapids did set a new snow fall record yesterday with 7.5” of snow fall. The old record was 5.9” in 2008. The official H/L at Grand Rapids yesterday was 15/5 and officially at GRR there was 7” on the ground at 7 AM The temperature has been rising overnight and here in my yard the low was 9 but is now up to 14 with moderate snow falling. For today at Grand Rapids the average H/L is 34/23 the warmest Christmas eve at GR was the 59 in 2015 and the coldest was -9 in 1944. The most snow fall is 7.5 in 1993, the most on the ground is 19” in 1951 there was 17” on the ground in 2008. At Muskegon while they reported heavy snow most of yesterday they only reported 3.8” of snow fall and had 8” on the ground. At Lansing they reported 5.9” and had a reported 4” at 7 AM yesterday.

[Tom]

Some hefty totals up in the northern part of the MITT...

[Ottawa CO, MI]

22 minutes ago, westMJim said:

Good morning.  Here at Grand Rapids, it has been snowing since 2PM on Thursday. Here in MBY it is hard to get good snowfall measurements but of the 6 that I took the range is from 8” to 15” and I have a drift of just over 2 feet. Note this is the total on the ground not the amount that has fallen in the last 30 plus hours. The amount of snow has been held down by small snowflake size and the winds have blowen the snow around a lot. In last week’s snow event when there was around 14” of lake effect I had amount that much on my roof and I used the snow rake to pull down snow at the edge of the roof there is not much new snow on the roof this time.  

Even with the small snowflake size Grand Rapids did set a new snow fall record yesterday with 7.5” of snow fall. The old record was 5.9” in 2008. The official H/L at Grand Rapids yesterday was 15/5 and officially at GRR there was 7” on the ground at 7 AM The temperature has been rising overnight and here in my yard the low was 9 but is now up to 14 with moderate snow falling. For today at Grand Rapids the average H/L is 34/23 the warmest Christmas eve at GR was the 59 in 2015 and the coldest was -9 in 1944. The most snow fall is 7.5 in 1993, the most on the ground is 19” in 1951 there was 17” on the ground in 2008. At Muskegon while they reported heavy snow most of yesterday they only reported 3.8” of snow fall and had 8” on the ground. At Lansing they reported 5.9” and had a reported 4” at 7 AM yesterday.

Just measured 20 inches on the ground. Amazing that in 8 days it will be all grass.  Lol. 

[Stacsh]

Bands of snow have shift north into my area.  Snowing moderately sideways.  

[Stacsh]

Transitioned to heavy off and on lake squalls.  

snowblowed my driveway for the first time.  Anywhere from 4” to 18”.  No idea how much has actually fallen.  
 

[Jarod]

At least a foot here in Jenison. Flakes coming down now are much larger than before.

[Jarod]

Went snowshoeing on Kent trails behind my place for a few hours. Snowshoes weren't strictly necessary since someone had taken a snowmobile down the trail but it was helpful to have some extra traction

 

 

[westMJim]

Just cleared the driveway and took several snow depth measurements. In the back yard that is more protected from the wind I now have between 12 and 15" on the ground. In the front yard were the wind is widespread I have between 8 and 13" on the ground. Remember this is new and old snow. I had around 3 to 4" before this system started. In looking back at past events this storm compares with the January 2 to 8 1999 ( 28.3" at Grand Rapids) and the December 11-14 2000 (20.8" at Grand Rapids) Will get a better comparison when all of the official  snow fall reports are in. At this time there is light snow falling and 17 here at my house.

[westMJim]

25 minutes ago, Jarod said:

Flakes coming down now are much larger than before

The same here in Walker

[westMJim]

Getting a classic lake effect snow shower here now. Large fluffy fakes. This is the kind of snow that adds up fast.

[westMJim]

We should be coming to a end to this snow storm. I will give a more official snow fall amounts as they are posted from GRR here is the afternoon discussion update from GRR note that officially they reported 3.7" of new snow fall between 7AM and 1 PM. 

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION   NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND RAPIDS MI   149 PM EST SAT DEC 24 2022     LATEST UPDATE...   UPDATE/MARINE       UPDATE     ISSUED AT 149 PM EST SAT DEC 24 2022     WE CONTINUE TO BELIEVE LEAVING OUR WINTER WEATHER HEADLINES AS IS   WOULD BE THE PRUDENT WAY TO GO. WHILE THE WINDS IS ABOUT 10 MPH   LESS THAN YESTERDAY AT THIS TIME WE ARE STILL GETTING NEAR WHITE   OUT CONDITIONS AT TIMES AND MANY OF OUR ASOS AND AWOS STATIONS   HAVE VISIBILITIES IN THE 1/4 MILE TO 1/2 MILE RANGE YET. OUR   OFFICE HAD 3.7" BETWEEN 7 AM AND 1 PM. WE HAVE SHORTWAVE COMING   THROUGH THAT HAS LIFTED THE INVERSION HEIGHTS AND OUR SNOWFLAKE   SIZE IS BIGGER. SO I EXPECT THE SNOW SHOWERS AND BLOWING SNOW TO   CONTINUE INTO EARLY EVENING. WINDS IN THE MIXED LAYER STAYS IN THE   35 TO 40 KNOT RANGE TILL AROUND 7 PM THIS EVENING. ALL OF THIS   TELLS ME WE HAVE NO REAL REASON TO CHANGE HEADLINES.     THE SNOW SHOWERS WITH LESS WIND WILL CONTINUE INTO CHRISTMAS DAY   BUT THE DEEP COLD AIR POOL PULLS OUT BY MIDDAY SO ANY SNOW SHOWERS   WILL BE MORE OF THE TRACE TO 1" SORT OF THING AND SHOULD NOT CAUSE   SIGNIFICANT TRAVEL ISSUES.     A DECENT BUT WEAKENING CLOSED UPPER LOW FROM THE NORTHERN STREAM   PASSES SOUTH OF US ON MONDAY. IT IS CLOSE ENOUGH TO US THAT WE   WILL GET SOME LIGHT SNOW FROM IT, LIKELY 1 TO 2 INCHES. MAYBE A   FEW LAKE EFFECT SNOW SHOWERS MONDAY EVENING BUT THAT SHOULD NOT BE   MUCH EITHER.     WE GET A BIG WARM UP MID TO LATE WEEK AS PROGRESSIVE UPPER RIDGE   FOLLOWED BY A DEEP UPPER TROUGH PARADE THROUGH THE CENTRAL CONUS.   THIS WILL MEAN DRY BUT ABOVE FREEZING TEMPERATURES BY WEDNESDAY.   THURSDAY INTO FRIDAY GULF MOISTURE RETURNS AND THAT MAY BRING SOME   RAIN. HOWEVER IT LOOKS LIKE OVER THE NEW YEARS WEEKEND ANOTHER   MAJOR STORM IS HEADING OUR WAY. LIKELY THIS WILL MOSTLY BE RAIN   BUT WE COULD GET SOME WET SNOW ON THE BACK SIDE OF THE SYSTEM. WE   WILL HAVE TO BE WATCHING FOR ICE JAMS AND LOCALIZED FLOODING FROM   MELTING SNOW AND HEAVY RAINFALL.  

Here at my house I am still getting moderate snow fall with a temperature of 18.

[Jarod]

Radar returns are actually now probably the most impressive they have been for the whole les event so far. Updated discussion from NWS GRR.

 

 

000

FXUS63 KGRR 242040

AFDGRR

 

Area Forecast Discussion

National Weather Service Grand Rapids MI

340 PM EST Sat Dec 24 2022

 

LATEST UPDATE... 

Discussion/Marine

 

.DISCUSSION... (This evening through next Saturday)

Issued at 340 PM EST Sat Dec 24 2022

 

Radar is showing more of a laminar and larger scale look to the snowbands farther inland close to US-131 compared to a more chaotic smaller cell appearance closer to the lakeshore. Inland penetration is also far greater. This suggests the development of a standing (or perhaps slowly downstream propagating) gravity wave. The genesis of this wave could be related to recent changes in our convective boundary layer (CBL) depth (currently around 6000 ft, per the GRR 88D, compared to twice that this morning), and slightly weaker CBL mean flow (now 30 kt or less). Remarkably, we are now also detecting bands as far north as the US-10 region including Osceola and Clare Counties. Increased depth is to be expected in conjunction with the increased band width and spacing.

 

This will make dangerous travel conditions even worse into this evening due to very drastic changes in winds and visibility compared to what most have experienced earlier today. Indeed, we are seeing this at the office with periodic drops to near zero visibility and elevated winds beneath these bands.

 

We will see how this plays out in the next few hours. One thing that's been discussed in replacing the blizzard warning with an advisory at 7 PM that would go until 7 PM Christmas day, likely for just the western two tiers of counties closest to the lakeshore. Stay tuned for that.

 

 

[jaster220]

28 minutes ago, Jarod said:

Radar returns are actually now probably the most impressive they have been for the whole les event so far. Updated discussion from NWS GRR.

 

 

000

FXUS63 KGRR 242040

AFDGRR

 

Area Forecast Discussion

National Weather Service Grand Rapids MI

340 PM EST Sat Dec 24 2022

 

LATEST UPDATE... 

Discussion/Marine

 

.DISCUSSION... (This evening through next Saturday)

Issued at 340 PM EST Sat Dec 24 2022

 

Radar is showing more of a laminar and larger scale look to the snowbands farther inland close to US-131 compared to a more chaotic smaller cell appearance closer to the lakeshore. Inland penetration is also far greater. This suggests the development of a standing (or perhaps slowly downstream propagating) gravity wave. The genesis of this wave could be related to recent changes in our convective boundary layer (CBL) depth (currently around 6000 ft, per the GRR 88D, compared to twice that this morning), and slightly weaker CBL mean flow (now 30 kt or less). Remarkably, we are now also detecting bands as far north as the US-10 region including Osceola and Clare Counties. Increased depth is to be expected in conjunction with the increased band width and spacing.

 

This will make dangerous travel conditions even worse into this evening due to very drastic changes in winds and visibility compared to what most have experienced earlier today. Indeed, we are seeing this at the office with periodic drops to near zero visibility and elevated winds beneath these bands.

 

We will see how this plays out in the next few hours. One thing that's been discussed in replacing the blizzard warning with an advisory at 7 PM that would go until 7 PM Christmas day, likely for just the western two tiers of counties closest to the lakeshore. Stay tuned for that.

 

 

I said yesterday that tonight might yield the more impressive snowfall rates. Seems to be happening. 

[jaster220]

Had work off yesterday, so I just stayed in all day and listened to the wind howling. Was sent on a cross-town errand this afternoon though. Was actually snowing a bit and windy with bitter WC's like my ears wanted to be frost-bitten. Found my car surrounded by a drift 14" deep which really caught me off guard. I think it grew with some overnight streamer off Lk. Michigan. Had brief ground blizzard conditions on my little trek and saw plenty of drifts. Yeah, here in the Metro - not expected tbh. Going to up my grade for this event, especially with the timing at Christmas. Had snow been the 5" they originally had on the DTX maps, this would've been a MUCH bigger deal around here. 

[westMJim]

Where Grand Rapids stands as of approach 6PM on Christmas Eve. Grand Rapids officially had 7.5′′ of new snow Friday, with a two-day total of 11.3“. The current snow depth at GRR is now at 14” For the month, Grand Rapids is up to 26.1″ and for the season we’re at 54.1″ Other new snow totals: Holland 12.4″, Paw Paw 11.0″, Grandville 9.7″, East G.R. 8.9″ (11″ on the ground), Fennville 8.5″, Jenison 8″ (with a 6-7 foot drift, and just 3″ near Battle Creek. Drifts are 2 feet high in the Muskegon and Holland areas.

[WinterSquall23]

3 hours ago, jaster220 said:

Had work off yesterday, so I just stayed in all day and listened to the wind howling. Was sent on a cross-town errand this afternoon though. Was actually snowing a bit and windy with bitter WC's like my ears wanted to be frost-bitten. Found my car surrounded by a drift 14" deep which really caught me off guard. I think it grew with some overnight streamer off Lk. Michigan. Had brief ground blizzard conditions on my little trek and saw plenty of drifts. Yeah, here in the Metro - not expected tbh. Going to up my grade for this event, especially with the timing at Christmas. Had snow been the 5" they originally had on the DTX maps, this would've been a MUCH bigger deal around here. 

@jaster220 lake band sagging south heading toward your area. Little late but better late than never! Think I picked up 1/2 inch so far.  This lake band has some legs. Most snow I have seen fall throughout this winter storm. Hopefully it holds together for you. 

[jaster220]

1 hour ago, Ferndale_man said:

@jaster220 lake band sagging south heading toward your area. Little late but better late than never! Think I picked up 1/2 inch so far.  This lake band has some legs. Most snow I have seen fall throughout this winter storm. Hopefully it holds together for you. 

Thx. Some flakes flying out there now. As I said earlier, kudo points for this system giving us that on Christmas Eve. Hoping it holds together for at least another dusting or coating to maybe fill-in more of the grass blades. NAM showed this 24 hrs ago. NAM 12k seems to do well for this region inside a 48 hr window. Merry Christmas!

[WinterSquall23]

1 hour ago, jaster220 said:

Thx. Some flakes flying out there now. As I said earlier, kudo points for this system giving us that on Christmas Eve. Hoping it holds together for at least another dusting or coating to maybe fill-in more of the grass blades. NAM showed this 24 hrs ago. NAM 12k seems to do well for this region inside a 48 hr window. Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I think it is, I picked up an inch so far maybe we will get more. Grass is covered! Flakes are getting bigger !  Snow on Christmas Eve with flakes flying! Awesome! 

[Tom]

8 hours ago, Ferndale_man said:

Merry Christmas! I think it is, I picked up an inch so far maybe we will get more. Grass is covered! Flakes are getting bigger !  Snow on Christmas Eve with flakes flying! Awesome! 

#winning...nothing more festive than big fatties flying on Christmas Eve!  Congrats!

[westMJim]

Merry Christmas! And this year is a white Christmas for sure. I have not gone outside to take any snow depth measurements, but I can tell you looking out the windows there is a lot of snow on the ground out this morning. 2022 will be one of the top snow depths in Grand Rapids history. The record snow depth at Grand Rapids for any Christmas morning is 22” in 1951 in 2nd place is 16” in 2000 in 3rd place was 2008 with 13. As of yesterday Grand Rapids has 14” reported at GRR. Yesterday’s 10.5” of snowfall at Grand Rapids sets a new record for any December 24th the old record was 7.5” in 1993.

[Stacsh]

Off and on light snow continues from the lake effect portion of this.  It is light and fluffy.  About a half inch falls every few hours or so.  

[Ottawa CO, MI]

2 hours ago, westMJim said:

Merry Christmas! And this year is a white Christmas for sure. I have not gone outside to take any snow depth measurements, but I can tell you looking out the windows there is a lot of snow on the ground out this morning. 2022 will be one of the top snow depths in Grand Rapids history. The record snow depth at Grand Rapids for any Christmas morning is 22” in 1951 in 2nd place is 16” in 2000 in 3rd place was 2008 with 13. As of yesterday Grand Rapids has 14” reported at GRR. Yesterday’s 10.5” of snowfall at Grand Rapids sets a new record for any December 24th the old record was 7.5” in 1993.

It was a nice snowstorm for sure. We have about 20 inches on the ground here in Ottawa County. The aftermath is not even close to what the local TV stations were forecasting Thursday and its not close to the 1978 aftermath. All in all, a nice storm.....too bad we will have green grass in 6 days...

[westMJim]

Used the snowblower to clear the driveway and as the snow plow has went by had to use the shovel to clear the end of the driveway. Also use the roof rake and pulled down some of the snow along the edge of the roof. There is a lot of snow on the east side of the house and it even hung over the edge. I also took some snow depth measurements and I have between 16 and 18.5" of snow on the ground. At the current time there is some light snow falling and it is 18 here at my house. This will be the last of my reports in this thread. Will use the December one until next week 

[Tom]

1 hour ago, westMJim said:

Used the snowblower to clear the driveway and as the snow plow has went by had to use the shovel to clear the end of the driveway. Also use the roof rake and pulled down some of the snow along the edge of the roof. There is a lot of snow on the east side of the house and it even hung over the edge. I also took some snow depth measurements and I have between 16 and 18.5" of snow on the ground. At the current time there is some light snow falling and it is 18 here at my house. This will be the last of my reports in this thread. Will use the December one until next week 

Take some pics!  I’m sure the landscape and scenery  looks wonderful.

[Tom]

The Yoopers and N MI got hit pretty darn hard over the past few days...

[Up_north_MI]

38 minutes ago, Tom said:

The Yoopers and N MI got hit pretty darn hard over the past few days...

Yup we have a lot of snow up here in northern lower MI, seems like it’s been snowing for days from the lake which isn’t all that unusual for this time of year around here but the wind has been unusually strong with this storm. We only have about a foot of snow on the ground here but just a few miles north of us the snow gets quite a bit deeper. The winds stayed more westerly then north westerly during the past few days which kept most of the heavier lake effect bands just north of our place here on the north side of Higgins lake. Sounds like a decent warm up is on the way later this week which again is pretty common to get a decent January thaw for a week of so before hopefully more colder temperatures return so the lakes can start to freeze up solid enough for ice fishing which is huge up here usually January through March.

[jaster220]

1 hour ago, Tom said:

The Yoopers and N MI got hit pretty darn hard over the past few days...

Impressive to me on that list is Rudyard and Dafter. My Ex's family came from there and that's dairy cattle country, not normally in the snow-belt. The Soo will get clobbered once in a while. The strong winds really carried the snow further inland obviously with this one. One of those reporters around Gaylord finished with 36.7"! 

[Jarod]

I'm going to have to get up to Sleeping Bear Dunes in the next couple of days before all the snow starts melting. Should be some decent snowshoeing, unless they didn't get enough snow that close to the lake ... or it all blew away.

 

Anyone know of some other good places to go snowshoeing up there?

 

[Stacsh]

 

 

[OmahaSnowFan]

Last I heard, 25 deaths in and around Buffalo and almost 50 across the country.

Here’s a picture of a street in Buffalo with all the stranded cars.

[jaster220]

12 hours ago, Stacsh said:

 

 

Similar, but quite different storms actually with '78 being mostly system snow, and this mostly LES. Really hard to believe '78 produced only 5 hrs of low vis. Too bad this wasn't more widespread outside LES belts so we would've had a another Superstorm on our historical storms list. Will mostly be remembered for the timing at Christmas. 

[Andie]

13 hours ago, Stacsh said:

 

 

There WAS more snow on the ground and temps had been quite cold prior to the blizzard.  It was a miserable time overall.