February 2023 Observations and Discussions

[Niko]

On 2/25/2023 at 7:05 AM, Tom said:

What a perfect Friday night, right?  Nice little overachiever and a pleasant surprise to wake up to a fresh 1.7" of snow.  It was "fitting" to have it snow on one of the coldest  days this month (29F High Temp).  It came down pretty hard at one point around 9:00pm.  How has the visit been so far?

 

The only difference is, and it's a big one, seasonal norms are much higher so Much BN temps is like 32F for most areas across the MW/GL's region.  Nevertheless, it does appear Ol' Man Winter isn't done yet in the Snow dept which will prob be a good thing for your business!

I was on the 29th Floor and all you can see was a thick white fog of heavy snow. I had just gotten in from dinner at about 8:30ish or, maybe a little earlier and then, suddenly, I looked across the window from my kitchen area and it seemed kinda whitish out there, so, I literally ran to the window and saw this low visibility of hvy snow. Excellent timing for Ma Nature to give us a snowfall, while I was there. "The Magical Friday Night."

  The visit was absolutely awesome. Totally enjoyed all types of food.  I always enjoy visiting Chicago. Also, this city has such great food, my goodness.

[Niko]

Here are some pics when I was in Chicago this weekend.....

From my hotel, I had Lake Michigan view. What a way to wake up and have some Greek coffee. Oh, btw: the breakfast was so delicious. I had to go twice downstairs for seconds.

[Anti Marine Layer]

Yesterday's California storm looks to be heading towards Omaha.

 

[jaster220]

10 hours ago, OttumwaSnomow said:

We have dozens of high end commercial  accounts, medical facilities, groceries, restaurants, etc. We dont have inch triggers on the majority.  1 inch usually  gets plowed.  We have had 7 separate  events where over 1 inch has fallen but only 1 over 3 inches!  and several others where  we just salted. Also nearly every event has  fallen 4 to 8 am on busy weekdays when all customers  are open for business  and on 2 events because  of the systems  coming in 2 phases we plowed twice!  Its been very very odd. Never thought  we could do so much work on such a warm winter and just 23" so far! Also in general  iowa has colder temperatures  than south Michigan so it will form ice if not removed.  And I think people  in general  have become  wimpy  and have zero tolerance  for walking  thru snow from car to buildings.

Got a good laugh on that last sentence. When I lived/worked in NMI back in the 90's there was one morning I hiked through a snow drift well over my knees to get to the front door of the building. Different world up there especially back then. And that wasn't even a big storm, just a lot of snow blew off the roof overnight. The stories I heard about the 80's and people showing up to work and not even able to get into their parking space due to 18" of snow plowed up by the city plowing the streets in the industrial park. We had 1.4" here early yesterday morning and only a fraction of the businesses got plowed. Mine was just salted. Saw signs of one or two main drags being scraped and salted, but never actually saw a municipal truck. Was mostly melted by afternoon anyways as has been the theme a lot this winter. 

[CentralNebWeather]

Checking out the local measurements on the Davis weather app from local farmers, looks like most are at 0.40” as of 9:05 pm with rain gradually ending. This keeps adding to our wet winter in my area of Central Nebraska. 

[OKwx2k4]

It looks like Norman or points east/SE have been hit by a major storm tonight. If i read radar correctly, there was a tornado in there somewhere.

This is ongoing as I write.

[Andie]

North Texas is staring at the tail end of your storm, Ice. 
71* should kick it some.  A heavy storm just NW of me currently.  Should arrive soon.  

[Andie]

Must be a lot of lightning in this. 
We’re losing power off and on.  

[westMJim]

It is clear here with a current temperature of 22 with rain moving in towards daybreak.

[westMJim]

There is a area of moderate to maybe heavy sleet just to the SW of Grand Rapids at the current time. The temperature here at my house is now 31 but that is up from the overnight low of 23. The official H/L at Grand Rapids yesterday was 40/24. There was no rain or snow fall as the sun was out a total of 660 minutes and that is good for 99% of possible sunshine. There was 1” of snow/ice on the ground. And in my yard there is still around a 1 of snow/ice on the ground this AM. For today the average H/L remains at 37/22 the record high of 67 was set in 1976 and the record low of -12 was set in 1994. This has not been a very snowy day as the record for today is just 2.5” way back in 1897 in 2^nd place is just 2.0” in 2014.

 

[chescowxman]

Increasing clouds today with highs in the low 40's. Rain or sleet should start during the 7pm hour with sleet becoming the main precipitation type across NW Chester County before transitioning to all rain before ending overnight. The NWS has a small sleet accumulation possible across NW Chesco tonight. Seasonably cool tomorrow in the low 40's before warming again by Thursday with showers. Could see another wintry mix by Friday.

Records for today: High 73 (1997) / Low 2 (1934) / Precipitation 1.33" (1958) / Snow 3.0" (1907)

[Black Hole]

Some significant severe weather to my west. 114 mph gust in the TX panhandle region and a tornado in Norman that did some damage. Pretty much a dud for me as the storms fell apart due to convective contamination right before they arrived. 

Next system comes in Mar 2-3rd. Definitely looking at a lot of rain and wind with that. There is a chance we could get a little snow on the backend too but I'd put that chance at maybe 20% right now. 

[Beltrami Island]

On 2/25/2023 at 12:54 AM, OKwx2k4 said:

That's a glaring gap. Weird.

What is remarkable is the number of zones at 0. Wow.

If you were able to extend the map into Saskatchewan and Manitoba it wouldn't look so anomalous.  That whole prairie prairie area has had pretty paltry qpf all winter even compared to their typically low averages. 

I would fully expect a spring snowstorm for the area at some point, if not, then an early fall snowstorm is not unusual.  Most of that areas BIG storms are outside the normal cold season.  If neither of those two happen, its conceivable with a quiet Nov-Dec 2023 they could go 365 days without a WSW.

West Virginia also is a glaring gap, not sure what is going on there.  I would think the higher terrain in that area could eek out some heavy snow in warm/wet pattern for the eastern US.

[MIKEKC]

KC's 9th rain event of the winter finished up overnight and totals ranged from .45-.89. VERY WET FEB.! Higher sun angle taking over and some warmth has spring looking very early this year. Things are popping and grass is primed to start growing soon if we don't see any deep cold in March.

 

[Timmy Supercell]

Another mid Spring like day. Tornado Warnings in Indiana.. and SPC seems to have extended the southeastern portions of the outlook a bit further. We'll see if I get any t'storms. 

A weak band came through and no thunder but I take it this is not the main round. 

[Clinton]

It won't quite make it as a top 10 wettest February but darn close.

With the rest of the month (34.5 hours) expected to be dry, the precipitation total for the month of February will be 2.77" for Kansas City. That will be good enough for tied for 12th wettest on the 135-year record. Normal for February is 1.48" so we are 1.29" above normal for the month.

[chescowxman]

Our 7th (that's right) winter "event" is in the books. In East Nantmeal we received 0.3" of sleet/snow. Of the 7 events only 1 event on January 25th (0.8") exceeded the 0.5 inch mark. Clouds should hang around today with winds increasing this PM. Mild through Friday with more rain again possibly mixed with snow Thursday night into Friday.

Daily Records: High 71 (1946) / Low 4 below (1934) / Precipitation 1.82" (1902) / Snow 5.0" (1941)

[westMJim]

Here along the I96 corridor we dodged another bullet. With record rain fall at Grand Rapids 1.09” Holland 1.16” Muskegon 1.25” and Lansing 0.82” and temperatures in the low to mid 30’s we could have had a major ice storm. Its not very often that there is an area wide record rain fall event on the same day. Here in Grand Rapids the official H/L yesterday was 34/23 there was that record rain fall amount of 1.09” there was freezing rain and just cold rain here in NW GR there was a good amount of ice on the trees that fell with the wind later in the day. There was no sunshine and the day started with 1” of snow/ice on the ground. Overnight the temperature here held around 33 to 34 and 34 is the current temperature. There is still a snow/ice cover on the ground here. For today the average H/L is 38/22 the record high of 60 was set in 2018 and the record low of -12 was set in 2014. The record snow fall of 9.0” fell in 1900.

[mlgamer]

Well, so much for February being our snowiest month of the year here in Topeka. We'll end up with only 0.6" of snow this month. Couldn't even manage an inch.

[Hoosier]

NWS Chicago posted this bit of info regarding the tornadoes yesterday

 

• These were the first February tornadoes to occur since February 28, 2017.

• Since 1950, only 8 February tornadoes had been documented prior to Monday, February 27. Seven of those occurred on February 28, 2017, while the other one occurred in Iroquois County on February 16, 2006.

• With a tornado being confirmed in Naperville, 2023 is now the third consecutive calendar year that a tornado had occurred within the city limits of Naperville.

[OmahaSnowFan]

February will finish with only 8 below normal high days and 9 below normal low nights.

Also snowed all of 2 times this month, but rained about 1.5” total. Thankfully one of the two times it snowed was about 6” of accumulation bc the other was just a dusting.

[chescowxman]

Mild day to start March we may see some wintry weather before a change to rain on Friday PM. Well the winter months of December-January-February finished warm as we all know - avg. temp was 37.7 degrees. In fact it was the 3rd warmest on record behind only 1932 (39.5) and 2016 (37.8 ) Jan-Feb was the 2nd warmest first 2 months of the year at 39.3 again behind only 1932. February was the 4th warmest in Chester County history at 39.1 behind only 2017 (41.3) 1909 and 2018. Precipitation wise is was the 10th driest February with only 1.42" of water equivalent the driest being the scant 0.73" that fell back in 2002. Snow wise with only 0.5" of snow for the month this was the 11th least snowy February on record with 9 years recording no snow at all during what is our snowiest average month of the year.

Records for today: High 72 (1972) / Low 5 (1980) / Rain 1.45" (1954) / Snow 9.5" (1952)

[Stormy]

 

On 2/28/2023 at 2:18 PM, Hoosier said:

NWS Chicago posted this bit of info regarding the tornadoes yesterday

 

• These were the first February tornadoes to occur since February 28, 2017.

• Since 1950, only 8 February tornadoes had been documented prior to Monday, February 27. Seven of those occurred on February 28, 2017, while the other one occurred in Iroquois County on February 16, 2006.

• With a tornado being confirmed in Naperville, 2023 is now the third consecutive calendar year that a tornado had occurred within the city limits of Naperville.

I remember the February 2017 event! I was on the western area near where isolated storms were intensifying and was grazed just to the north by two supercells following the same path with wall clouds nearly overhead. One was a damaging hail storm followed by hail fog literally missing here by only a half mile. Had a little hail n rain from both cells, but mainly a great view of photogenic supercells! My neighbor had all of the many west facing windows on their barn broken out from hail if I recall correctly. Such storm are yet rarer for Iowa in February than neighboring states south and east! 

[Stormy]

My total snowfall for February is 12.5" while my 30-year average for here starting in 1990 ('90 - 2019) is 8.3". Total liquid precip. is over 4" with the same 30-year average at 1.90". February of 2001, 2008, & 2019 all were yet wetter, but many February's were snowier with Feb. 2008 being the snowiest with 30.5"! My season total snowfall is now right at 28".

FYI, I normally have higher liquid equivalent precip. amounts from snowstorms & windy rainstorms since I often kind of lean my manual gauges toward the wind for more accuracy. Since I have multiple gauges of the same type, I have done some research to satisfy my curiosity, and leaning gauges do show higher amounts. But it only works to do that when I'm at home as winds will shift direction! What a pain! Lol

 

This would show me at the edge of at least 4" Feb. total. 

Edited March 3, 2023 by Sparky