2/21 - 2/24 Powerhouse Upper Midwest/GL's Winter Storm

[kush61]

It's been snowing lightly since 7:00am, intensified late this afternoon. Was able to get out on the sled for a ride, strong East winds 4 - 6 " accumulation.

jaster220 must have a closet full of towels to throw in, he's not spared us his presence yet !!!!

 

[earthandturf]

Transformer blowing in Crystal Lake.

[james1976]

18 minutes ago, hawkstwelve said:

Man, NWS MPX is getting roasted on their tweet about the 5.5" total at MSP through 6PM. Since the 'historic snowstorm' apparently didn't pan out everyone thinks it gives them the right to give forecasters a bunch of crap, as if they didn't just try to do the best they could. Makes no sense.

Yeah im guessing 6" tops here so far. And now we're in a dry slot that was not ever forecasted. Unfortunately it just hasn't panned out. Long night to go yet so we'll see how this plays out.

[Madtown]

pixie dust....maybe 1" here

[CentralNebWeather]

Boy this heavy band coming through means business. Visibility 0.25 miles. Spot forecast says possibly up to 3”. This has been an unexpectedly good snowfall day around here. 

[WinterSquall23]

1 hour ago, uticasnow said:

I am in Macomb and sitting here listening to  the rain and some sleet back in the mix again now.....trees also look like they are very much ice covered....I am hoping we do not lose power

Wow! Same here 28 now but thankfully the rain has stopped here. It’s going to be an ice rink on our road.  We have one tree leaning from the top. Hope we don’t lose it. 

[Stormgeek]

Assuming we get a few more inches overnight, the drifts by morning should be pretty cool. Already seeing some significant ones around here! Unfortunate that the storm was modeled so poorly right up to the event, but weather is hard. NWS in Minneapolis getting absolutely roasted doesn't seem real fair...

[Hawkeye]

I only received 0.27" of rain from this system, and only a small part of that froze to surfaces.

[IMoveALot_Weather]

I'd be punting this if I lived in the Twin Cities still. Looks like a rather routine February snowstorm.

[Madtown]

What in the world happened to this thing? Radar looks meh this am too.

[GDR]

Has anyone broke 12 inches?

[CentralNebWeather]

Might grab a jacket this morning.

[Tom]

This was a very complex storm system and the models didn't handle it all to well.  While my area did get extremely heavy rain and some freezing rain, I think this part of the storm stole the moisture farther N and NW.  This system more or less ended up being an elongated double barrel system with wave #1 yesterday and wave #2 that ejected out of CO late last night and formed the second wave of heavier snow that fell across the Plains and now over MN/WI.  Yesterday, ORD reported a record daily RN of 1.20".

[Madtown]

1 minute ago, Tom said:

This was a very complex storm system and the models didn't handle it all to well.  While my area did get extremely heavy rain and some freezing rain, I think this part of the storm stole the moisture farther N and NW.  This system more or less ended up being an elongated double barrel system with wave #1 yesterday and wave #2 that ejected out of CO late last night and formed the second wave of heavier snow that fell across the Plains and now over MN/WI.  Yesterday, ORD reported a record daily RN of 1.20".

The models didn't budge for days. I do think moisture was stole from up this way. oh well.

[westMJim]

It looks like the Grand Rapids metro area dodged bullet. But that said there is around 1.5 to 2” of solid ice/snow on the ground and there is a good amount of ice on the car windows. The trees and wires do not look really all that bad. As sleet/ice storms go this was not all that bad. Most of the power outages are to the south along I94. Where just under 200,000 customers are with out power. 

Yesterday’s official H/L at Grand Rapids was 31/26 there was 0.84” of precipitation of that 1.6” was reported as snow. Here in my yard I have just under 2” of snow/sleet/ice. There was no sunshine yesterday. For the season GR is now up to 86.1” of snow fall. At Lansing there was 0.82” of precipitation and at Muskegon there was less with just 0.44” there. The overnight low and current temperature here at my house is 27. For today the average H/L is now up to 36/21 the record high of 63 was set in 1984 and again in 2000. The record low of -10 was set in 2015 and the record snow fall amount of 5.9” fell in 1994.

[CentralNebWeather]

It is a brutal morning.  -3 with wind gusts over 30 MPH still.  Had a couple of inches of snow yesterday and last night, causing some travel issues this morning.  Many schools have late starts, we are on time.  

[CentralNebWeather]

 

[Money]

Ended up with around a foot 

[Tom]

Just incredible wind gusts yesterday in AZ...top gust up to 88mph!

 

 

[Stormy]

Temperature hung around 32⁰ all day yesterday so there's still ice on the trees of up to around 1/4" with a bunch of ice chunks littering the ground under the trees. I was on the northwest side of the main rainfall shield and ended up with 0.55". (.06" of that fell overnight) 

[WinterSquall23]

Hoping we get about be 40 quick today before the winds come in.  We still have power after the dry slot (I think) came through.  Looks like we escaped the worst of it with hours of sleet mixed with snow.   Currently 26 degrees. Biggest ice storm I have seen.  Sand cranes are flying North .  

[james1976]

Definitely got a lot more overnight. Looks like a couple hours to go yet. Curious to see what kinda reports come in around here.

[MinnesotaSnow]

I’m measuring 12-14” around my driveway. Kinda tough with the wind either blowing it away or loading it off the trees and elsewhere. There will be some 15”+ reports I bet. 

[Madtown]

well this batch that moved in is incredible easily over 2" in the last hour 

[james1976]

MSP 10.1" at 6am

[Hawkeye]

It seems like the models had the right idea with the snow across Minnesota.  However, the series of waves were not as strong as earlier predicted.  The final, main, wave was predicted to be several mb deeper than it turned out to be.

[bud2380]

Still a lot of impressive totals.

 

[WinterSquall23]

Thought this was interesting in Portland, Oregon NWS reported the 2nd largest snowstorm 10.8” since 1943.  That office is nearly at sea level.  
 

 

[Madtown]

1 hour ago, bud2380 said:

Still a lot of impressive totals.

 

impressive, but not historic

[james1976]

1 hour ago, bud2380 said:

Still a lot of impressive totals.

 

More than I thought but I haven't been out yet. Still snowing lightly. Gonna head out soon to snow blow driveway.

[Madtown]

Before and after.

5" Monday night

1" Tuesday night

8.5" Wed/Thurs 

28.5" on the level 

[james1976]

I think this really did pan out close to forecast. Lot of 16-20" totals around the metro on the noon news. Took a long time to snowblow and shovel.

[jaster220]

7 hours ago, bud2380 said:

Still a lot of impressive totals.

 

I have fam in the two top spots on your list. Not sure they care all that much for snow-n-cold tbh

[james1976]

4 hours ago, hawkstwelve said:

Nice post and a cool graphic from NWS MPX explaining why the forecast didn't pan out exactly as expected up there, although as James mentioned it still came fairly close.

Do you know what MSP officially ended with?

[MNTonka]

53 minutes ago, james1976 said:

Do you know what MSP officially ended with?

13.4” 

[gimmesnow]

Thanks for the help with this storm. I had an amazing time at Devils' head and Cascade and it was absolutely miserable where I live with ice. I'll post pics when I have more time, snow was amazing even if it was kind of sleety at points.

[Doinko]

On 2/23/2023 at 9:03 AM, WinterSquall23 said:

Thought this was interesting in Portland, Oregon NWS reported the 2nd largest snowstorm 10.8” since 1943.  That office is nearly at sea level.  
 

 

Some places on the OR coast around Tillamook got more snow at sea level than MSP with this storm.

[WinterSquall23]

1 hour ago, Doinko said:

Some places on the OR coast around Tillamook got more snow at sea level than MSP with this storm.

I saw that too.  Thats amazing! Thats a real cold airmass to get it to snow on the beaches. 

[gimmesnow]

Awesome time at devil's head and Cascade.