12/01 - 12/02 Winter Rain / Snow Storm

[Bryan1117]

Just got home and have 6” of snow on the ground in my backyard in Southwest Omaha. Talk about a storm that overperformed! I just cleared our driveway and sidewalks and that was one heavy wet snow, lots of moisture in our new snow pack, which is on top of over one inch of rain that fell before.

 

What a crazy storm indeed! Still some more bands of light to moderate snow rotating into East Central Nebraska... fun stuff!

[Minny_Weather]

Just got home and have 6” of snow on the ground in my backyard in Southwest Omaha. Talk about a storm that overperformed! I just cleared our driveway and sidewalks and that was one heavy wet snow, lots of moisture in our new snow pack, which is on top of over one inch of rain that fell before.

 

What a crazy storm indeed! Still some more bands of light to moderate snow rotating into East Central Nebraska... fun stuff!

Congrats on the 6"! It'd be nice if the shaft could move the hell away from here so we could at least get one of the moderate bands. That D**n shaft has been holding steady near here since last night.

[jcwxguy]

Probably a few hours old and need to add at least 1/2 to 1.50 inches in to snow in some locations but here is a map

[jcwxguy]

About 5 in Gretna

[LincSnow]

Gotta agree with LNK here. Just zoom in on lincoln and you will see a force field stopping the snow movement for the last 1.5 hiurs

[Tom]

Is it just me Tom, or has the entire tornado alley sector moved? 

 

The DFW area used to be able to count on at least 2 funnel clouds, if not tornados, every spring.  Today it's as bland as ever.  Even hail is not so common.  I'm not complaining at all, but things have shifted down here in the southern plains.

 

What's your opinion on our weather patterns in Texas in the future?

 

I remember reading somewhere about this shift in the overall severe wx pattern across the S Plains.  TBH, I have no idea why its happening or if it is a legit trend or not.  I guess we'll just have to sit back and see what continues to happen over the next several years.

[Minny_Weather]

The shaft is FINALLY starting to fill in, about 18 hours later than I woulda liked. Now let's hope we can get something other than flurries. 27.5*F.

[CentralNebWeather]

Snowing as hard now as any time in the last 2 days. Fluffy flakes that are adding to our total. Nice.

[Niko]

Today I saw lightning, a rainbow, heard thunder, had a few hvy dowpours and experienced warmth (temps upper 50s to low 60s) and had sunshine at times. What a weird weather day.

[gabel23]

Snowing hard here too, I measured about 4.5” of snow plus maybe another inch or so through today. This is on top of the 1.7” of rain that preceded the snow. Crazy storm and I never would have thought Omaha would receive more snow than me, congrats! I’ll take what I can get! I’ll tell you one thing; I drove out in the country and if we can keep this snowpack and get a big daddy in the next couple weeks we will have some massive drifting! Ditches are full of rain and snow.

[Stormhunter87]

Snowing again and the roads getting covered again.

[Minny_Weather]

Whatever is falling is trying to accumulate here too. Dusting is back on the roads. Still not expecting more than a half inch additional. The upper air is still pretty dry. 27.1*F.

[Bryan1117]

Snowing again and the roads getting covered again.

Snow keeps re-developing and filling in here, snowing moderately right now. The temp is starting to crash too making the roads a little more dicey around here.

 

It looks like the snow will finally be done here in the next hour or so.

[OKwx2k4]

I remember reading somewhere about this shift in the overall severe wx pattern across the S Plains. TBH, I have no idea why its happening or if it is a legit trend or not. I guess we'll just have to sit back and see what continues to happen over the next several years.

Eastern Oklahoma/AR and "Dixie Alley" seasons seem to be relegated to being an effect of the N. PAC Warm Mode configuration and or Tropical Northern Hemisphere pattern(this year, 2013-14, 2009-10 and 2010-11 are similar years for the overall structure). This is merely an opinion. I believe there is a longer term climate influence at play but not an abnormality of concern.

[Stormy]

1 week after the snowstorm there are now only patches of snow remaining. I don't mind at all. Need to freeze up the ground before it snows again. It was soft or muddy underneath. The soil is saturated again after nearly 1" of rain.

[OKwx2k4]

As solar influence over the N. Hemisphere decreases over the next few decades, I actually wouldn't be surprised to see more severe seasons subdued or suppressed and confined to the far eastern and SE US. Again, opinion. I expect areas of west Texas and Oklahoma to know drought pretty severely (decadal) at some near point in my lifetime.

[Minny_Weather]

As solar influence over the N. Hemisphere decreases over the next few decades, I actually wouldn't be surprised to see more severe seasons subdued or suppressed and confined to the far eastern and SE US. Again, opinion. I expect areas of west Texas and Oklahoma to know drought pretty severely (decadal) at some near point in my lifetime.

I wouldn't go as far as to say it'll be confined to the Southeast. There will still definitely be Spring and Summer here in the Midwest and down in your neck of the woods and there will still be severe storms. Maybe less frequent, but it's climatologically impossible for such a drastic change to occur in such a short time.

[OKwx2k4]

I wouldn't go as far as to say it'll be confined to the Southeast. There will still definitely be Spring and Summer here in the Midwest and down in your neck of the woods and there will still be severe storms. Maybe less frequent, but it's climatologically impossible for such a drastic change to occur in such a short time.

Yes. I shouldn't have worded it like I did. Not on such a short timescale with the severe wx part.

[jaster220]

Just got home and have 6” of snow on the ground in my backyard in Southwest Omaha. Talk about a storm that overperformed! I just cleared our driveway and sidewalks and that was one heavy wet snow, lots of moisture in our new snow pack, which is on top of over one inch of rain that fell before.

 

What a crazy storm indeed! Still some more bands of light to moderate snow rotating into East Central Nebraska... fun stuff!

 

Congrats! on the surprise score considering the way it was looking for a while. It would seem to me that whatever end of our sub is being targeted by a storm, the theme has been to over-perform. Always like to see that

[jcwxguy]

6" in Gretna

[Minny_Weather]

The snow is wrapping up, and about another half inch has fallen since I look my last measurements, bringing my total in Southeast Lincoln to 3". It was about as much as models had us getting, but I still have a hard time being satisfied about it. One reason is because we were shafted the whole time, which resulted in a dome effect and every return dying right as it got here, resulting in persistent light snow instead of the heavier bands experienced to the North, East, and West. 3" is common here, we didn't need that. Another reason is because it is likely this will be the last storm of the good pattern here. Who knows, maybe it'll open back up around Christmas time and we'll get another crack at it, but for now it's likely this will be our last snow for at least a couple weeks unless next weekend's system does something crazy.

 

The good news is because most of the snow that fell was wet, it's not gonna compact nearly as much when the sun comes out on Tuesday, and therefore it'll be harder to melt. Wednesday makes me nervous still, sunny with a high of 34*F.

[CentralNebWeather]

I had 2-3” today with different bands that came through. That was on top of the 4-5” that fell yesterday, of course some of that was melting with temps at 32. I just scooped again and I easily measured 6 inches on the ground right now. That is pretty spot on with the wsw when it was first issued. If temps were colder that may have added a few more inches. Now just waiting to see if we have a late school start tomorrow morning, almost every school around us is starting late.

[East Dubzz]

We got some nice snow flakes for a little while earlier this afternoon. Some snow showers in the area tonight as well. It won’t amount to anything, but it was nice to see, I suppose.

 

Rainfall total this morning was right around .60”. Not sure how much we added today, but I’m guessing we ended right around .90” to 1” for the storm.

 

Really wish it was snow, but it’s still early in the year.

[Minny_Weather]

Preliminary official total for Lincoln looks like it will be 2.7". Omaha will be 5.2".

[Craig-OmahaWX]

6" in my backyard here in Omaha.

[Hawkeye]

Light snow/flurries through the day added a small amount to my precip total, putting my storm total at 0.86".

[East Dubzz]

Woke up to a little bit of an unexpected snow covered ground! Not even sure it was half an inch, but it was still more than I was anticipating.

[Minny_Weather]

With this storm, Lincoln now has a greater seasonal total this year than 13 entire previous seasons, at 13.7". And it's December 3rd.

[Andie]

I remember reading somewhere about this shift in the overall severe wx pattern across the S Plains. TBH, I have no idea why its happening or if it is a legit trend or not. I guess we'll just have to sit back and see what continues to happen over the next several years.

It's very clear to Texans that our severe weather pattern has shifted over the past 10 yrs.

Our springs have a great deal of rain, but funnel clouds and tornados are not so common. Lightning is more abundant as well. Also, rain has moved into June heavier than before. Next years spring will be interesting if it repeats.

Our Falls have been drier, generally. But I am expecting a very cold and wet Winter. So far, we are dry for the past month. We'll see if this unfolds in mid/late Jan.

[Hawkeye]

I woke up to a couple tenths of an inch of snow, just enough to briefly dust the landscape.

[CentralNebWeather]

I am keeping track of snow amounts at my house this season, obviously not official, and might be off a little from the NWS stats.  With this last storm I have measured between 20-21" at my house from late Oct-Dec. 2nd.  Our 8-9" storm in November was only about 1 county wide so numbers will vary greatly across Central Nebraska.  Our average in my area of Central Nebraska is around 30" for the year but many years lately we weren't even close to that, though last year we passed in and ended around 40".  As I was typing I just realized I am about 66% of average for the year.  In this area, our biggest snow months are Feb., March, and April.

[Bryan1117]

With this storm, Lincoln now has a greater seasonal total this year than 13 entire previous seasons, at 13.7". And it's December 3rd.

That’s amazing! It’s been a great start to the Winter season for most in the Plains, and we can only hope it’s going to stay this way or get better the rest of the way.

[East Dubzz]

So the town to my west (Dubuque) had a liquid storm total of .71”, and the town to my east (Galena) had a total of 1.1”.

 

I was unable to get an official reading, as my rain gauge broke recently, but my estimate of somewhere between .9 & 1 inch seems about right. Definitely a little more rain than I was expecting with this system. Wish I could have gotten some thunder, but most of that stayed pretty well south of here.

 

As for the people who got snow, does anyone know which area was hit hardest?

[Stormy]

I picked up 0.81" of rain. A couple hours ago it changed to snow. The flakes were a good size, but it was pretty light, so nothing stuck. Now it's just flurries.

 

This little bit of light snow is the first snow I've seen fall this season.

I'm surprised that this is your first snow since CR is not that far north of my location. Only a few wet flakes here as well, but I had 3 different snow events before today with 1.70" being the first snowfall on November 8 - 9, then another half inch on the 17th before the big storm on the 25th of November. I think CR got a lot more last season though.

[Stormhunter87]

So the town to my west (Dubuque) had a liquid storm total of .71”, and the town to my east (Galena) had a total of 1.1”.

 

I was unable to get an official reading, as my rain gauge broke recently, but my estimate of somewhere between .9 & 1 inch seems about right. Definitely a little more rain than I was expecting with this system. Wish I could have gotten some thunder, but most of that stayed pretty well south of here.

 

As for the people who got snow, does anyone know which area was hit hardest?

Ik Omaha got lucky. Based on reports I saw just east of council bluffs did the best with 10-11. Central sarpy county got about 7, and east towards the river got about 8-9. Again just based on reports I've seen. Ik up by Souix City and a little further north they did pretty well.

[snowstorm83]

With this storm, Lincoln now has a greater seasonal total this year than 13 entire previous seasons, at 13.7". And it's December 3rd.

 

And we were just at a trace this time last year. Even though it's kind of lame, it's almost more impressive that it's been from a bunch of smaller events rather than one random big storm. 

[Minny_Weather]

And we were just at a trace this time last year. Even though it's kind of lame, it's almost more impressive that it's been from a bunch of smaller events rather than one random big storm.

Yeah I looked back and every year with totals this high at this time of year there has been a big storm in there that quickly drove up the total. 1997 being a key example.

[Bryan1117]

Amazing that the “steam effect” strip of snow out west is still going, from the power plant and/or manufacturing plants near Norfolk. Goes to show that we as humans are affecting the weather/climate in ways that we don’t fully understand yet.

 

That little “weenie” band has been persistent all day long near Columbus and Seward, and it will be interesting to see how much snow those areas underneath it picked up today.

[Stormhunter87]

Amazing that the “steam effect” strip of snow out west is still going, from the power plant and/or manufacturing plants near Norfolk. Goes to show that we as humans are affecting the weather/climate in many ways.

 

That little “weenie” band has been persistent all day long near Columbus and Seward, and it will be interesting to see how much snow those areas underneath it picked up today.

Apparently there is a 2 inch report with it.

[Minny_Weather]

Apparently there is a 2 inch report with it.

I think that's near Columbus. Roads are a mess there.