3/5 to 3/14 - Classic Multi-storm event for the first half of March

[Madtown]

Rink cleared and ready for more

[Grizzcoat]

Pushing 4" of unforeseen snow 24 hours ago from NWS.

 

[Bryan1117]

56 minutes ago, Grizzcoat said:

Pushing 4" of unforeseen snow 24 hours ago from NWS.

 

Not complaining since it's almost mid-March and I am ready for spring, however it really is comedic how this same exact band of precipitation fell as rain, freezing rain, and sleet here in Omaha this morning, however Des Moines (150 miles to the east) ends up with their second decent snowfall of the week today.

Continues to be the story of the season as we sit around 12" of snow total for the year (a foot below average). 

[Hawkeye]

There'e a 5.8" report west of Des Moines.  I don't think much of this heavy precip area will make it to Cedar Rapids.  All models show it drying up.

[DSM WeatherNut]

DMX totally missed the forecast on this one.   Not even an advisory.   Im by Windsor Heights, IA basically Des moines and have a solid 5 inches of VERY heavy snow.   Thats in 3 hours.  Probably one of the heaviest snowfalls I've seen and I've seen a lot.   Vehicles not getting around very well and many accident reports.

Its also been over 32 the entire time.   Be crazy if it was a degree cooler.

PS.  Even if I rotate the picture on my end it still displays upside down. Makes no sense.

[Grizzcoat]

I just drove from Waukee to DSM Airport. Easily the worst roads in years. Can verify that WDM 5.8" report. Have some videos of my drive in of accidents -- some happening. But expletives will keep that one from being seen.

[DSM WeatherNut]

1 minute ago, Grizzcoat said:

I just drove from Waukee to DSM Airport. Easily the worst roads in years. Can verify that WDM 5.8" report. Have some videos of my drive in of accidents -- some happening. But expletives will keep that one from being seen.

I have to agree and its still coming down hard.

[Grizzcoat]

Screenshot of video with several four letter words I can't share. Road is blocked up the hill... Some people..... For DSM peeps -- this Park and Mckinely

[Grizzcoat]

WDM Hy-VEE-- easily 5"-

[DSM WeatherNut]

33.1 now and still coming down.

 

[Grizzcoat]

DSM biggest snow of the year occurs with no headlines - advisory or warning and was never in a watch.

GO figure.

[Grizzcoat]

Afternoon DMX discussion 2 days ago-- models were showing exactly what has transpired -- maybe even a little underdone. 

Ridging will persist Friday with continued northwest flow holding
high temperatures to a neutral change. A system will emerge into the
Northern Plains on Saturday. A separate low in the Central Plains
will churn stronger winds out of the southeast for Iowa, boosting
moisture advection and prompting precipitation. The southern half
of the area will see predominantly rain at this time with a
mixture of snow possible in the first half of the day, but the
ground will be warm enough to limit accumulations. Highest totals
are expected in portions of northern and northeastern Iowa and are
near advisory criteria. The GEFS solution remains hotter than the
EC, but am more confident in the lower solution given the outcome
of Thursday`s system.

TOO THIS AFTER THE FACT-

Snow continues across central Iowa this afternoon, originally
driven by kinematic support trailing the potent Dakotas upper low,
with contributions from other weaker waves moving across KS into
the MO Valley. Snowfall rates really got going early afternoon
however when the baroclinic zone and associated moisture and theta-e
advection associated with the Plains impulses lifted into the
state. This forcing mechanism, along with higher vertical motion
and super-saturation with respect to ice along and either side of
the dendritic growth zone (DGZ) was efficient at producing
aggregated dendrites even if its depth was nothing out of the
ordinary. At first glance it appeared that 40+ dBz reflectivity
was bright-banding as it lifted into the metro, but examination
of companion ZDR and CC dual-pol data showed the melting layer was
not that aggressive to the north, making those reflectivity
values notable. These high reflectivities seem to be fading a bit
however, with the likely highest accumulations expected from the
DSM metro and central IA just to the north and east.

[Grizzcoat]

8" right over mby.

[DSM WeatherNut]

7 minutes ago, Grizzcoat said:

8" right over mby.

Be a foot of snow if it was a tad cooler.

 

[Grizzcoat]

When flakes were at there largest. It was snowing saucers.

[Sparky]

It's finally snowing big wet flakes here. It seemed like partial rain at first and is as wet as snow will get! 

[Sparky]

Snowflakes are at least up to 1"  diameter now and probably something larger. But it shouldn't last very long here according to radar, and in the meantime another little band blew up over Central Iowa. 

[Grizzcoat]

Bands keep redeveloping right over E Dallas and W Polk Cty in C.IA. 5.9" at KDSM at 6pm.

Gonna make a run at 7" and some places in Dallas probably 9"+

[MNTonka]

MSP needs a measly .3” from this storm to crack the top ten snowiest winters on record. Should easily happen, as I have about 3” on the ground here in St. Paul as of 6:00pm. MSP will likely be in the #7 or #8 spot by the end of the day. 

[Madtown]

You know it.....fatties

 

 

[OttumwaSnomow]

Iowa folks:  Im close to 1.5" for this system. I too must say I've  been quite surprised  by some of the forecast  being put out for my county. The nws within  14 to 20 hours of onslaught  of the precip  for both of these systems had 100% chance of rain Thursday  and 90% chance of rain today.  And basically  zero emphasis  on snow at all. But on both events  the majority  of the precip fell as snow both in amounts and duration  of snow falling. Which  is what I was seeing on most models. Soil and air temperatures  were borderline  but my area hovered in low 30s most of the time as did much of the state both  preceeding  and during the events. My son also checks surface temperatures around southern half of Iowa and based of those and models we basically  ignored most of the forecast and prepared our company  to work the event. We have learned  over the years to do our own forecasting  and that has aided us immensely.

[Beltrami Island]

Been snowing good here since noon, which was a little later than forecasted. Supposed to get 5-8" by tomorrow afternoon. Snow is dry and winter like, and wind is blowing it around good. Funny thinking back to the March like slushy snow we got back in December, things are flipped around.

[Sparky]

Ended with 1.8" of snow here. Still a little light pixie dust falling but accumulation is finished 

(0.34" liquid equiv.)

Edited March 12 by Sparky

[Hawkeye]

I got 1.1" from 0.19" liquid.  It's now drizzly and wet.

[hawkstwelve]

Looks like FSD received a little over two inches today which puts us at spot #11 for total season snowfall.

 

[Tom]

15 hours ago, Grizzcoat said:

8" right over mby.

DSM bullseye!  Over the years on this board, I can't count how many times your snow magnet has shined!  Congrats on the surprise snow.  Well, if you listened to the NWS it was a surprise...LOL...did any local mets use any of their own judgement to forecast this event?

[Madtown]

4.5" down they say another 4-6

[jaster220]

On 3/11/2023 at 9:18 AM, Niko said:

I am surprised Detroit has gotten to almost 35.0"up to now. That was a big jump tbh. That is why ya never know what Ma Nature can do. If we get another snow event or 2, then, we might even (MAYBEEEE) go above to near average snowfall. Now, that would be something.

On 3/11/2023 at 9:21 AM, Tom said:

It ain’t ova till Mother Nature says so…I think there are 2-3 more coming down the piper.

13 hours ago, Beltrami Island said:

Been snowing good here since noon, which was a little later than forecasted. Supposed to get 5-8" by tomorrow afternoon. Snow is dry and winter like, and wind is blowing it around good. Funny thinking back to the March like slushy snow we got back in December, things are flipped around.

Eyeballing 0.7" of fresh snow cover this am. Was still falling decently when I awoke to the brightness of whitened ground. Was thinking about how frequently it has been snowing (and just as quickly melting off). I would be pretty happy to have had a pattern like this back in December. But NO! gotta have it now when most are long over "winter". More than double the avg March snowfall already at DTW with nary a single day with a high temp at or below freezing. 

CF6DTW
PRELIMINARY LOCAL CLIMATOLOGICAL DATA (WS FORM: F-6)

                                          STATION:   DETROIT MI
                                          MONTH:     MARCH
                                          YEAR:      2023
                                          LATITUDE:   42 13 N
                                          LONGITUDE:  83 20 W

  TEMPERATURE IN F:       :PCPN:    SNOW:  WIND      :SUNSHINE: SKY     :PK WND
================================================================================
1   2   3   4   5  6A  6B    7    8   9   10  11  12  13   14  15   16   17  18
                                     12Z  AVG MX 2MIN
DY MAX MIN AVG DEP HDD CDD  WTR  SNW DPTH SPD SPD DIR MIN PSBL S-S WX    SPD DR
================================================================================

 1  53  34  44  12  21   0 0.00  0.0    0  4.6 14  80   M    M   7 18     21 100
 2  43  32  38   6  27   0 0.00  0.0    0  7.2 16 310   M    M  10 18     23 320
 3  37  31  34   1  31   0 1.11  6.2    0 12.7 29  50   M    M  10 12389   44  50
 4  41  31  36   3  29   0 0.01    T    5 10.4 22 320   M    M   7 18     34 330
 5  50  35  43  10  22   0    T  0.0    3  5.7 15 270   M    M   4 18     23 270
 6  45  34  40   6  25   0 0.48  0.2    1 10.4 17  50   M    M  10 18     24  80
 7  43  30  37   3  28   0 0.13  1.4    1 11.8 22  40   M    M   4 1      29  50
 8  45  28  37   3  28   0 0.00  0.0    T  9.6 21  20   M    M   5        26  30
 9  45  28  37   2  28   0 0.00  0.0    T  7.4 16  60   M    M  10        21  60
10  36  30  33  -2  32   0 0.36  5.2    4 11.6 21 360   M    M  10 1      27 350
================================================================================
SM  438  313       271   0  2.09 13.0     91.4          M       77

[FV-Mike]

Consistent light snow all morning. Wintry scene out there. Around 1.5 on the ground. 

[Niko]

Dtw received more snow as 0.7" fell added to the seasonal total to 34.9" so far. Just keeps on coming. Wish it was like this back in the colder months.

 

•  

[Madtown]

 

 

About as buried as we can be.

[Madtown]

 

A different walk

[Stacsh]

Another 3-4” of snow tonight.   Might stick around for more than 12 hours this time.  But will be gone by Wednesday.  This is the way.  All winter.   

[jaster220]

1 hour ago, Stacsh said:

Another 3-4” of snow tonight.   Might stick around for more than 12 hours this time.  But will be gone by Wednesday.  This is the way.  All winter.   

Unless you're @Madtown  

[jaster220]

1 hour ago, Stacsh said:

Another 3-4” of snow tonight.   Might stick around for more than 12 hours this time.  But will be gone by Wednesday.  This is the way.  All winter.   

My last WWA Friday was a big bust here. Nothing coming at me from that direction can excite, lol. 

[gimmesnow]

Snow was definitely heavy and wet but it was so much fun to snowboard in. A lot of work because it's so heavy, but absolutely amazing to get something like this in the middle of March. Last few years we've barely made it into March, sometimes not even that long. They are going to try and keep the hill open another week. If you are around Chicago and you want to ski or snowboard Alpine Valley is in amazing shape for spring skiing and for a weekend it was extremely quiet.

[Madtown]

Had about a 2 hr break. now back to snowing hard. Vis around 1/2mi. See if this pans out tonight 

[Grizzcoat]

9 hours ago, Tom said:

DSM bullseye!  Over the years on this board, I can't count how many times your snow magnet has shined!  Congrats on the surprise snow.  Well, if you listened to the NWS it was a surprise...LOL...did any local mets use any of their own judgement to forecast this event?

the highest I saw was 2-3" on the local ABC station. Others were 1-3".

[Tom]

This system was no joke as it dumped significant snows over Wisco and into the Northwoods of MN and N WI. 

[tStacsh]

3" down here.  Much lighter and fluffier than last snow, so that's good.  

[tStacsh]

15 hours ago, jaster220 said:

My last WWA Friday was a big bust here. Nothing coming at me from that direction can excite, lol. 

Got less snow and roads are much worse than the last system.  Yet all the schools are open.  And they were all closed last week because of "more" snow.   

[Madtown]

3" down overnight lake effect snowing moderately atm

[Tom]

6 minutes ago, Madtown said:

3" down overnight lake effect snowing moderately atm

Geeze, how much is your snow depth now?  Looks like mid-winter up there with the high snow banks.  How would you rate this winter so far?

Meanwhile, the snow-less winter in Chicago...

[Madtown]

Table says 34". Should be top 5 year for snow. Kinda inflated though.  A bunch came in Nov before Thanksgiving then melted. Dec was decent. Jan bone dry. Feb since mid month has been great. 

[Madtown]

dug a hole down to the ground in a spot untouched snow to her right

[tStacsh]

Even though the snow has had no staying power this year, we are approaching 100" on the season.  Crazy to think about, especially when we went the first 22 days in January with less than .5" of snow.   

[Niko]

Snowing all morning here so far. Temp at 31F.

[gabel23]

3 hours ago, Tom said:

Geeze, how much is your snow depth now?  Looks like mid-winter up there with the high snow banks.  How would you rate this winter so far?

Meanwhile, the snow-less winter in Chicago...

Wow crazy! You still have managed to get 4" more than me. Been a horrible pattern for everyone along and south of I-80. Hopefully next year will be better for all. Crazy to think that areas to my north and west have seen 50"+ here in Nebraska. 

[jaster220]

On 3/13/2023 at 9:59 AM, Tom said:

Geeze, how much is your snow depth now?  Looks like mid-winter up there with the high snow banks.  How would you rate this winter so far?

Meanwhile, the snow-less winter in Chicago...

#1 & #2 back-2-back a century ago. MEGA OUCH! for any snow enthusiasts back then. As the old saying goes "it can always be worse"