2/11 - 2/13 Major Winter Storm

[East Dubzz]

May have jinxed myself... the sleet line isn’t inching far north as quick as it was, but it is a little bit still. Going to take a miracle to somehow avoid it here.

 

Still don’t see a mix occuring, but the rate has slowed down here for sure in the meantime.

[jaster220]

Its going to get real nasty here in our neck of the woods Tuesday night into Wednesday Jaster, get ready.

 

Prolly 3 am like always! I'll be sound asleep and miss the bad stuff

 

 

DSM may not be in as bad as spot as I thought earlier today. About 3.5" snow with a nice band to the SW and slowly back building. NOW MOVE THROUGH NICE AND SLOOOOW.......  6" is not out of question -- and no worries with that d**n PL and FZRA. Just about 7" on the ground with a shot of first double digit snow depth in a LONG TiME! *** edit *** since JAN- but before that it was a long time...

 

Welp. Another storm. Another bust here. It’s amazing we just can’t get a good 6+” snowfall here very often.

 

I'm amazed at how you Hawkeye state peeps work so hard to get a dbl digit storm. Closest official station to me is BC and while we haven't hit dbl digits the past two winters, there were too many to keep track of in the prior 15 yrs. Heck, I think Detroit's had at least 15 in that same time. Hope you score big when this is all done!

[Hawkeye]

Freezing rain/sleet now occurring here as well. I hope this switches back to snow before too long. At least the snow will continue into the morning hours, so hopefully this switch over does not cut into totals too much here. 

 

We're losing three hours to the mix, three hours that would have produced 2-3" of snow. 

[hlcater]

We're losing three hours to the mix, three hours that would have produced 2-3" of snow. 

 

At least you didnt lose 5 hours like I did.

[jaster220]

Weenie map says snow's a knockin on my door, but it's not "CC" nor even "Ten cc" so who knows?

 

[james1976]

2.8"
would be nice if that lil pocket of dry air over me would go away. nice returns all around me.

[Hawkeye]

The back edge of the mix is shooting northeast toward Cedar Rapids, so we should be out of it in 30 minutes or so.  Unfortunately, the main slug of precip is over.  Maybe we can add 1-2 more inches overnight.

[Madtown]

that dry slot is gonna kill se/sc wisco

[East Dubzz]

Similar to Hawkeye earlier, gotta be something going on. Don’t see any sleet yet, but the rate here has gone done, despite radar returns looking good. I expect ice pellets to be hitting my window shortly.

 

On the edge of some heavy returns. So either we’re about to get some nice sleet, or it’s gonna be poundtown with snow.

[hlcater]

Snow again finally. Probably picked up at least 0.2" of ice.

[badgerwx]

Was really hoping for some healthy numbers here in SW Wisco...

[jaster220]

Hearing it's really icy in Chicago, even The Loop. Tom??

[bud2380]

Back to snow here!

[Snowshoe]

Interesting Facebook post by NWS MKE.

 

We've had a lot of comments about warning decisions being made w/this event. Every winter storm is different. We know that there are a lot of decisions being made on these forecasts, so sometimes we can give warnings to others earlier based on our confidence.

 

We've had feedback that we've been going too high on many of our forecast amounts for snowfall this year, so we've been taking a slower approach on this event because there was uncertainty. It is a fast mover and the models don't always do a great job w/these events.

 

When Milwaukee or Madison are involved in those decisions, they become magnified by the number of eyes on the forecast. Bottom line: Know that we're putting a lot of effort into these difficult forecasts to make you aware of what is coming your way. -TH

[OmahaSnowFan]

[East Dubzz]

Sounds like we got some sleet mixing in... not all sleet, but I believe I can hear some.

[Grizzcoat]

^+1 -- (too the facebook post from MKE)  if only the avg person understand the near infinite amount of variables involved. Almost all snow events come down to radar returns / PL / mixing in-- as was seen tonight in E.IA.

[bud2380]

Looks like the back edge will move through here shortly. That ice robbed us of at least a 6” snowfall. Looks like at best we may get 4”. But that may be generous

[Hawkeye]

It's snowing here now as well.  It's pretty light, though.

 

Waterloo may end up beating Cedar Rapids in snowfall.

[East Dubzz]

I still think we have a solid chance to break 6” here, but man there always something with storms around here!

[hlcater]

The northern side of CR definitely did break 6" already. I've seen multiple LSRs of that. Much of Linn County probably will see a 6" snowfall from this. Johnson? Nasso much. 

[DSM WeatherNut]

DSM may not be in as bad as spot as I thought earlier today. About 3.5" snow with a nice band to the SW and slowly back building. NOW MOVE THROUGH NICE AND SLOOOOW.......  6" is not out of question -- and no worries with that d**n PL and FZRA. Just about 7" on the ground with a shot of first double digit snow depth in a LONG TiME! *** edit *** since JAN- but before that it was a long time...

 

I agree with that  probaby at 4.5 to 5 in DSM with a nice band to wrap it up.

[Niko]

Snow is now starting to show up on my radar.

[Hawkeye]

First 7" report from Tama County.

[East Dubzz]

Well, I’m off to bed. Hopefully it changed back to full snow here soon and we can get some decent accumulation on the tail end of this. We should also have some wrap around snows in this area, which should add a little to accumulations. But D**n warm air! Way to ruin a good thing. Pretty annoying seeing such good radar returns go to waste.

[Bellona]

I've got 5.5 in the driveway on the south side of Waterloo.

[Hawkeye]

I should head to bed as well.  Radar is not encouraging.  The dry area moving in from the sw is not filling in, so an inch may be the most we can get.  The snow may actually taper off to flurries within the next hour.  It appears I was right to guess 5 inches again.  I swear, if models spit out 2 inches of precip, all snow, I still might guess 5 inches.

[james1976]

Im surrounded by 4-6" reports but i just measured 3.5". Always seems like my measurements are less than nearby reports.

[Bellona]

Im surrounded by 4-6" reports but i just measured 3.5". Always seems like my measurements are less than nearby reports.

When I lived in Cedar Falls there was always, always, always more snow in Waterloo. It's crazy 5 or 10 miles makes such a difference repeatedly. I have a friend who swears it's because of the river....

[james1976]

3.8" now

Biggest flakes yet

[Stormy]

[ToastedRavs]

[Grizzcoat]

about 5" here on the West Side of DSM.--- got of work at midnight and bajaing down a Virgin I-80 at 65mph brings back memories of Lake Mille Lacs (C.MN large lake)  when I had a sleeper fish house. That teaches you how to drive-- OK -- we taught ourselves. Good times..... Good Luck to those East of here-- the last band means business. 

[shakjen]

Power has flashed a couple times the past hour. Heavy band of rain moving through now. A lot of ice coating everything. May get nasty when the wind picks up later

[Grizzcoat]

the above sucks- nothing worse than ice. And you still get people that complain about snow which can be moved. 

[Tom]

Hearing it's really icy in Chicago, even The Loop. Tom??

Sure is Jaster as I was put under an Ice Storm Warning last night and have about 0.5" of Ice!  I've never been through an ice storm in recent memory so I guess that checks that off the list.  The NAM did the best as far as the ice potential with this one.

[Tom]

Ice accumulations area wide ended up being pretty substantial...now we are going to have to deal with the very strong winds as a Wind Advisory has been issued for later today with 40-50mph wind gusts!

 

 

[VMB443]

Heavy wet snow - more impressive than the last one.

[Tom]

Sugar Grove, IL with .60-.70" of ice...

 

 

 

 

Some pics from around the Chicago area...

 

 

 

 

 

[BMT]

Gonna be bad news when that wind picks up for you guys in Illinois. Good luck today.