2/23 - 2/24 Central Plains/Midwest Blizzard

[jaster220]

As I went to bed last night, the westerly winds were still roaring and gusting over 40 mph.  I don't ever recall experiencing such long duration winds with such vigor.  In fact, it's still rather windy out there this morning which is a solid 24 hours of strong winds.  This has to be the highlight storm of the season thus far.  Very impressive.  The videos and images up north and west of here, esp up in the U.P. and N WI /MI where the snow depths have to be 4'+ are absolutely incredible.  Those folks must think we are heading towards an ice age the way it looks up there.  It's like a whole different world!

 

Not sure if you were aware, but my reference to Jan 1938 wasn't an "oops" by my keyboard. That was the western UP's little known "storm of the century" counterpart the LP's Jan '78 super-bomb. Back in the Depression era, the Yooper-land really was a place cut-off from the rest of the world during deep winter. No bridge, and the car ferries had to fight the ice jams of the Straights area to transport peeps up or down state when/if possible. That bliz of '38 was so bad that the 3 plows of that day owned by the state highway system could not handle the drifted in roads. They literally hired crews of unemployed men to shovel out the roads BY HAND! There's a photo of this in the UP wx history book I bought some yrs ago. Can you imagine? The piles along the roads were just under the telegraph wires to give an idea. I need to find that book and see if it indicates how much snow was OTG when it hit, and how much they believe fell on top for comparison with this current bliz. Historic stuff indeed! 

[Madtown]

aftermath

[Snowshoe]

Schools were closed today and one parent asked why. A teacher responded with this picture.

[Niko]

Schools were closed today and one parent asked why. A teacher responded with this picture.

wow

[jaster220]

wow

 

Yeah. Super jelly of a real big-dog bliz going elsewhere. 20 yrs since anything comparable hit here. 

[jaster220]

As the bliz moved into Canada, ONT peeps were dealing with yet another x-way pile-up. This one a 70 vehicle deal around Hamilton iiuc

 

Worst nightmare for me:

 

 

Former Canadian Olympic boxer Mark Simmons was in the middle of the carnage.

 

“I was driving along the 400 and the conditions were really bad,” he said. “It was blowing snow and at times for two to three second periods you couldn’t see anything ahead of you.”

Simmons wisely adopted a defensive approach as the conditions worsened.

“I slowed down considerably, and went into the middle lane behind a tractor-trailer, and thought I’m just going to keep my distance behind it.

“Then all around me I start seeing cars sliding and spinning … and then in the fast lane a car is spinning and it comes to a stop and then I see a pickup truck hit that car at probably 80 km/h at least, and then hit it full on and I think almost the back of the car is (torn) off.”

“Then I could hear crashes going on behind me too, and I said I’m just going to stay in this car … It’s definitely scary when something like that happens right around you.”

[Niko]

As the bliz moved into Canada, ONT peeps were dealing with yet another x-way pile-up. This one a 70 vehicle deal around Hamilton iiuc

 

Worst nightmare for me:

That is a frighten situation.

[jaster220]

And in yet another facet of the huge windstorm/bliz, this vid is pretty wild

 

[jaster220]

Solid

 

[Minny_Weather]

Solid

Gotta give the NAM credit for this one. Butchered amounts but it got the track right.

[Stormhunter87]

Gotta give the NAM credit for this one. Butchered amounts but it got the track right.

Euro pre 24 hours too.

[snowstorm83]

Gotta give the NAM credit for this one. Butchered amounts but it got the track right.

Other than the euro being weird like usual inside 24 hours, it was the best and most consistent. GFS was awful, NAM was okay once it came around to the right track.

[Niko]

And in yet another facet of the huge windstorm/bliz, this vid is pretty wild

 

The power of Ma Nature just amazes me.

[East Dubzz]

Gotta give the NAM credit for this one. Butchered amounts but it got the track right.

Wasn’t the NAM the last one to jump west?

[jaster220]

Wasn’t the NAM the last one to jump west?

 

Iirc, it was. We find the NAM to be good the day of, but not so great leading up to.

[Niko]

I can honestly say that this storm provided everything IMBY, from thunder, sleet, rain, snow, damaging winds, you name it. Weird storm for my area.

[Minny_Weather]

Wasn’t the NAM the last one to jump west?

Maybe I'm thinking of the wrong one. I thought I remembered it being good for here.

[Snowshoe]

Good write-up from NWS GRB - https://www.weather.gov/grb/022419_Winds_Blizzard

 

 

 

After receiving nearly a half inch of ice accretion earlier in the night, the city of Plover (Portage County) reported heavy snow that was falling at a rate of nearly 2 inches per hour!  Between midnight and 4 am Sunday morning, Plover received nearly a half foot of snow!

 

 

[jaster220]

APX's historic storm summary!

 

https://www.weather.gov/apx/20190224