February 2024 Observations and Discussion

[hawkstwelve]

Yesterday the Winter Weather Advisory started one county to my north, today it starts one county to my south. As it stands, we received about an inch last night and are progged to receive the same tonight. Guess it was nice we got anything at all but pretty dang frustrating being so close to the higher totals on both sides of me. At least we already beat the GFS's half inch forecast. That model needs to be put out to pasture. 

[Tom]

17 minutes ago, WinterSquall23 said:

I’m ready.  Big time snow lover here , but is has been frustrating this year.  No more 33 degree rain please. When we had that period of 60s and sunshine it felt good. This winter has been for the record books and not in a good way.  My parents are staying in Sedona AZ for a few months they love it there.  Will have to make a visit down there sometime. 

I'd be feeling the same as you and likely making plans to leave for AZ if I were in your shoes.  Sedona is a wonderful and serene place to visit and live.  Are they snow birds?

[Niko]

I will give this winter till maybe mid March and then, ready for spring. Sometimes March can produce bigger snows than what you think. After that, I will be thinking Greece...AHHH....and saying to myself, it it July yet.??!!

[Andie]

18 minutes ago, WinterSquall23 said:

I’m ready.  Big time snow lover here , but is has been frustrating this year.  No more 33 degree rain please. When we had that period of 60s and sunshine it felt good. This winter has been for the record books and not in a good way.  My parents are staying in Sedona AZ for a few months they love it there.  Will have to make a visit down there sometime. 

Big Sedona fan here.  My husband’s from Tucson. Lots of family there.  We have plans to go there, visit and get back to Sedona and Grand Canyon when he retires end of the yr. It’s heaven in places.. 

[tStacsh]

Looks like we stayed mostly all snow.  Most of the models producing R/S line near GRR were wrong.  The colder solutions won.  I believe the HRRR and the Canadian did the best.  

[Niko]

Looking forward to the warm up next week., 40s and maybe near 50F or so. Any snow we get today will be history for a lot of folks.

[gimmesnow]

I just want the lake to thaw at this point. Ski hills are past the point of no return. Even with a big march snow, it's a day or two of snowmobiling if I'm lucky thanks to the sun angle and long days. Ended up with under 2 inches in Baraboo, not even bothering going to Devil's Head. I am very ready for spring, sorry. But I know it's gonna be a long crappy March.

[Tom]

10 minutes ago, Niko said:

I will give this winter till maybe mid March and then, ready for spring. Sometimes March can produce bigger snows than what you think. After that, I will be thinking Greece...AHHH....and saying to myself, it it July yet.??!!

Yes, Greece sounds real nice...Mykonos!

[Niko]

6 minutes ago, Tom said:

Yes, Greece sounds real nice...Mykonos!

Yes sir. If you decide to go, get ready for some amazing food, great water to swim in and if you are single, DANG, you will have a fantastic time . The culture there is just amazing. I love going there. I usually settle down in Andros Island, which by boat ride from Mykonos is a couple of hours, so you can always come and I can show you around.. be prepare to gain a few pounds though, you will be non-stop eating. Nowadays, most Greeks there speak broken English, so communicating there will not be an issue for you. I can teach you to speak Greek, but its a hard language. For i.e., letter "p" for us is letter "r" for the greek language. If you say good morning, in greek you write it kalimepa. 

[Tom]

6 minutes ago, Niko said:

Yes sir. If you decide to go, get ready for some amazing food, great water to swim in and if you are single, DANG, you will have a fantastic time . The culture there is just amazing. I love going there. I usually settle down in Andros Island, which by boat ride from Mykonos is a couple of hours, so you can always come and I can show you around.. be prepare to gain a few pounds though, you will be non-stop eating. Nowadays, most Greeks there speak broken English, so communicating there will not be an issue for you. I can teach you to speak Greek, but its a hard language. For i.e., letter "p" for us is letter "r" for the greek language. If you say good morning, in greek you write it kalimepa. 

I’m considering a Euro Trip this summer so I’ll definitely reach out and pick your brain.  I’m a Big “foodie” and love Greek food.  An old friend of mine is Greek and his Mom always made the biggest feast on holidays or B Days.  Awesome times.

[Niko]

15 minutes ago, Tom said:

I’m considering a Euro Trip this summer so I’ll definitely reach out and pick your brain.  I’m a Big “foodie” and love Greek food.  An old friend of mine is Greek and his Mom always made the biggest feast on holidays or B Days.  Awesome times.

Thats awesome. My fav food is Pastitsio, mousaka, cheese/spinach pie, or just plain cheese, keftedes (round meatballs and etc), I definitely get french fries there (it has that amazing Greek oil taste) and muchhhhh more. Everytime after a good swim, I get very hungry, so there are literally cafes right across the beach, so we just go and grab a big plate of all types of food on it and a cold beer, looking at he Aegean sea. I also enjoy playing backgammon (real player here), sometimes i play in tournaments, anyways, then, back in the water. You get tanned up very fast, so be careful not to get burned. I did once and was a disaster.

Tip: There is also an Ikea store in Athens. I will have to make a stop there to buy a refrigerator because mine has gotten too old. The hard part is the delivery men have to carry it up the mountain (climbing a few steps). Man, now thats a workout for them.

[gimmesnow]

8 minutes ago, Tom said:

I’m considering a Euro Trip this summer so I’ll definitely reach out and pick your brain.  I’m a Big “foodie” and love Greek food.  An old friend of mine is Greek and his Mom always made the biggest feast on holidays or B Days.  Awesome times.

I spent a good amount of time in northern Italy, Paris, Berlin, Dublin, and Barcelona. If any of those places are on your list feel free to ask. Berlin wasn't the greatest city but the history there is amazing if you like history. Only place you can go from the extreme of touring a nazi air raid bunker to standing in a commie watch tower along the old Berlin wall.

I was surprised to see flights to Europe not being so expensive. I like to go to Japan too, but there's been a $500 fuel surcharge. Doesn't seem to apply to flights to Europe.

I haven't been to Greece, but I used Context Tours in Rome and they were extremely good. They seem to be in Athens and stuff, I would recommend them.

[chescowxman]

Increasing clouds today and a bit milder so we should see a lot more melting today with highs near 40 degrees. A chance of sprinkle or flurry tonight. A little chillier tomorrow and then snow arrives again toward midnight tomorrow night and should be done by 9am Saturday morning. At this point the NWS is forecasting a general 1" to 3" across the area. Colder Sunday and then a gradual warming trend next week.

Chester County Records for today: High 77 Phoenixville (1949) / Low 11 below Coatesville (1899) / Precipitation 2.25" Glenmoore (1984) / Snow 13" Coatesville (1958)

[Madtown]

3.3" last night...biggest snow since November!

[CentralNebWeather]

Like many on here, I’m ready to put this winter to bed. We did put a good dent in our drought conditions, and the 1.5” rain in early February was awesome. About 1 month of winter, 2 blizzard warnings, but blow torch most of the rest of the time. Maybe 1” tonight, then 50’s and 60’s next week. Eric Snodgrass keeps talking about an eventful March. Though, he is even frustrated on how we can’t get cold air here very often or it has no staying power. He posted a good video today. Hoping maybe one more snowstorm, but if not, I’m ok. 

[MNTonka]

MSP ended up with 6.9” with a 17:1 ratio. Pretty crazy ratio considering earlier in the day it was 41 degrees.

[gosaints]

Good lord at the medium to long term signal.....

[Hoosier]

26 minutes ago, gosaints said:

Good lord at the medium to long term signal.....

Might be a large scale severe wx outbreak late month if GFS is right.

[jaster220]

12 hours ago, Tom said:

I have a serious question for you guys out East...How many of you are ready for Spring?  How many of you are still interested in Ol' Man Winter making a comeback?  The models in the LR the past few days looked abysmal and they pretty much do today.   I remember the feeling rather well when I lived back in CHI seeing brown grass during the Winter and how badly it sucked.   You get to the point late in the season where you are greedy bc light snow events didn't really excite me much bc you have to deal with a higher sun angle, rising, avg temps and you wanna see a Big Dog at least one time before you flip your mood towards Spring.  

 

Too early to even expect that up here, short of a March 2012 redux. Not a fan a the brown-n-grey drabs, but still large snow piles and ice covered ponds and lakes. Not too spring-like. Now we got this "March type" snow system and it's a beautiful mid-winter's evening with half a foot fresh white gold. Per APX, squalls could be a thing tomorrow as well. 

[jaster220]

JFYI - With today's little storm I now have the largest seasonal snowfall total for mby since 2018-19 winter when I ended up 56.2" total. That's been 5 long years, and a 170 mile move NORTH in the making, lol. 

[chescowxman]

Winds have been gusting into the 20's from the northwest this morning. We should see sun for much of the day before clouds increase this afternoon. Snow will develop from west to east across the county toward the midnight hour tonight. The snow should end near daybreak with a general 2" to 5" forecast across the area. Sun returns for the rest of the weekend with temps not too far from normal levels with highs in the upper 30's.

Chester County Records for today: High 75 Phoenixville (1954) / Low -2.8 below Glenmoore & East Nantmeal (2015) / Precipitation 1.53" Chester Springs (2016) / Snow 17" West Chester (1958)

[Clinton]

A little Winter today with some slushy snow.  Latest models trends indicating an inch or 2 of accumulation today.  Also this Winter hasn't been a total loss, the drought is over.  I wouldn't have thought it was possible to break an extreme drought during the dry season.

[Grizzcoat]

Have had 4 significant snow events since the beginning of the year here in C.IA. 2 of the 4 have seen highest amounts right through DSM proper and that includes the current system with 3.5" as of 6AM.

Still snowing. Was supposed to be 1-2" and that was up from 1".  Ratios are about 15:1 -- but it started out at 10:1 and is now finishing at around 17:1

[westMJim]

Record breaking precipitation 0.49: and snowfall 5.5” amounts yesterday at Grand Rapids. The official H/L was 36/29 the highest wind speed of 44MPH was out of the west. For today the average H/L is 34/20 the record high of 29 was set in 1921 the record low of -12 was set in 1973. The most rainfall of 1.84” was in 1984 the most snowfall of 3.0” was in 2012. The most on the ground was 23” in 1936. Last year the H/L was 37/22 and there was 1.8” of snowfall.

[Minny_Weather]

Something typically very common for this part of the country that we have lacked basically all winter is wind chill. Yesterday and today are the first couple of days where we have had a real wind chill here this whole year. Even had to wear my coat yesterday when it was in the upper 20s.

[Tom]

11 hours ago, jaster220 said:

Too early to even expect that up here, short of a March 2012 redux. Not a fan a the brown-n-grey drabs, but still large snow piles and ice covered ponds and lakes. Not too spring-like. Now we got this "March type" snow system and it's a beautiful mid-winter's evening with half a foot fresh white gold. Per APX, squalls could be a thing tomorrow as well. 

You might be one of the only members in our Sub that could still be in a somewhat "winter-like" pattern.  Lot of ups and downs in temps but at least you may be getting hit by clippers and LES.

[Tom]

10 hours ago, jaster220 said:

JFYI - With today's little storm I now have the largest seasonal snowfall total for mby since 2018-19 winter when I ended up 56.2" total. That's been 5 long years, and a 170 mile move NORTH in the making, lol. 

That's great to hear and the fact that both you and I moved to a new place and are enjoying the outcomes is kinda neat.  I'm loving it out here and not missing it at all for the lackluster winter back in Chicago.  

[gimmesnow]

Is this just the GFS being the GFS or is there anything else to support something like this happening next week?

[MIKEKC]

Just started snowing in KC and temps have fallen to the upper 20's. Radar looks good with some enhanced bands on there, we just might score a 1-2 inch coating and enjoy a winter scene for the rest of the day. 

Spring returns quickly by Sunday and we just might see some 70's mid next week. Grass is very close to growing here. 

Mid-long range models appear very warm and not much winter to speak of. 

[Beltrami Island]

1 hour ago, Minny_Weather said:

Something typically very common for this part of the country that we have lacked basically all winter is wind chill. Yesterday and today are the first couple of days where we have had a real wind chill here this whole year. Even had to wear my coat yesterday when it was in the upper 20s.

I've noticed going back to early fall, every time a "cold" front has come through the state that the actual wind never seems to have lived up to the speed or duration forecasted by models even 3-4 days out.  Those forecasted periods of 36-48 hours of 20-25mph NW winds turned out to be about 12-18 hours of 10-15mph winds before the SE, S, or SW winds returned.

I guess just more ways to describe this torch of a winter. 

As opposed to 2013-14 which felt like day after day of constant 15-20 mph NW winds interrupted by brief lulls due to arctic highs passing overhead.     

[hawkstwelve]

We've had some unexpected light snow falling most of the morning. Not adding up to much after the little over half inch that fell last night but nice to see it falling during the day after a couple rounds of night snowfall. Won't feel like winter for long so guess we need to soak it up while we can!

[Hawkeye]

I got 0.3" of snow early this morning.  That will likely be all we get in February.

[Hoosier]

Well, sun angle season is here.  Currently have some light snow with temps in the 20s, but it's not sticking to the pavement.  The recent warmth probably doesn't help either.  

[WinterSquall23]

On 2/15/2024 at 8:52 AM, Tom said:

I'd be feeling the same as you and likely making plans to leave for AZ if I were in your shoes.  Sedona is a wonderful and serene place to visit and live.  Are they snow birds?

They are more like rain birds, to escape the non stop cloudy and rainy/drizzle days.  But they have been doing this for a few years now. 

[Tom]

10 minutes ago, WinterSquall23 said:

They are more like rain birds, to escape the non stop cloudy and rainy/drizzle days.  But they have been doing this for a few years now. 

It’s like the PAC NW lately, right?  Sad season for winter fans.  I didn’t think it would have turned out to be such a dud month for a lot of the center part of the Nation.

[Clinton]

I got an inch of snow this morning, it was very nice scenic snow.  The February sun angle is quickly going to work on it.

[OttumwaSnomow]

Got exactly  1 inch this am.  44.2" for the season.  Crazy to think that despite  the extremely  warm winter mby is clearly  above average snowfall.

[Timmy Supercell]

Under a Winter Weather Advisory which will be in effect 1 hour from now. 1-3" (not sure how much I'll get)

So far it's been a dull February but with some chilly mornings I guess. We haven't had fog in quite some time. 

[Timmy Supercell]

35 minutes ago, OttumwaSnomow said:

Got exactly  1 inch this am.  44.2" for the season.  Crazy to think that despite  the extremely  warm winter mby is clearly  above average snowfall.

March 2022 had a mean above average but still featured a nice mid-month snowstorm for us.

Not quite as warm as Dec 2021 though, that was a weird one. 

[Andie]

Winter’s goose is cooked.  
Spring will be peeking round the corner by Easter.