1/23 to 1/25 Major Winter Storm for Southern Plains

[KTPmidMO]

Ended up with 7.5" total. Thought I would come away with a little more from heavy snow we were supposed to get over night but that must of not really materialized. I measured last night around 10PM or so, went to bed about midnight and it was suppose to snow all night but only picked up 2.5" more. I'll take a 7 inch snowstorm though, cant really complain.

Good luck to everyone else getting it today!

[Tom]

@Hoosier @indianajohn the radar just blew up!

[jstein91694]

Pound town on and off in Avondale all morning. Bigger flakes the last 30 minutes. Had about 4-5 inches as of 8am so probably past 7in now. 

[Tom]

9 minutes ago, jstein91694 said:

Pound town on and off in Avondale all morning. Bigger flakes the last 30 minutes. Had about 4-5 inches as of 8am so probably past 7in now. 

Nice!  Near the NW Side of CHI?

[jstein91694]

Just now, Tom said:

Nice!  Near the NW Side of CHI?

Yup! 6 miles NW of downtown. 

[Tom]

3 minutes ago, jstein91694 said:

Yup! 6 miles NW of downtown. 

Congrats!  This is one solid setup for COOK and someone should hit double digits.

[Hoosier]

No warning for me

[ChiTownSnow]

2 minutes ago, Hoosier said:

No warning for me

Same...I'm on the other side of cook. In the nook of dupage co.   

Either way.. Some good lake enhancement happening for both

 

 

[Hoosier]

45 minutes ago, Tom said:

Congrats!  This is one solid setup for COOK and someone should hit double digits.

Could've been even more impressive if it had been able to organize into a single band instead of the multi-banded setup that it has been so far.  

These low inversion height setups with stout delta T values can be sneaky sometimes, especially when the lift is favorably placed in the dgz.  I think it may have been 2003 or so that there was a lake effect event in Porter county (I believe it was pure LES with no synoptic system in the area) that had relatively low inversion heights with solid delta T values that was able to organize into a single band and dropped like 20" there.  I drove into it and it was pretty crazy.  There was almost no snow up until Gary and then I could see the wall of white up ahead, and it was absolutely ripping fatties by the time I got to Portage.  

[Hoosier]

11 minutes ago, ChiTownSnow said:

Same...I'm on the other side of cook. In the nook of dupage co.   

Either way.. Some good lake enhancement happening for both

 

 

Although it's a better bet for Cook and Porter counties, I wouldn't be that surprised if part of Lake county IN ends up hitting warning criteria.  

[ChiTownSnow]

3.5 and stacking... Double what I thought we would get so pretty happy with it.

[MI Storm]

5 hours ago, Black Hole said:

1.6" through 3 PM yesterday when I went to work. Heavy snow started near 9 PM and it seems to have snowed all night. It was very difficult to get home. Looks like 5.3" from last night into this morning. Still lightly snowing should I should crack 7".

While not a legendary storm, obviously very solid, and its plenty enough to be fun watching it pile up. It's 6F and breezy so its cold out there! I am glad that even if it underperformed its enough to calm all the haters down

It seems like the northern side performed mostly as expected. The southern side seemed a bit dry. Usually it’s the opposite where the convection robs the warm sector. 

[MI Storm]

CMC nailed it locally here lol. Can’t say that too often

[ChiTownSnow]

View from front door

[Niko]

Still snowing here at my pl. Looks like a 5-7"+ event for my area b4 its all done this evening.

Note: Boston is the pl to be w 18-24" is expected. LOL. Nyc about 8-12", more if no mixing occurs. 

[Hoosier]

Some 8" reports near the lake in Chicago.

[Hoosier]

LOT

 

Recent ACARs soundings out of MDW depict a sharp inversion
around 5kft, so lake induced instability is shallow, but very
strong. Aided by the synoptic snows, the lake enhanced snow this
morning has been fallen heavily at times with snowfall rates up
to an inch per hour. Lake enhanced snow has penetrated as far
inland as Kankakee County, though anticipate the inland
penetration and probably the intensity of the snow will decrease
a bit as the seeder-feeder process ends as synoptic snows shift
east.

Any potential decrease in intensity of the lake effect looks to
be short lived early this evening as mid-upper level trough
approaches this evening. Height falls in advance of the trough
are progged to result in rising inversion heights and deepening
lake induced convective layer. In addition to the rising
inversion height, the nocturnal strengthening of the land breeze
convergence zone should lead to the development of an intense
narrow band of heavy lake effect snow as the focus shifts east
into Porter County.

Lake effect parameters are forecast to become exceptionally
favorable for a very intense lake effect snow band, with the
main question for our CWA being how quickly it organizes and
intensifies. By late evening and especially after midnight, it
wouldn`t be at all surprising to see 2-3"+ per hour snowfall
rates with the band. The potential ramp up in intensity of the
lake effect band looks to occur far enough west to justify the
earlier upgrade of Porter County to a winter storm warning and
bumping up snowfall totals there. The ceiling is high with this
event, should the band intensify on the earlier end of the
spectrum and particularly if it were to slow its progression
across Porter County, then double digit additional snowfall
totals would be possible. On the other end of the spectrum, if
the band were to remain more progressive and the intensity were
to not take off until it is east of Porter County, then the
additional snowfall amounts in northern Porter County could end
up more in the 2-4" range.

[Jaycee_CHI]

47 minutes ago, Hoosier said:

Some 8" reports near the lake in Chicago.

Hi it’s meee! Were definitely hitting the jackpot as far as the city goes! It’s still snowing like crazy and we were already at 8” as of an hour ago. It wasn’t snowing all that hard at the gym, then I got home and it’s the heaviest snow of the day — love to see it

[WinterSquall23]

Definitely and over achiever up here .  Still snowing.  We have about 4 inches today.  A+.  Snow everywhere.   Total I could really tell you we have drifts up to 2ft on the side of the house.   It is like Alaska came down to say hi.   

[Hoosier]

52 minutes ago, Jaycee_CHI said:

Hi it’s meee! Were definitely hitting the jackpot as far as the city goes! It’s still snowing like crazy and we were already at 8” as of an hour ago. It wasn’t snowing all that hard at the gym, then I got home and it’s the heaviest snow of the day — love to see it

Good stuff.  The IL/IN state line is starting to get it good... that will be moving in here very shortly.

[Niko]

15 minutes ago, WinterSquall23 said:

Definitely and over achiever up here .  Still snowing.  We have about 4 inches today.  A+.  Snow everywhere.   Total I could really tell you we have drifts up to 2ft on the side of the house.   It is like Alaska came down to say hi.   

Same here bud...overachiever for sure. I'm going to go measure later tanite or tomorrow. It is still snowing here......temp at 11F. I am thinking I picked up around 5inches, maybe more. My pl looks like it has the same amount of snow like your table has on it. We were lucky to be invited to this massive winterstorm that rolled on by us from the south. Ty Ma Nature!  

Btw: that looks more than 4inches on your table. Looks more like 6+.

[Niko]

Still snowing moderately...but it should finally end as this is the last moisture of Fern. So long Fern! Thank you for visiting S MI. 

[MI Storm]

The cold is increible. Things still very much a skating rink here in KC. Hopefully tomrrow the sun helps a bit more. 

[BLIZZARD09]

ended up with 6 plus here

[Niko]

Still snowing moderately, but went to clean anyways. He are some of my measurements.

Near 5" from winterstorm Fern. Keep in mind, its still snowing, so it is probably a little more now.

Second measurement shows total snowfall otg which is a little over 9".

Lastly my wife and I had a snowball match LOL..she whipped my a** LOL Gotta luv winter activities. If felt so good being outside. Temp at the time was11F but no wind, so it felt really comfortable.

 

[MI Storm]

Seems like the main band was a general 10-15 from NM to ME. Pretty cool stuff. Parents in NJ got a lot of sleet but still got about 12. Saw a 16 inch amount near Scranton and Boston area likely will be around that. 

[Tom]

This Winter storm will go down in History and congrats to those who were able to be part of it!

[Hoosier]

LOT snowfall map.  I never said my total but it was 5 and change, so right in line with expectations going in.

[Iceresistance]

My video from the storm, the final total was 8-10 inches, and the sleet was a combined .5 inch
Compaction and drifting made it very difficult to properly measure the snow

 

[Hoosier]

23.2" for Boston

 

[Niko]

On 1/26/2026 at 11:44 AM, Tom said:

This Winter storm will go down in History and congrats to those who were able to be part of it!

Only 5" for my place and 4.8" for Detroit Metro, but no complaints. It could have easily been 0.0" 

Areas just south of Detroit received somewhere between 5-7 inches.

[Niko]

Pics of NYC after winterstorm Fern rolled on by:

 

 

 

[jaster220]

10 hours ago, Niko said:

Only 5" for my place and 4.8" for Detroit Metro, but no complaints. It could have easily been 0.0" 

Areas just south of Detroit received somewhere between 5-7 inches.

It was - for me in Harrison