1/23 - 1/26 Two Wave Major Winter Storm

[OmahaSnowFan]

Measured 8” at midnight. The heavy stuff 2 miles to my north basically evaporated as it drifted south towards me. Caught a brief period of bigger flakes but quickly ended.

[Stormhunter87]

Someone reported 12 just down the street. Overall this was a great storm that I wasn't really paying attention to until Saturday. Good luck to those still going or soon to partake.

[ToastedRavs]

Both Des Moines and Waterloo broke or tied daily snow records from 1895!! Same storm back then and now this will be in the history books as well. Waterloo tied theirs at 6.5" and Des Moines broke theirs at 10.3 (old record 10" even).

[Grizzcoat]

49 minutes ago, ToastedRavs said:

Live downtown Des Moines.  Just under 10 inches at midnight. Hard to find good place to measure though. Drifts 2 to 3 feet, which my little sports car didn't take kindly to as I drove to work. Luckily Iowa nice and had 3 folks shovel me out, myself included. Roads are not bad once you get to main ones. Snow covered and packed down, just those interchanges that are a b!tch. Still snowing so could get to the magic 12 inches downtown 

Different story in rural Dallas. Borderline Blizzard, but not quite. My lower level windows which start at the ground and go up 3' are nearly 1/3 to 1/2 covered on  the base. So you can only see out about half the window.

[jcwxguy]

Officially 14.5" at klnk 

[jcwxguy]

My final total was 15.2" after the little wrap around

[Grizzcoat]

A few pics of the growing mounds of snow that will only get taller with more shoveling. 

[Tom]

Woke up not long ago and looked out my window and it was snowing as hard as it has during this storm.  Big fat dendrites and a howling wind.  As a kid, I remember these moments like they were yesterday, always have and always will enjoy waking up to heavy snow!  I was a little nervous about the slow start, but recent radar trends have intensified and I managed to pick up a about 2.5" since about 9:00pm when I only had a coating OTG.  I am worried about being dry slotted as radar trends indicate this storm actually may be tracking farther N than modeled.  I'm hoping there is more re-development south of I-80 as the defo band pivots.

Congrats to all of you who have seen and witnessed one of the more memorable snowstorms in recent history!  Love reading your commentary and seeing the videos being posted.  It appears the SW Flow delivered, ay???

 

[East Dubzz]

Just had to take the dog out and it was really coming down out there! Nice to see 

[Tom]

Woah, I just measured exactly 1 hour later and picked up 1.3" in the last hour...its rippin' pretty good!  3.6" storm total thus far...radar looking promising as re-development continues just south of I-88.

[Tom]

Yet again, the DSM jack zone is in full effect...however, this time it's sharing the wealth...nice ribbon of 8-12"+ across NE/IA...max snow report 14.5" in LNK!

[Grizzcoat]

BTW-

the ratios I got at midnight at KDSM were exactly 15:1 . 5.4" snow. Melted down was .36".

On my drive home- snow become much drier and temp dropped to 17. So guessing 17:1 or so. Much higher ratios that I thought. And maybr a reason totals are slightly higher than even Mr Kuchera was saying...

[Hawkeye]

No doubt I'll find a 10:1 ratio, at best, in my yard.

[Tom]

Downtown Chicago is getting crushed right now... @Jaycee  is going to wake up into a winter wonderland! 

 

 

FWIW, this is what the 00z Euro showed will fall by tonight...

 

LOT has my interests perked up a bit for the LES later tonight into Wednesday...

Quote

LES parameters become somewhat favorable Wednesday morning as CAA
increases lake-EL values to around 5kft with 850hPa-lake delta Ts
of ~14C. While these values do not suggest significant LES,
enhanced dynamics from a low-level convergent axis and a passing
mid-level trough should help overcome deficiencies in the thermal
profile. Concern still exists for a dominant LES band to affect
Cook and Lake(IN) counties during the morning and into the
afternoon. Evolution of single band LES can be difficult to
forecast even 24 hours out, but at this time the band should have
enough motion to prevent an extensive residence time over any
given location. For that reason, the current forecast is for 1-2"
Wednesday from far northeast Cook County through Chicago and into
northwest Lake(IN). With all that said, if conditions begin to
look more favorable for a stronger band to sit over an area for
several hours Wednesday morning, a Winter Weather Advisory for 3"+
in a narrow corridor may be needed, especially given the
potential impacts for the morning commute.

 

[Tom]

Just measured where I cleared the spot on my deck from before and got 2.0" exactly...1"/hr rates continue...4.3” storm total so far...this is quickly adding up!  The snow is of the wetter variety.

[shakjen]

Throw that on the Bust pile. A couple inches and very little wind. No where near the wind they predicted. Done snowing here. 

[james1976]

I am freakin buried. I dont even know how much due to the wind. Still snowing 

[james1976]

Easily warning snows....easily....but DMX has kept me in an advisory the entire time. Wow. Those crazy kuchera totals panned out.

[james1976]

Just guessing maybe 9-10" just eyeballing. Huge drifts in the driveway

[westMJim]

I now have just over 1" of new snow here. At this time moderate snow is falling with a temperature of 26.

[james1976]

Now THIS is a classic winter storm. Wish it would have been daytime haha

[Stormy]

When I measured last night around 11:00pm I had at least 4”, but not much more. Hate windy snows for collecting/measuring. That December 29 storm was more exciting than this one. Maximum wind here yesterday was 36 mph. That’s probably a little low as a little snow collects in the anemometer cups even when it’s windy.  
 

Oh I forgot to mention I probably got only around 5.5” total. I measured several times early this morning.

Edited January 26, 2021 by Sparky

[james1976]

Travel no advised central and southwest Iowa including the county just south of me

[dubuque473]

Wow DVN was right when they switched me to 5-10”. Not sure how much we got with the drifting but it is still coming down hard.

[bud2380]

Well it may be due to drifting, I can’t tell yet. But the same spot I measured 4” last night before bed I now have 8” 

[Stormy]

It mostly ended here by 4:00 am already. I’m not sure what to think, but my gauge catches (4 total) all melted down to over 1” of liquid. My core sample from around 5.3” of snow melted to only 0.62”. In windy snows I lean my gauges approximately 15°-20° into the wind. They are 3’ - 4’ above the ground and I think very little blew in from drifting. But the higher amounts seem to high. I’m confused once again! Lol. I need to do more research.

[whatitdo]

6 hours ago, jaster220 said:

Solid dusting here! Feels like an 80's storm. 5 hours into a headline and wondering when it's going to snow?? That was the era of mega-busts. You think this is bad? Believe it or not, the NWS has come a long ways with forecast accuracy. It's actually a rarity to see a storm FAIL like what happened last January 12th.

I have about an inch and it’s only freezing drizzle now. They were calling for like 4 inches as were most models. Bust. 

[Stormy]

Here’s the latest map. It should change a few more times. That person in Iowa county (adjacent co. west of me) must of stuck his ruler in a little drift. Looks a little iffy.

 

[bud2380]

I just took a look at the long range radar loop and it looks like it just ripped down here right after i went to bed.  Snow just kept redeveloping right over my area.  Gonna try to confirm my measurement, but based on how far down in the snow the dogs are when they went out, I think 8" may be accurate. 

[dubuque473]

2 minutes ago, Sparky said:

Here’s the latest map. It should change a few more times. That person in Iowa county (adjacent co. west of me) must of stuck his ruler in a little drift. Looks a little iffy.

 

I can see close to 8” by my place. Did not set my gauge out because I only thought we would get 3” or so. Course with the wind probably would not have mattered..

[dubuque473]

[Grizzcoat]

I just returned from drift busting in rural Dallas CTY and several of the roads were so obscure I could not tell road from fields. Turned around twice. (30 years ago I'd be in the ditch) -- Blizzard was worse- but this is much more snow and harder to tell what is what even with smaller drifts as the ditches are full of snow.

[Bryan1117]

Officially finished with a two-day total of 12.5” at Omaha Eppley, the 11.9" that fell yesterday registers as the biggest one day snowfall since 1975. This will be a storm that will be remembered around here for a long time.

Lots of school and business closings locally again today as we will need some time to dig out from this one.

[bud2380]

I just went took several measurements and averaged around 6”. So that’s what I’m going with for now. I’ll be interested to see reports nearby later. 

[james1976]

Just took these. They do NOT do it justice but you get the idea. Still snowing good too.

[Tom]

Getting hit hard again as the lake is becoming an influence.  You can see the lake enhancement on radar and I could tell the snow is fluffier than before.  Picked up an additional 1.2” since last measurement bringing me to a total so far of 5.2”.

[kush61]

I have a question...

Is the LPC drifting North or will it pass South of Lake Erie as it continues East ?

[james1976]

It. Just. Keeps. Snowing.

Amazing stuff 

[Stacsh]

Crazy how there was supposed to be a sharp cut off north of me, but the heaviest snow fell well into CMI.  

[james1976]

Those 8 or 9" kuchera weenie runs totally panned out for mby. I'm disappointed with DMX though. Kept my county in a silly advisory the entire time for 2-4". LMAO