Back in early February I made a post about how I was seeing the signs of a big drop coming in the SOI (southern oscillation index). I felt this was a signal that convection in the Indian Ocean was advancing east of Australia and this would do two things. First, it would spur the MJO (Madden Julien Oscillation) to enter the cold phases of winter signaling another Arctic outbreak towards March 1st. Secondly, I expected a major storm shortly after the SOI fall bottomed out as th

After a warm and relatively snow free December around the Midwest, the tide turned and from January on 2019 has been cold and snowy over the Midwest. Here's the temperature departures since January 1st. February's departure looks like this with only 2 days to go. Notice the warmth in the east and the intense cold over the northern Plains. The contrast between the two air masses established a tight baroclinic boundary that numerous winter storms have traveled since early Janua

Over the weekend my area just missed out on a vicious blizzard, arguably one of the worst in many years. The storm, with winds of 60 mph and and snowfall of up to 17" brought havoc to the northwest half of Iowa, southeast MN. and NW Wisconsin. Severe blowing and drifting produced whiteout conditions and shut down travel in much of that area. I-35 from Ames to south of Minneapolis was closed for up to 2 days in spots. Here's some eye opening images from the aftermath of the st

This winter has been forcing us to look at the next system before we're even done with the current one. Makes sense considering much of the Midwest has picked up most of it's snow this winter (so far) in the last 40 some odd days. The good news is we will have a few days before another strong storm moves through the Midwest. However, there will still be chances for light snow this week. First, let's recap what happened this weekend. First, heavy rain set records... Then came

An incredibly powerful, dynamic storm produced tornadoes, heavy rain, and blizzard conditions across the United States Saturday. Watches, warnings and advisories were posted across the country from this storm. Blizzard Warnings, Flash Flood Watches, Tornado Watches, High Wind Warnings.. just take a look at this map: Down in the southeast, severe thunderstorms developed Saturday afternoon. Here's the storm reports from the southeast, which included a few tornadoes: Further to