- Apr 14, 2020

SHORT ON WARMTH, AND STILL A BIT FLAKY FOR SOME...

I'll start you off with a satellite image which was taken early Monday when skies were clear in many areas. That bright mass of white from NW Iowa into Minnesota and Wisconsin is snow that's covering the ground from the weekend storm. Look at the sharp cut-off to the southern edge in Iowa. It went from nothing to 6"+ in a hurry.

Here's some of the totals which got into that 8-12" range in a narrow band. Impressive for mid-April!

You can see the snow ran from the Rockies all the way to the upper Great Lakes. The most reported was near Marquette, Michigan where Little Lake measured 20" along with 45 mph winds. That's impressive any time of the year let alone April 13th.

With this event seasonal snow totals have surged to impressive numbers up north. Much of northern Wisconsin has seen 6-8 feet of snow with places in the upper Peninsula of Michigan getting into the 10-15 foot range, heaviest in the lake snow belts. Good sledding.

The storm also had a deadly severe weather side. Tornadoes took the lives of at least 30 people over the southeast. SPC reported 71 twisters Easter Sunday and a total of 856 severe weather reports. For the year over 60 tornado deaths have resulted which is far above the 3 year average of 7.

In the wake of the system much colder air invaded the region. The southeast half of my area was 25-30 degrees colder at 1:00 pm Monday than just 24 hours earlier.

Additionally, the air was so cold aloft that in this late afternoon satellite you can see the instability derived cumulus which spit out wind driven snow showers just for fun.

This late season chill is locked in place the rest of the week. These are the 5 day temperature departures and you can see spring is un-sprung in many parts of the country with well below normal readings anticipated in all but the far west and southeast.

It may also be that parts of my area are not done with snow either, particularly the south. A weak disturbance Tuesday night could bring a dusting to my central and southern counties. A better organized system may graze the southern third (mainly I-80 south) Thursday night. The potential does exist for accumulations but confidence is low, especially with the EURO centered further south. Plenty of time to get it sorted out but for now, these are the preliminary snowfall forecasts I have to pick from.

The King (Euro)