THAWING THE BIRD...

THE TSWAILS GUARANTEE...

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WHAT $12 CAN BUY

A DOZEN DUNKIN DONUTS

A MEDIUM PIZZA

A PINT OF CHERRY GARCIA

3 CUPS STARBUCKS CAPPUCCINO

A 12 PACK OF BEER

A FULL YEAR OF TSWAILS.COM

A MESSAGE FROM TERRY...

Dear friends of the site, I still need some help. My 2021 fund raiser to keep TSwails.com going is a bit short of where it needs to be. Despite 388 voluntary $12 dollar donations I still do not have my operating expenses quite covered. My $12 dollar asking fee is the cost of a pizza or a dozen donuts. Those are gone in a day, TSwails.com is here for you all year long. It's a heck of a value and all I'm asking is that if you enjoy the site and see value in it, that you please consider a voluntary subscription. I'm asking $12.00 dollars a year. That's $1 dollar a month or 3 cents a blog if you consider the fact there were 450 posts issued over the past year. The site requires a significant commitment of time and resources, every donation, whatever the size is deeply appreciated. I just need a little help to cover the expenses. If in any way you are unsatisfied with the content of TSwails, you can take advantage of my unconditional refund. Click on the link below if you can help the cause or need additional information. I thank you for your support and consideration. Terry

PRE-THANKSGIVING THAW...

Whatever you are doing Wednesday to prepare for Thanksgiving, be it traveling, cooking, cleaning, or lounging, you will do it in comfort with temperatures that will be well above normal. The entire day will be dominated by a mild pre-cold front air mass and brisk south winds. The day even starts mild with readings around day break close to 40.

Moisture will be on the increase leading to broken or overcast skies the balance of the day. Even with a fair amount of clouds, the low level jet will feed the area with relatively warm air and highs should end up in the range of 55 to 60 from north to south. Unfortunately, winds from the low level jet will mix down to the surface producing wind gusts of 30 to 35 mph. That's the price you pay for highs near 60 just a week from December. Here's highs on the GFS

For the most part, readings will end up about 15 degrees above seasonal norms.

Towards evening the cold front arrives and interacts with the moisture surge ahead of it. There should be enough forcing and lift for some scattered showers to develop near and especially east of the Mississippi. These will be fast movers if they show up and little if any rain is expected with the threat is over shortly beyond midnight. The GFS shows this for rainfall.

The EURO came in like this.

Behind the strong cold front, winds switch to the NW and another dry air mass arrives keeping things precipitation free until perhaps a few spotty showers Saturday night. Far more important will be the fronts impacts on Thanksgiving day. Cold windy conditions are expected with winds of 25-35 all day long. Turkey day starts with temperatures in the upper 20s to low 30s and readings should hold fairly steady through afternoon only rising a couple of degrees. These are highs Thanksgiving.

Most of the day wind chills will be deep in the 20s. At 6:00PM below you can see they have fallen into the teens.

Black Friday starts cold with lows in the mid to upper teens. Clouds will be back on the increase as winds veer to the south late in the day as warm air advection develops ahead of a clipper. Highs of 35 to 40 are anticipated. The track of the clipper near or north of the area should mean most of its rain or snow showers remain to the northeast but it's possible a few brief showers may dot the landscape later Saturday or Saturday night. Overall the entire holiday travel period through Sunday looks good in my neck of the woods as we continue in this dry boring pattern.

ALLOW ME TO REMINISCE

I'm going to be spending some time in Dubuque Wednesday and that got me thinking about one of the better snowstorms I've had the pleasure of experiencing. It was back in 1985 when I was just a pup and working at a tiny TV station in Dubuque, Iowa with the call name of KDUB. I remember snow started to fall around sunset the evening of November 30th, which was a Saturday. I lived in a house that adjoined the Dubuque Country club with three other guys all in our 20s. It was a fun loving bunch and people were coming and going from there all the time. By about 10 in the evening we had already picked up close to 6 inches of snow and it was coming down hard. The word went out that a big tackle football game was happening on the golf course at midnight. Women were welcome and as the clock struck 12, two rag tag teams took to the snowy tundra with more than a handful of participants of the female persuasion.

The snow was deep enough that we could barely run with boots, gloves, and coats....it was a free for all. Hard to throw the ball or even catch it with the giant snowflakes. We ran around like little kids for a good hour and then came in and decorated a Christmas tree we had bought that afternoon. Everybody was soaked with coats, gloves, and socks soon hanging everywhere. Numerous toasts were made and if I recall some mistletoe was hung. Not having access to the real deal, we improvised by cutting off the branch of a pine tree next door. It worked fine!

In the wee hours of the morning any stragglers finally left or went to bed. Not me though. I buckled back up and walked around in the snow for another half an hour appreciating the change it had made in the landscape of the neighborhood. It was one of those magical nights that will live on in my memory forever.

Anyway, when I got up it was still snowing and blowing and a bunch of us turned on the tube to watch the Packers game in Green Bay. It was against the Tampa Bay Bucs and is known as the snow bowl and of course was an extension of the same storm that was moving northeast. We laughed our tails off watching the players slipping, sliding, and loosing the ball just like we did the night before. Here's a couple pictures.

As I mentioned this was a benchmark snow event for me as we ended up with 18.6 inches in Dubuque which is still the all-time record for a single snowstorm. That's the most snow I ever seen at one time although once in the Quad Cities I did come close to that with 18.4 inches in the big Groundhog Day Blizzard of 2011. Below you can see the surface map early Sunday showing the deepening low pressure moving towards Chicago.

Here's some information on the storm and snow totals from the NWS in Des Moines.

A winter storm struck Iowa from late on November 29th through December 1st producing heavy snow across much of the state. A wide swath from southwest to northeast received 8 or more inches with many stations from around Guthrie Center east northeast to Waukon and Dubuque recording a foot or more of snow. In northeastern Iowa Decorah, Dorchester, and Waukon all set their single-day snowfall records with Dorchester reporting a remarkable 18.0 inches of snow in just 24 hours ending on the morning of the 2nd. Other reported three-day snowfall amounts included 13.5 inches at Charles City and Waterloo, 14.0 inches at Independence and Waukon, 14.8 inches at Decorah, 16.0 inches at Tripoli, 16.5 inches at Oelwein, 17.0 inches at Fayette, 18.6 inches at Dubuque, and 19.0 inches at Elkader and Iowa Falls. Winds gusted to 40 to 50 mph by December 1st, combining with bitterly cold air to produce wind chills of -40 to -60 and resulting in blowing and drifting of snow that brought travel to a standstill across much of Iowa.

My hope is that this December will be one to remember but that remains to be seen. I will have much more on that in coming days. In the meantime, safe travels and a very happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Don't eat too much...ha! Roll weather...TS

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