THE END GAME, WIND & BITTER COLD
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WHEN IT SNOWS, IT POURS...
The snow aspect of our winter storm is over! Additional accumulations Saturday will generally be an inch or less, thanks to occasional snow showers brought on by cold air advection. That means it's time to dig out after a four-day period where up to 26 inches of snow has fall in spots. I've heard rumors of drifts up to 7 feet. (By my recollection, the snowiest such period since January 1979). The shoveling will be challenging as the snow was heavy, and the winds keep blowing it back as fast as it goes. Not only that, bitter cold air is surging onto the region with harsh wind chills. Who says winter isn't fun!
This impressive storm looked like this Friday afternoon. The surface low pressure was down to 29.00 inches. You won't witness that on your home barometer very often. You can see the tight pressure gradient that created gusts to 50 mph. To the east, thunderstorms were common in the Ohio and Tennessee Valley.
Snowfall reports at the time of this post are not complete, but they paint a portrait of a snow event that typically happens every 10-15 years in this area. For example, the Quad City International Airport indicates 15.4 inches of snow, while the Davenport Airport at last report was at 14.8. It was still snowing lightly at both sites. Throw that on top of Monday's storm that dumped 15 inches on Iowa City and you have 2 storms in 4 days that are once in a 10-15 year event. What are the odds of that?
This is a larger perspective of the storm snow imprint.
Digging deeper, the 15.4 snowfall at the Quad City International Airport was the second largest all-time for a calendar day. That's impressive!
Now that we have a glacier underfoot, the stage is set for some big time cold. A 15 to 20 inch snow base is like living in a cooler full of ice cubes. The cold just radiates out of the box. Aside from that, it does not allow cold air masses to modify like bare ground. Thus, with this upper air pattern at 500mb delivering Arctic air directly over the region, it stays nice and frigid the next 6 days!
Look at these temperature departures Sunday night. 35 to 40 below normal. Just the opposite of December. What a reversal this is.
The EURO meteogram shows a 3-day stretch where highs don't get above zero in the Quad Cities. 9 consecutive days have sub-zero lows, some pushing minus 20. Isn't that special!
These are the suggested wind chills on the EURO Sunday night. 40 below is common. That will eventually get us wind chill warnings. Dangerous cold to say the least. A wind chill watch is in effect. Well, I've had enough for now. One of the great weeks of winter weather I've ever had. Thanks for tagging along and allowing me to test myself against the forces of nature. It ain't easy! Roll weather...TS
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