WINTER STORM NOW 12/01/07-12/02/07: KS, MO, IA, NE, SD, MN, MI, WI, IL, IN, OH, NY, PA

[Jeff Miller]

Winter storm initiation is underway as radar is showing moderate precipitation rapidly developing in the Plains as we switch from models to actual realtime analysis of this winter storm event.

Moderate freezing rain was rapidly developing over central Kansas and South central Nebraska early this morning mainly NE of a Dodge City to Goodland, KS line. Intensification of precipitation appears to be rapid with large scale moisture advection.

This thread is for current radar and surface observations and discussion as-it-happens through the life of this winter storm event.

[Jeff Miller]

Update for:
KSUX

2:54 AM, Midlevel saturation overspread Sioux City according to Radar
3:11 AM, First flakes of snow began to fall, no mixture
3:40 AM, Light snow began falling steadily.

Temperature here has actually dropped a degree and winds have picked up substantially since precipitation onset at least here locally. Snow is powdery and is blowing on the roads and sidewalks.

[Mike Umscheid]

A light glaze on some exposed surface here at Dodge City with 30F...holding tough... probably at or below 32F until about 13 or 14z perhaps. Then by 20z, 50-60mph wind gusts from the southwest! :eek:

[afischer]

Window for freezing rain has already closed for KC metro. Got a very thin layer of ice on vehicles in the parking lot here in north KC. Parking lot itself is more wet than slick, not much accumulation there. Blessedly, it looks like intense moisture advection helped offset the wetbulbing, with sfc temps only dropping ~2F across much of northeast KS and northwest MO at the onset of precipitation.

[Dan Robinson]

Some web cameras to watch this event unfold:

Lincoln, NE traffic cameras (ice blocking may of the lenses now):
http://www.lincoln.ne.gov/city/pworks/pwcam/index.htm

Omaha towercams:
http://gray.ftp.clickability.com/wowtwebftp/index.html

Des Moines traffic cameras:
http://www.511ia.org/DM_Metro_tripGuide.asp

[Dustin Wilcox]

Not all that bad here in Lincoln, stepping out the front door is a bit treacherous but at this time I'd estimate only half of what is falling is freezing, sidewalks are slick in some spots and just sort of slushy in others, roads appear to be primarily just wet. Warm surface air is already working North Beatrice is reporting 32 already, still appears just to the North of the Omaha Metro will get the worst, the Wayne NE to Storm Lake IA area should be or will be shortly experiencing rain and their surface temps remain in the lower 20, 19 at Sioux City cold surface air should hold tough there a little longer.

[Mike Hollingshead]

Damn, I went to sleep a little after 1 with nothing going on anywhere. Wake up 5:45 and dang does it look like a mess outside. Will have to get some pictures before the power goes out. Trees look to be sagging some already. I wonder who, if anyone, that gets freezing rain will manage to not get above freezing. Warming looks like it's on schedule more than I figured it would be already.

I80 Omaha to Lincoln closed....impassable.

[Dustin Wilcox]

I80 Omaha to Lincoln closed....impassable.

Not sure if that isn't just more of a precautionary move, as based on treated road conditions here in Lincoln I can't imagine its really all that bad if they treated it.

[Mike Hollingshead]

Not sure if that isn't just more of a precautionary move, as based on treated road conditions here in Lincoln I can't imagine its really all that bad if they treated it.

They were reporting several jackknifed semis on it. Wouldn't take many of those, lol. Man, whoever near here that doesn't break 32 today is hosed. Wonder if the Storm Lake IA area will or not. 22 there still.

http://www2.dor.state.ne.us/Webcams/Default.aspx Some good web cams on there. Blair's looks like it's going to be blocked before long, lol. Click on Gretna then the west of bridge one.

[Craig Maire II]

Our forecasted high temp today is for 30F! :eek: Snow is falling in portions of western and central Iowa and light snow is invading my area but as of yet is not reaching the ground. A cold front will impact my area tomorrow dropping the temps into the lower 20Fs tomorrow afternoon and lows will be in the single digits to lower teens Sunday and Monday night which will only make this more of a nasty situation due to the probability of many persons here not having heat because of widespread and extended power outages (if this storm pans out).

[Dan Robinson]

http://www2.dor.state.ne.us/Webcams/Default.aspx

A lot of those roads look like solid sheets. No traffic anywhere on many of those views. Lincoln's streets look pretty well covered too based on all of the cameras.

[Maggie Kahman]

I stayed up as long as i could, at least 2:30. I just got up maybe 10 minutes ago. I went upstairs to look and even though its dark out, i can see the trees are iced over. The grass is covered as well. Not sure how the roads are, they look slick, but could just be wet. I dont know how long the ice will last, its already 30.

[Brandon Sullivan]

Latest Surface Analysis shows the Low over Utah already at 996 MB!! Nothing here yet, appears to be evaporating before reaching the surface. Total saturation should occur very soon here, and get things under way, temp sitting at 27 degrees...

[Joel Wright]

Ahhh, the calm before the storm. Just cloudy here right now, with some virga streaking overhead. Still a few hours away from precip. The wind is very light out of the SE. Boy will that change by this afternoon!

I went to bed around midnight wondering if the models were a bit too wet too soon with this storm. But now just looking at the models I'm amazed at how much the precip just exploded all over the place out to the west.

The general consensus in my area is a quick 1-2" of snow, followed by brief sleet, and then a 3-6hr period of freezing rain. So, anywhere from 1/3"-2/3" of glaze expected, along with 40+mph wind gusts.

Man I hope we all can be lucky enough to retain our electricity!

[Dustin Wilcox]

Looks like most locations south of Hwy 30 in E NE are very near freezing if not already creeping above; melting has began here in Lincoln. Trees and powerlines ended up with a pretty solid coating 1/4"-1/3", we're lucky surface temps weren't just a little cooler.

I-80 from Lincoln to Omaha now reopened as well. Looks pretty awesome outside, I'm guessing some will have some pretty cool pictures to show!!!

[Ryan Pfannkuch]

Just took a few measurements outside and came up with 1/5 inch of glaze here in Hastings as of 700am. Things really deterioriated within the last few hours. We are currently holding at 30F and thankfully the freezing line is only a few hours away with afternoon highs in the mid 40s possible. Considering what we currently have here...this can't bode well for folks back in my home state of IA. Wow did this thing come together rapidly once the isentropic lift kicked in!

[Mike Hollingshead]

Yeah anywhere in northern IA(maybe as far west as Sioux City area) that doesn't break 32 is hosed. Radar filling in a bit back to the south. If the sfc winds can stay backed there long enough, that should really hold off the warming some. Teens to low 20s up there, I'm guessing can hold on for a good while. Then the cold front starts to push southeast later, which will lock areas up there below freezing. It may be interesting as that upper low center pivots out much later too. Wind picking up here and the trees are beginning to talk.

Interesting to loop the sfc pressure/wind on the spc meso page and watch the tendancy for them to back in nw IA right now. Feed all that cold air west right into that heavy precip area.

[Jayson Prentice]

Ames has a dusting of snow, not much for freezing rain yet maybe a very thin layer on a few objects. You can truly see which areas across Iowa have received the ice by checking out the IEM Webcams. Several of the cameras already 'iced over'... I-35 south of Des Moines is under travel not advised conditions. We must have a bit of ice on the roads, just heard a car spin its' tires on some outside...

The freezing rain had begun to fall once again here, its' quick to accumulate and I can already see it now on the roofs and windows where I couldn't before. I'll likely be updating my blog through the whole day, have a couple of neat links on there as far as freezing rain conditions thanks to the IEM...

[Joel Wright]

Unless I'm missing them, I'm not seeing too much in the way of sleet observations being reported. That is far from what some of the models were suggesting. That can be confirmed by the lack of high reflectivities, or bright banding, across the entire precip area. This is not what you want if you want to keep your power lol. This means there's a very wide swath of freezing rain, with just a little snow on the northern and eastern edges, and not all that much sleet mixed in. It appears to really be coming down out in central and western IA, on into eastern NE.

BTW, why is the DMX and OMA radar still stuck in clear air mode?

[rdale]

Probably because of the lack of high-reflect returns... No need.

[Jayson Prentice]

We've had some sleet here, although not much and its' been mixed in with the more prominent freezing rain. So it's still there and falling, but it seems like the freezing rain has definitely taking over quicker than some models thought.

[Mike Hollingshead]

Probably because of the lack of high-reflect returns... No need.

That's not the reason. Local radar has showed the higher returns. They can also be seen on the spc meso page radar.

[Jesse Risley]

We've had a bit of sleet, but mainly freezing rain here in Western IL.

It looks as if the heaviest glaze will occur roughly along a Sigourney, IA - Sterling, IL line. I wouldn't be surprised if some locations in far NE IA or NW IL receive 0.50"+ glaze.

[Kurt Hulst]

Posting on behalf of Craig Maire.

There is already a half inch of sleet on the ground in Waterloo, IA. It is supposed to turn to freezing rain and there is a possible ice accumulation of an inch or more. Craig is heading out to video tape what he can and will report later.

be safe man

[Joel Wright]

Well, some snow flurries are beginning to fall here finally. To the west out in the QC the live news break-ins show they've picked up a quick burst of snow. Just enough to whiten the ground. Winds are picking up a bit finally, probably a bit over 20mph. Stronger winds are still out in IA where radars show it's really coming down.

Edit: Make that snow is falling now. Went from flurries to more respectable snowfall in a matter of a few minutes...

[Darren Addy]

Looks like minimal impact around here. We had ice (probably 1/4" coating cars, etc.) but it appears that 32 degree or higher temps are already pushing up into central Nebraska (and SW Iowa). No precip at all coming down in Kearney, as of about 9:30 AM. Stuff appears to be melting pretty quickly and higher temps are predicted this afternoon.

[Robert Dewey]

It baffles me that some NWS offices are going with winter weather advisories and then mentioning ice accumulations around 0.25 inches with wind in excess of 25MPH... IWX says extreme southern lower MI could approach 0.30 inches of ice.

Model QPF increased with the 12Z as well, and the NAM/GFS are a touch warmer at 850MB indicating a faster switch over to ZR for some areas.

I'll probably get stuck with a winter weather advisory, but I'm expecting at least 0.25 inches of ice, and combined with the wind... this could be quite an event.

[Jason Tunzer]

It looks that the worst is over here in OMA. Temps are starting to climb above freezing. I would guess to say that there is a 1/4 on the trees and rain is still coming down. For the 15 minutes I was outside taking these pics I heard 3 branches cracking and falling down, I would guess there were in the 3'-6" diameter. Enjoy the pics and be safe.
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-3/963919/DSC00358.JPG
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-3/963919/DSC00363.JPG
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-3/963919/DSC00359.JPG
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-3/963919/DSC00360.JPG
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-3/963919/DSC00361.JPG
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-3/963919/DSC00362.JPG

[Bill Doms]

MnDOT traffic cams. Heavy snow bands entering the south Minneapolis metro area. Will be heading out shortly.

http://dot.state.mn.us/tmc/trafficinfo/cameras_map.html

[Brandon Sullivan]

Already have a nice glaze of ice here. No camera with me, but non treated area's are very very slick.

Numerous accidents being reported.. Heard a trooper earlier slide into the ditch, said he was only doing 5mph..

[Joel Wright]

Nice pics Jason..

Well, the snow lasted less than 10 minutes here. Already switched over to sleet. Even some freezing rain as well. Not good, as we have at least another 5-7 hours of subfreezing temps, and .5-.9" liquid qpf model forecasted by 6pm.

Better go make something warm to eat while I still have power lol...

[Charles Kuster]

There is a decent amount of melting taking place in Lincoln, NE now with a cold light rain falling. I was out for about a half hour trying to find cool picture opportunities. About .2-.3" of ice accumulated on most surfaces, including my car which is locked in a nice layer of ice. :) It was not a big event here, but I was still happy since this is my first experience with freezing rain. We don't get that back home, but Leadville has had 10.2" of snow as of 7am MST from this storm.

[Jayson Prentice]

Well it has really started to sleet and have some ice pellets for the most part like the models were predicting, nearly an inch of sleet/graupel now accumulated here in Ames. Only a couple hundredths of an inch of ice that was mixed in earlier, currently coming down as moderate to heavy sleet.

[Craig Maire II]

Thanks Kurt for posing on my behalf! I mean't to tell him we are expecting up to 1 inch of glazing ice and a half inch of sleet, don't have a half inch yet but the ground is covered in sleet and we are receiving moderate sleet and some freezing rain. Roads are still passable (had to take my dad to the hospital because he injured his self while trying to cover his truck or something with a tarp, slammed his finger in the door and needs stitches). Winds are really starting to pick up now! More updates to follow soon (I have a power inverter in my car and my neighbor has a generator).:D

[Joel Wright]

Well it has really started to sleet and have some ice pellets for the most part like the models were predicting, nearly an inch of sleet/graupel now accumulated here in Ames. Only a couple hundredths of an inch of ice that was mixed in earlier, currently coming down as moderate to heavy sleet.


Sucks we can't really tell where the sleet is since the DMX radar is still in clear air mode. Surely the precip is heavy enough to switch to precip mode. Even during weaker snow events it usually trips on over to the precip mode...

Freezing rain is now the dominant precip here. Still a bit of sleet mixed in, but nothing like before. Just a very thin glaze of ice so far.

[Jayson Prentice]

You'll be happy to see that they have just switched over to VCP 11; so no more clear air mode for DMX. Really made the difference as you can obviously see some areas of the precip 'light up' when they made the switch...

[Craig Maire II]

Receiving heavy sleet and had a wind gust to at least 37 mph just before 11am...:eek:

The February storm (of this year) damaged or destroyed more than two thousand utility poles, downed one thousand miles of power lines, and an estimated 269-thousand homes lost power at one point or another. This storm could POSSIBLY rival this previous event!

[Andrew Geil]

Here in Central Illinois we are receiving a nice, gentle glazing. Started out with sleet this morning, but its been a gradual change over to rain. Wind isn't bad at all. Roads are pretty slick, lots of accidents and people sliding into ditches. People will never learn. I really should invest in a tow truck company someday...

[Jim Zandonai]

Here in Rockford we have been getting light snow with some blowing snow. Nothing really heavy yet and we are expecting the change to freezing rain later this afternoon as warmer air to the southwest continues to over run the the cold air here..Still its getting slick here already..will post more later as needed.
Looks like some heavier precip now in east IA developing.

[Danny Neal]

Heavy snow falling on the southside of Chicago right now. Powdery windblown snow just began falling within the last 10-15 minutes. Temp holding at 30....probably will get a quick half inch to an inch before the sleet and freezing rain begin in the next 2-3 hours.

[Brad Case]

I have switched over to DMX radar. Dry slot approaching OAX.
http://w0tvs.net

[Joel Wright]

Well, things are going downhill fast here. The last few hours the freezing rain has been mainly light, and the winds have stayed in check. However recently the winds have picked up and are gusting to about 30mph. (Although luckily not some of the 50mph wind gusts the NWS was talking about yesterday.) The freezing rain is really picking up now. About 0.2" of glaze now, and we've managed to stay devoid of sleet, with the exception of at the very beginning of the storm.

As Mike H said earlier the trees are really talking, and soon I'm afraid they'll be screaming.

Still at least 3-5 more hours of what appears to be mod-heavy freezing rain on the way.

[Danny Neal]

As MCD mentioned the worst is yet to come as the 32 degree gradient will be along a Chicago to Quad Cities line by 7 pm. It has been snowing for about 40 minutes and roadways/sidewalks are covered. We may get a little more than an inch? Local mets are calling for 2-3. Seems like 1 would be most reasonable before we start getting sleet and freezing rain.....4-9 PM is the predicted window for Ice Accum. so we shall see.

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/ILSvrWxTorChsr/PC010024.jpg

Edit: Sleet and freezing rain have begun to fall at about 2 P.M. Still several more hours of precip.

[Craig Maire II]

Still receiving moderate to at times heavy sleet, have recieved atleast a quarter inch of sleet, still have power.
Also, the forecast for my area has been updated, there now is an 80% chance of RAIN tonight with a THUNDERSTORM possible...Low expected to be 27F.

[Dan Melby]

The sleet-graupel has ended here in Ames. It looks like the precipitation will be in liquid form, for the time being anyways. Heres a look from outside my apartment.

[Joel Wright]

1/3" of glaze here with winds now gusting to near 40mph. Moline reports 37mph at 2pm, while the DVN station reports 39mph. The freezing rain is coming down almost heavily at the moment. No sleet to speak of. The trees are really swaying now, and dropping some small branches and twigs. Temp is up to 30 now, so hopefully only another 2-3 hours of icing left.

[Bill Doms]

Video from the Minneapolis area this morning. Little drier air working into my area now from the SW...2.5" of snow only.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8EkcuDtQRE

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w80/mnskies/winter/071201capture.jpg

[Jeff Miller]

South Sioux City report:

Freezing rain switched briefly to rain and is now back to freezing rain with continued icing. Temperature is steady at 32.5. Beautiful crystal glaze on all exposed objects outside. .2 tenths estimated glaze.

[Craig Maire II]

It's now 2:45pm CDT and the sleet has started to mix with and change to FREEZING RAIN, (temp is around 27F)we are expecting between a tenth and a quarter of an inch of freezing rain on top of the approximate half inch of sleet that we have already received. Winds still gusting at times to around 30mph and I still have power.:D

[Jim Zandonai]

Well since last report the snow ended and its been all sleet. Right now we have light-Mod sleet. So far have about 1.5" of sleet and snow on ground.
The winds are about 30mph here with temp about 27-28.
The interesting part will be coming up here when this changes to Freezing rain.. Radar still shows a good amount of precip in NW IL and EC IA yet..

[Dan Cook]

We got around an inch of snow here and precip's pretty much changed over to freezing rain; ice is starting to pile up nicely.

[Jayson Prentice]

Around a tenth of an inch of ice for the most part here in Ames, a good 1.5" of sleet/graupel mix on the ground as well. Have a few pictures from my apartment, still a light freezing rain coming down when I took those less than an hour ago.


http://www.stormcenterusa.com/iowachaser/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=3459&g2_serialNumber=2


http://www.stormcenterusa.com/iowachaser/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=3452&g2_serialNumber=2


http://www.stormcenterusa.com/iowachaser/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=3456&g2_serialNumber=2

[Craig Maire II]

Looks like my area has dodged a BIG bullet as the precip changed from sleet to just plain old rain!:( LOL! Also there are no power outages in my area.

[Jim Zandonai]

Well here we just switched to Freezing rain which is putting a glaze over the sleet snow mixture..Radar shows the Precip moving extremely fast and I estimate just over another hour of precip here..so the next hour is critical for icing. Glad no one seems to have lost power yet on a large scale at least..

[Joel Wright]

Freezing rain still falling here, but it's 32 degrees, and about to change to just plain rain at anytime. Power's been out off and on the last two hours. Many large limbs and branches down. Have had about .4" of glaze total. Power outages are scattered here and there. Winds are back down to around 30mph in gusts. Had a few 40+mph wind gusts a few hours ago.

Here's a quick shot of the top of the tree in my backyard. This pic's a few hours old, as I couldn't post during the outage.

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/8778/icestorm1201070071gm7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Jim Zandonai]

We have about .25 inch of ice here now and its 29-30 degrees. Still getting light-moderate Freezing rain.
The TV station WREX reportedly lost power and is running on generators now. They said they had about a 1/2" of ice so far..So far power is on here.

[Aaron Kennedy]

In Grand Forks we're on the northern fringe of the system. Been snowing moderately to lightly all day. We had 2-3in by 2pm this afternoon. Probably another inch or two since then.

[Derek Weston]

Nice coating of ice in Iowa City. Power is now out for the northern portion of the city. Has been for a few hours now.

Below the ice is a few inches of sleet. Roads are slushy, but sidewalks are very slick with lots of drooping trees and some broken branches. I'd estimate the ice cover to be 1/4 - 1/2 an inch. (perhaps closer to 1/2 -- though this might be off, not a lot of experience with these sort of guestimations)

[Adam Lucio]

We received a glazing of ice over the 1/2" or so of snowfall, most of the heavier precip went north. My friends are snowboarding in Wisconsin and called me because they never have seen lightning and snow before. Looks like we got one more burst of precip that will arrive in about half an hour so we'll see what that brings.

From walking in my backyard
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/5440/ice002bk5.jpg

[J West]

Freezing rain has arrived in the western suburbs of Milwaukee. The 3-5" of snow has a nice glaze on it and all southern facing exposures have a thin layer of ice on them, which has grown fairly quickly in the last 30 minutes.

[Danny Neal]

Just returned inside from "shoveling" the ice from my sidewalk and driveway. Probably close to 1/4 glazed on. Pretty slippery to say the least. We have about 90 more minutes of freezing rain left in the tank before that warm air seeps in and finally gets us over 32.

[Maggie Kahman]

Fairfield pretty much got jipped as far snow is concerned. We did get the ice, though. Hard to tell how much. The temp has been steady all day long (32°) and only now its gotten "warmer" by 2 F°

[Charles Kuster]

I know Colorado is not included in the thread title, but they were affected by this storm as well. Leadville received another 7.9" of snow yesterday, bringing the total for this storm (as of 7am on 12/2/07) to 18.1". This is a large amount of snow for Leadville from one storm. Other stations also received 16+" of snow from this storm (http://www.cocorahs.org/Maps/ViewMap.aspx?type=snow).

Here in Lincoln, we did receive some snow this morning as well.