Temperatures in flux

We've had some wild fluctuations in temperatures over the past few weeks across the Northern Plains. While we remained rather cool through a good chunk of December, January has begun rather cold.

An arctic outbreak entrenched much of the central and eastern parts of the country the last two weeks and with a slight moderating the last few days, another shot of cold air seems to be on it's way.

By this time, tomorrow night, we'll likely see temperatures in the double-digits below zero once again here in the Valley with even colder temperatures expected over northern Minnesota. The NAM shown to the left has the H50 heights near 522 over us, with even lower heights to the east and northeast.

So, we'll see another cold, January weekend.

Looking ahead, the GFS doesn't really show much in the way of any major pattern shifts, with several troughs pushing east-southeast out of Western Canada through, at least, the next couple of weeks. February could start out rather cold, as well, with the extended GFS showing this early in the morning on Feb. 3rd:



Yes, that is a 516 isoheight over the northern valley!

By the 7th, however, a decent ridge begins to build over the west and I'm hoping this will slowly translate to the east, bringing moderating temperatures and warmer temperatures. That would certainly be welcome...

Record snows...

And now you all see what kind of life a storm chaser leads during the winter months. I haven't really had much to write about in the last month or so. Some chasers get pumped at winter storms. I do not. Especially, those that affect me. They only reinforce what I already know. That my car doesn't handle the ice and snow at all. ;)

Anyhow, we were affected by a couple of major winter storms here in the Northern Plains the past 30 days and as such, the NWS has officially announced that December 2008 went down in the record books as the snowiest December on record. Both in Grand Forks and Fargo:

RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA/GRAND FORKS
712 PM CST THU JAN 1 2009

...RECORD MONTHLY SNOWFALL AT GRAND FORKS UNIV. (NWS) SITE FOR
DECEMBER 2008...

30.1 INCHES OF SNOWFALL OCCURRED IN DECEMBER 2008 AND THIS IS THE
HIGHEST EVER MONTHLY SNOWFALL FOR DECEMBER.  THE ALL TIME MONTHLY
SNOWFALL FOR ANY MONTH IS 31.5 INCHES SET IN JANUARY 1989.

...RECORD MONTHLY SNOWFALL AT FARGO/MOORHEAD FOR DECEMBER 2008 AND
FOR ALL-TIME...

OFFICIALLY 33.5 INCHES OF SNOW FELL IN FARGO/MOORHEAD FOR DECEMBER
2008.  THIS WAS THE HIGHEST TOTAL FOR DECEMBER 2008 AND FOR ANY
MONTH.  THE PREVIOUS RECORD FOR HIGHEST MONTHLY SNOWFALL FOR ANY
MONTH WAS 31.5 INCHES IN JANUARY 1989.

Northwest flow early in the month brought several Alberta Clippers to the state, while a pattern shift brought a more westerly flow near mid-month. This brought Ali, the first full-blown blizzard in many years, to Eastern North Dakota. And since, we're back into the northwesterly flow and thusly have experienced clipper after clipper pretty much every other day for the last week and a half. No significant snowfalls really, but each has dropped between 2 to 4 inches. So, yes, we have well over a foot of snowpack out there and that doesn't do anything to help our temperatures.

Yet, today... More impending doom:



We have bright sunshine out there right now, but these clouds heading our way will be bringing more snowfall, potentially 6+ inches, to the area. The NWS Advisories map to the right will show you the winter weather advisories that are in affect across the area.

A great way to start the 2009 year... more snow! :(

Happy New Years, everyone. Hope you all had a great holiday season.

Ice coats Hoosier-land

The major winter storm that was forecast to sock the Midwest and Ohio Valley certainly lived up to it's billing last evening and through early this morning. Not only did areas of Southern Iowa receive all sorts of ice and sleet accumulations, but northern areas of Illinois and Indiana did as well.

In fact, the following image from Decatur, Indiana clearly shows a quarter-inch or better accrual. And given the image is from Southeast Elementary, it's pretty clear there was no school today for the kiddies back in the Hoosier state. At least, not in Decatur. Unfortunately, my home town of Bluffton doesn't seem to offer any webcams whatsoever, so I have to accept the Decatur AWS cam as my local look into my hometown.



It can't be so much different of a look in Bluffton given there is only about 15 miles separating the two towns.

Either way, I'm sure glad the ice and sleet is occurring there and not here. We will have Winter Storm Watches up for the Valley for this next system. Yes, the active pattern continues to wreak havoc across the Northern Plains. The inverted trough and upper-level wave will bring the threat for moderate to heavy snows across much of the area possibly as soon as tonight, with activity likely continuing through tomorrow evening. What this means is that another 5-9 inches will be possible here by then and that strong winds will once again bring Blizzard-like conditions to the area.

Granted, there are some chasers out there that are suffering through SDS so badly this time of year, they're more than willing to go out there and chase these systems. I'm definitely not one of these types... I may have let you all know that already. If I have, I apologize. I think it's worth saying again!

I have the weekend off again, and as with Blizzard Ali, I'll be staying inside where it's warm to watch. If I feel brave enough, I may get out in the elements at some point tomorrow to possibly get some photos. We'll see how motivated I am to do just that. ;)

In the meantime, stay safe everyone. No matter where you are, I'm sure you have some sort of winter weather to be concerned about.

Blizzard Status...

The Threat Assessments Chart is quit colorful still tonight. Blizzard Warnings continue across much of the Northern Rockies and Plains through tomorrow morning in some areas, through tomorrow night around these parts.


While the snow hasn't starting falling very heavily here in Grand Forks, the winds have continued to increase throughout the afternoon and are quite gusty out there. The existing snow-cover we had isn't budging much. Apparently, it had crusted over just enough not to cause any problems.

I've been in all day keeping warm and working on the Webcam Network some. I've added several new cameras to southwestern Montana, a couple in Missoula and several others in and around Jackson, WY. I didn't get as many added as I wanted to today, but I kept getting distracted by the weather and the IU/KY basketball game on CBS this afternoon.

It's nice, as well, to see the WeatherCam Network get some love today. I really want the Meteorologists of the world to be able to use this thing as a real tool. For the time and effort I put into networking all these cameras (as accurately as I can!), I really want people to appreciate it.

I can see the armchair chaser really wanting these, as well. I know I always do, when I can't be where the storms are!

Blizzard Watch

The first full-blown blizzard I've experienced in quite some time may come barreling through the Northern Plains this weekend. The models have been fairly consistent with pushing an intense surface low up from the southwest and progressing an upper-wave eastward from the Pacific Northwest. As these phase together Saturday over the region, we'll likely see heavy snows and strong winds.

The NWS has issued Blizzard Watches from Montana to South Dakota to Minnesota already.

I'm not particularly one of them winter-storm chasers (yes, they do exist), and even if I were, I wouldn't have to go anywhere. We will likely experience the worst of it here in Grand Forks, late Saturday and into early Sunday.

It's the perfect weekend to be off shift. No, you'll find me hibernating in the apartment, working on the Webcam Network all weekend.

Chasing snowflakes...

Our friendly little Clipper "slash" 700mb wave is bringing some decent snows over the valley this afternoon... We might have close to an inch out there already.



For the latest radar image, you may want to visit my radar floater.

Chasing days of Yore

You know, as a young lad and growing up through my teens I use to tape every little weather program that appeared on television. And every little event that happened in Indiana, especially across Northern Indiana, I'd tape the local news, as well as snippets from the Weather Channel.

The last two days, I've been going back through my old tapes and watching these things. Some of these events I can clearly remember, others I can't. From significant snowfalls to tornado outbreaks, I only wonder if I had been able to chase back then what things would have been like.

One of the programs I had taped was called "Cyclone" and was from "Discovery Sunday," a program that the Discovery Channel use to show way back in the early 90's. On it, they profiled Jim Leonard as a storm chaser, as well, as Project VORTEX from the '94 and '95 seasons.

Once again, I only wonder what it would have been like to have been chasing back then. In the early 90's people chased strictly for the love of the atmosphere, to see that next great Supercell. They knew how to forecast and they chased with their intuition, rather than with computers and WxWorks systems. The great thing about it, they still were great at it.

There were no storm chasing tour groups crowding intersections... There were no hooligans out there chasing that had no formal training... And there certainly were no chasers out there risking their lives just to make a buck!

Sometimes I wish I could have led an earlier life.