Epilog- 7 pm
The storm started with the snow as a mix early morning. It changed over and snowed pretty good in the afternoon. Totals around here and by Athelstane were in the 2-4″ range. There was probably a little more north and west where it was less of a mix. There was about an inch less in Athelstane than in Silver Cliff, and I am sure that it continued trending that way.
The storm was not what it could have been because of a couple of factors. Item one, the ground and roads were not frozen and were well above 32F. At that point it was melting from the ground up, and roads were not freezing up. It was very slippery where enough snow gathered up, but it was not freezing to the roads.
The cold air that mixed in and made it snow would have been colder in a month or two as well, upping snow totals and bringing less of a mix. The snow is a sturdy dripping wet snow. Walking through the grass finds a layer of water and slush under the snow. Main roads were not too bad, but if you hit a snow pile in the road it could throw you around. Gravel roads are very slippery, and the truck has to work to push through the slushy snow if you aren’t in existing ruts.
Between the ground being warm and the rain mix holding down totals I’d call this one a 2-4. Had this storm hit in January with frozen ground and colder air temps we would have been walloped. The amount of moisture under the snow suggests that it could have been a 8-10 or 9-12 storm pretty easily.
As it was the snow did come hot and heavy for a while, with big juicy flakes. It was adding up on the roads and making visibility rough when it was at it’s peak.
Now it is clearing out and the cold winds are coming in behind it. That would probably be more intense in January too.
As far as a gravel ride, maybe tomorrow will bring a different view of it. Right now it is so sloppy that a shoe goes right through the snow into the mud. If it cools down and firms some of that up, who knows. For now, no slush ride for me.
As far as the heavy snow loading up on the branches, it did a little, but it didn’t accumulate much before the wind shook it off. That could have been a lot worse too. I had one coffee cup sized dead branch come down (on the truck right as I pulled in, yipee), and one paper birch sort of leaning over the driveway.
A check of the WPS outage site shows that Antigo is out of power in a big way, but our area has very few outages. I suppose we can thank all of those 50-60mph wind storms this Fall for hardening the woods against high winds.
This was a dandy storm, and the path of it was just right to give us a lot of snow. Had it been Winter instead of Fall, it would be a very different result.
Have a good night and thank you for visiting!
RJB
Storm Watch- 8:30am
Winter Storm Warnings Today
8:30am- It is snowing pretty good now and it is sticking. The first white is obvious on the grass, driveway and truck. It is still a little bit of a mix, but there is snow.
Storm Watch- 5:30am
We are still on track for a significant snow storm today. The latest warning is for 5-8″ of wet heavy snow.
Here is a tid-bit from the latest NWS forecast discussion that caught my eye.
FINAL SNOWFALL TOTALS PROBABLY WON/T BE INDICITIVE OF HOW JUST
IMPRESSIVE OF A SYSTEM THIS HAS BECOME. WOULD PROBABLY HAVE HAD
WIDE SWATH OF 1 FT + SNOWS WITH THIS SYSTEM IF IT WERE 3-4 WKS
LATER.
RJB
Storm Watch- 12:30am
Winter Storm Warnings Today
I checked the very latest model runs and everything that I have is showing us getting a major snow storm today. The more eastern path that would give us a lot of snow has verified again on the latest NAM, RUC, and HPC outputs. With that kind of consistency and the 12-18 hour time frame, the storm is starting to look pretty real.
The winter storm warnings updated at about 10pm had us for 5-8 of wet heavy snow.
Observations-
The frame that has the rain changing to snow has us for 0.5-0.75″ of rainfall equivalent in 3 hours. That means that it could come on fast and heavy and make conditions deteriorate really fast.
I doubt that the whole 0.5-0.75″ will translate to 6-9 in 3 hours, but if it is even close-golly. The next two frames also showed 1/4-1/2″ and 1/10th-1/4″, an extra possible 3-6 and 1-3.
I also noticed that the isobars are fairly tight, so expect some wind with the storm.
Maybe things will change by morning, but right now it looks like a big powerful snow storm for today.
RJB