The widespread storm that spanned 20 states the past two days is weakening as it moves north toward Canada. Hardest hit was the Plains, with central Kansas in particular being the epicenter. The graphic shows the two day snowfall amounts. As was perfectly forecast, parts of central Kansas received around 18 inches of snow. The National Guard was called out to help stranded motorists. At the far south end of the storm there were severe thunderstorms with a few tornadoes. Tornado season has begun in the deep south.
The Chicago area received some warm advection snow. That is the warm air moving up over the existing cold air to the east of the main storm system which passed west of the metro area. Usually that is good for 2-4 inches, and that is basically what fell over the metro area. That was my original assessment of the system. I should have stuck to my original numbers rather than the 3-5 I upped them to Thursday. A complete list of all the metro reports and a map can be found here. My 3.1 inch snowfall was the largest of the winter, the previous highest a measly 2.1 inches. Not complaining.
The next storm for the metro area will arrive Monday night into Tuesday. This as another strong disturbance drops southeast from the Gulf of Alaska to the southern Rockies and then curves northeast. This system is expected to move farther south than the last one. However, this system will also start with warmer air than the last week. What this means is it is way too early to determine the precipitation type for northern Illinois. The models do show this becoming a very strong storm. Stayed tuned.
You can follow my articles by clicking on the “Subscribe” link on top.
You can also follow me at http://www.facebook.com/allfish2 and at http://www.twitter.com/allfish2
Comprehensive weather articles and discussion can be found at http://www.storm-central.com
Comments