An amazing 54% of the lower 48 states had a snow cover this morning compared to only 3% one month ago today.
The morning snow survey, including a satellite survey, showed a solid blanket of snow from the north part of Arizona and New Mexico across most of Kansas, north half of Missouri, north and central Illinois, north Indiana and all of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas and Iowa. This is not just a thin snow pack. The snow is quite deep in most of that area.
So, what does this mean for Alabama, you ask? No, no, we are not forecasting snow for here, but when an extensive snow cover is as close by as the Central Plains and Midwest, it can alter Alabama temperatures. Of course this has to be a situation where NW winds are blowing down across the snow pack and all the way into Alabama. It becomes more pronounced when the snow pack also includes most of Oklahoma and Arkansas.
I remember a situation quite a few years ago when there was a solid snow cover down into Arkansas and West Tennessee and a brisk NW wind throughout the region. It ruined our high temperature forecast by as much as 5-7 degrees. Unfortunately, our beloved weather models are not educated enough to take snow pack into consideration. That leaves it up to us humans to do some intricate tweaking.
A POSSIBLE TRAGEDY IN THIS GREAT SNOWSTORM
Dozens of elk hunters are stranded in Northern Arizona, mainly in Coconino County, which encompasses a big part of Northern Arizona. It includes Flagstaff. But when you get very far out of Flagstaff in a northerly direction, it is remote country. In this storm, 20-26 inches of new snow buried Flagstaff and 18 inches at the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Of course, there were big drifts.
TEMPERATURES WITH THE SNOW
18 below zero at Belmont, near Flagstaff
18 below zero at North Platte, Nebraska
19 below at Grand Canyon Airport
27 below at Big Piney, Wyoming
LET’S LOOK AT SOME SNOW DEPTHS AS OF THIS MORNING
32 inches at the Arizona Snow Bowl NW of Flagstaff
20-26 inches Flagstaff
18 inches Grand Canyon Airport
25 inches Pelston, Michigan
24 inches Galena Summit, Idaho (This is where salmon from the Pacific come inland to lay their eggs and then die.)
23 inches Vallecito Reservoir, Colorado (One of our campsites.)
15 inches Cortez, Colorado (Not in the mountains.)
15 inches Waterloo and Red Oak, Iowa
14 inches Ames, Iowa
14 inches at Happy Jack, Arizona (In the White Mountains, lumbering country.)
13 inches Omaha
16 inches Des Moines
13 inches Marshalltown, Iowa with a low of 6 below
18 inches Madison, Wisconsin
30 inches Ironwood, Michigan
AND THE MEAN OLD WIND
Powerful winds blew across Arizona during this blizzard. A gust of 70 was recorded at Bellmont just west of Flagstaff and 74 mph at Prescott. The NWS even had to issue a couple of severe thunderstorm warnings during that classic storm.
DO WE NEED TO WRITE A NEW SONG?
With the history of non-white Christmas in the Birmingham area and much of Alabama, maybe some of you creative readers would like to write a new song entitled, “I’m Dreaming of A Rainy, Wet Christmas.”
ANOTHER PLACE YOU DON’T WANT TO BE
On Mt. Washington, New Hampshire at midday, it was 9 above zero with visibility zero and blowing snow. A west wind was averaging 67 mph with gusts to 75. The wind chill is 22 below.
Sorry this post is so long. I sometimes get carried away. Sometimes I wish I was not a weather-geek. It was in my blood the day I was born.
