January snow drought
If this was July, there would be considerable hand wringing in the agricultural community about the lack of moisture in the past month across much of Minnesota. Less than a quarter inch of water content was measured in the very meager snowfall, excluding the southeast corner of the state. A good snow cover remains from December's snow in northeast Minnesota.
In the Twin Cities, St. Cloud and Redwood Falls snowfall was on the order of two inches or less for the month of January. Monitoring of the snow depth from NOAA’s Remote Sensing Center in Chanhassen paints the picture of minimal snow cover.
Not so with the snow to our southeast. LaCrosse, Madison and Milwaukee have had plenty of snow. In the past twenty-four hours Chicago and vicinity received nearly a foot of fresh snow. This has been one of the snowiest winters in a quarter century in Chicago.
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A meteorologist gets a little gun shy about predicting snow accumulations during a snow drought. The past couple of weeks, Mother Nature teased the forecasters as snow advanced toward the Twin Cities on radar, only to fizzle. On occasion, the snow we observe on the radar is not even reaching the ground. Ice crystals are evaporating in the drier air on their descent.
The crystal ball is still a little foggy about the snowfall predicted for Monday. But we are about due for a decent accumulation on top of the old snow pack. Follow the group think on this snowfall at the NWS website as we move through the weekend.
CE