2010 Snow Cover: When will it melt?
Driveway slice at the Huttner Weather Lab shows about 2 feet of compacted snow today. (Photos by Paul Huttner)
This has been a respectable Minnesota winter. The deep snow on your yard is the best evidence.
As we approach March next week, one big question remains: When will it all melt?
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We've had continuous snow cover on the ground in the Twin Cities (and much of Minnesota) since December 8th. That makes 78 days that the Twin Cities has recorded at least 5" of snow on the ground.
While this is no where near the longest stretch of 121 days in the infamous winter of 1978-'79, we are approaching the top 5 longest stretches for 5" of snow on the ground.
Right now 5th place is held by 1969-'70 with 121 consecutive days of at least 5" of continuous snow cover. To break that, we'll have to retain at least 5" until March 20th in the Twin Cities.
I measure 18" on the ground at the weather lab today. Twin Cities Airport has 13". With signs of a thaw next week, it looks like we'll melt some snow in the next 10 days. But I think it's going to be a slow process this year.
One reason may be they type of snow layers we have deposited on the ground this winter. There are several different layers with ice layers in between from freezing rain events. Ice is harder to melt away than snow. It may take a while, or a good hard rain to melt away some of the ice layers present in the snow.
Cross section of snow cover at the weather lab today. Notice the deep snow from the early December and Christmas storms on the bottom, then several layers of powdery snow sandwiched between layers of ice.
The average date of the last inch of snow cover for the Twin Cities is April 2nd. By the looks of what's laying on the ground and the medium range forecast maps, we have a shot at getting there this year.
Snow cover is even deeper in southwest Minnesota. Some areas are seeing snow depths in the top 5% of all years on record.
Yardstick buried in plied snow at the weather lab. 3' to 4' piles like this exist all over the state this year near plowed and shoveled areas.
Walkway at the weather lab typical of so many plied high with snow banks on either side this year.
PH