Unusual winter storm winds down
Our latest winter storm was unusual in many ways.
-The track of the upper low pressure system was almost directly north to south. The parent upper low tracked from near Winnipeg straight south along I-29 to near Sioux Falls Monday. This is almost the opposite of our more common Alberta Clippers (NW to SE) or our Panhandle Hook or Gulf Storms (SW to NE).
-The duration of continuous snowfall was much longer than most of our winter storms. Through 8am local time today, we've recorded 42 continuous hours of snowfall at Twin Cities Airport. An "average" winter storm might produce between 12 and 18 hours of continuous snow. The slow moving nature of this storm caused the long duration snowfall event.
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Even with the long snow, it is nowhere near a record. The record for continuous snowfall in the Twin Cities is 88 hours; from December 6th to December 9th, 1969. That storm produced 14" in the Twin Cities.
-Snowfall intensities remained light during much of the storm. There were only a few hours of moderate intensity snow. This is why snowfall totals were not even higher given the long duration of snowfall. Even so, snowfall totals across the metro ranged from 4.5" (NE metro) to 10.5" (SW metro) which is a respectable storm.
NWS snowfall total map shows heaviest bands favored areas west and south of the metro. Note the odd "kink" in the snowfall near Twin Cities Airport, which recorded one of the lowest totals in the storm, (5.5" two-day total) even though much higher totals were recorded in all directions from the airport.
-A compact arctic air pocket moved with the storm right under the center of the cold core low. Temperatures briefly plunged below zero in a relatively small area in southeast South Dakota and southwest Minnesota last night. It was -6 in Pipestone and -11 in Sioux Falls before temperatures actually rebounded overnight to above zero readings.
This is almost opposite of what we usually see, with arctic air following behind winter storms.
The storm pulls out today, and sunshine returns tomorrow. The good news is, our next chance of snow will not arrive until Saturday!
PH