Updraft: December 1, 2007 Archive

Waiting is over

Posted at 9:04 AM on December 1, 2007 by Craig Edwards

Mother Nature has delivered as promised! Snow will fall heavily throughout the day across much of the state. There will be a mixture of sleet and freezing rain moving north from the Iowa state line this afternoon.

If you are following the snowfall intensity on radar, you might notice some brighter returns. The yellow color on the National Weather Service Radar indicates the area of ice pellets or freezing precipitation. Just north of that band is where the heaviest snow is likely falling.
Weather Radar

Also, when viewing the surface reports, visibilities of a half mile or less suggest snow is accumulating at the rate of an inch an hour.
Hourly weather observations

Check out Paul Huttner's previous blog on the predicted snow amounts.
CE

Storm Ramps Up

Posted at 1:48 PM on December 1, 2007 by Paul Huttner

Some interesting trends this afternoon with our first big winter storm of the season.

Snow Trends:
Good snow now across most of Minnesota, stretching all the way from the Canadian border to south of the metro, where it changes to sleet and freezing rain. 3 inches of SLEET has fallen at Albert Lea, and freezing rain has been coming down for the past two hours at Rochester. Roads are no doubt icy along the I-90 corridor and in much of southern Minnesota. They will stay that way thorugh this evening at least.

At 2pm Deephaven in the West Metro has 3.3" on the ground, and Eden Prairie has 3.6". Check the latest snow totals from NWS below.

Latest Snow Totals

Snowfall Rates:

At 2pm moderate snow is falling in the metro with visibilities of between 1/2 and 1/4 mile at times. There will be little lulls and bursts in snowfall intensity as is common in winter storms. At these visibilities, snowfall rates in the metro should be between 1/2 and 1 inch per hour through 5pm tonight.

Latest Minnseota hourly roundup

Dry Slot:
There is a little wedge of drier air punching into west central MN. This has shut off the snow in places like Marshall and Redwood Falls west of the metro. As this drier punch move in this evening, we may see the snow let up between 5 and 7pm.

Twin Cities Radar Loop

Overall I' think we're still on track with 5" to isolated 10" totals in most of the metro. The heaviest totals may be in the south and east metro. There is already 3" down in much of the metro at 2pm, so if we can hold the snow through 7pm at least we should end up there.

If you have snow totals please send them along to me at weather@mpr.org.

Let it snow!

PH

One More Wave

Posted at 6:10 PM on December 1, 2007 by Paul Huttner

Next wave of snow mixing with sleet as it moves through metro this evening.

Twin Cities radar loop

Should see another 1" to 3" tonight, bringing storms total snow in the metro into the 5" to 8" range, with isolated higher amounts possible.

Check below for snow total summaries from Twin Cities NWS which are updated as reports come in.

Snow reports

Skiiers and snowboarders will delight at conditions on the slopes this weekend.

Enjoy the snow!

PH

Winding down

Posted at 10:15 PM on December 1, 2007 by Paul Huttner

Plenty of snow to play in now. Plenty of ice to the south.

Here are the latest totals.

Enjoy the new snow!

Twin Cities NWS snow totals

Duluth NWS snow totals

La Crosse NWS snow and ice totals