Updraft: February 5, 2008 Archive

Snow drought again?

Posted at 7:06 AM on February 5, 2008 by Paul Huttner

The weather maps are starting to look familiar.

Last winter's snow drought turned into summer drought for much of central Minnesota. This winter the storm track has decided to set up shop to our south and east again. Take a look at these season snow numbers for parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Location / Season Snow / Departure

Twin Cities /21.8" /-13.5"
St. Cloud /17.0" / -13.0"
La Crosse, WI /46.9" /+18.5"
Madison, WI / 60.3" /+28.3"

So La Crosse has had more than twice as much snow as the Twin Cities. Madison nearly three times as much. Oh and by the way, there going to get another 8" to 12" in parts of southern Wisconsin again over the next 48 hours.

Sometimes it's tough to say why the storm track sets up where it does. We'd like to say it's an easy answer like this winter's La Nina. The theory there is that the jet stays farther south taking the big storms with it, and we stay deeper into the cold air.

The reality is there's not always an easy, neat, gift wrapped answer to why the weather does what it does.

Advisories: Next storm tracks south

Wisconsin storm updates

PH