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"Snow Globe:" Some 3"+ MN totals now

Posted at 4:13 PM on January 10, 2011 by Paul Huttner (4 Comments)
Filed under: Cold, Snow, Winter

A big lazy sprawling upper level low pressure center is feeding "snow globe" conditions in much of the central USA.

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 invo trof.PNG
"Inverted trof" of low pressure on the surface map spawning widespread snowfall.

While not particularly intense, the prolonged snow shield with this system is huge. Snow is flying Monday from Tulsa to Thief River Falls.

We call these systems "inverted trofs" (NWS abbreviation for trough) on the weather map. These elongated areas of low pressure are not tightly wound up like the mega storms that can produce wind driven, hard hitting blizzards with heavy snow. But inverted trofs can be significant snow producers over time.

The slow moving system is slogging through the Midwest, and will continue to send waves of light to at times moderate snow into the Upper Midwest through Tuesday. The system is bucking drier air on the eastern side, and that may lead to spotty snowfall coverage at times from the metro north and east.

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1radar nws.gif
Heaviest snow from St. Peter to Glencoe Monday PM.

Some significant Minnesota totals:

There are some impressive (6"+!) snowfall totals from South Dakota, Iowa and southwest Minnesota already Monday afternoon.

Here are some snowfall totals as of Monday PM.

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...SUMMARY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD
325 PM CST MON JAN 10 2011

..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..

1245 PM SNOW 1 N SPENCER 43.16N 95.15W
01/10/2011 M5.5 INCH CLAY IA CO-OP OBSERVER

0110 PM SNOW SIOUX CITY 42.50N 96.39W
01/10/2011 M12.2 INCH WOODBURY IA OFFICIAL NWS OBS

0120 PM SNOW MARION 43.42N 97.26W
01/10/2011 M6.5 INCH TURNER SD CO-OP OBSERVER

0125 PM SNOW GREGORY 43.23N 99.43W
01/10/2011 E5.0 INCH GREGORY SD CO-OP OBSERVER

0230 PM SNOW 3 SSE SIOUX FALLS 43.50N 96.71W
01/10/2011 M5.1 INCH MINNEHAHA SD TRAINED SPOTTER

SOUTHEAST SIOUX FALLS. STORM TOTAL.

0300 PM SNOW WINDOM 43.87N 95.12W
01/10/2011 E3.3 INCH COTTONWOOD MN CO-OP OBSERVER

0300 PM SNOW SIOUX FALLS 43.54N 96.73W
01/10/2011 M5.8 INCH MINNEHAHA SD AMATEUR RADIO

0306 PM SNOW BRUNSVILLE 42.81N 96.27W
01/10/2011 M8.3 INCH PLYMOUTH IA CO-OP OBSERVER

0315 PM SNOW VERMILLION 42.78N 96.93W
01/10/2011 M8.5 INCH CLAY SD CO-OP OBSERVER

0322 PM SNOW HURON 44.36N 98.22W
01/10/2011 M8.1 INCH BEADLE SD OFFICIAL NWS OBS


Closer to the metro, there are some 3"+ totals coming in from south central Minnesota.
Here's the data from Twin Cities NWS.

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN
312 PM CST MON JAN 10 2011

..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..

0300 PM SNOW LITCHFIELD 45.12N 94.53W
01/10/2011 M2.0 INCH MEEKER MN TRAINED SPOTTER

0.18 INCH LIQUID

0305 PM SNOW MANKATO 44.17N 93.99W
01/10/2011 M3.0 INCH BLUE EARTH MN TRAINED SPOTTER

0117 PM SNOW ST JAMES 43.98N 94.63W
01/10/2011 E3.5 INCH WATONWAN MN TRAINED SPOTTER

0114 PM SNOW WINNEBAGO 43.77N 94.17W
01/10/2011 E3.0 INCH FARIBAULT MN TRAINED SPOTTER

Here at the Huttner Weather Lab in the west metro, I measured just under an inch (.80") of "powdered sugar" snow as of 4pm Monday.

Expect the snow to continue through Tuesday as the system slogs slowly east. I still expect snowfall totals in the greater metro area of 2" to 4" inches by Tuesday night.

Heavier snowfall of 5" to 10" is possible in south central Minnesota.

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 earl 2.PNG
NAM 84 hour snowfall painting some 6" totals along the I-90 corridor!

Impressive snowfall totals over 1 foot are likely with this system in much of northern Iowa.

Extreme Cold Warnings:

As if we need another reason to question our sanity for living in Minnesota. NWS is rolling out a new warning. Get set for the "Extreme Cold Warning." Feels like an event in the "X-Games" for winter weather terminology.

Here's the scoop from the Twin Cities NWS:

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN
1150 AM CST SAT JAN 8 2011

...EXPERIMENTAL USE OF EXTREME COLD WARNING TO START MONDAY...

BEGINNING MONDAY...JANUARY 10 2011...AND CONTINUING THROUGH APRIL 15
2011...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICES BASED IN THE DAKOTAS AND
MINNESOTA...INCLUDING CHANHASSEN...WILL BEGIN ISSUING AN
EXPERIMENTAL EXTREME COLD WARNING.

OCCASIONALLY...TEMPERATURES FALL WELL BELOW ZERO WITH LITTLE OR NO
WIND. CURRENTLY THE ONLY WAY TO HEADLINE VERY COLD TEMPERATURES IS
WITH THE USE OF WIND CHILL ADVISORIES OR WARNINGS. THE EXPERIMENTAL
EXTREME COLD WARNING WILL BE ISSUED IN THE RARE SITUATIONS WHEN AIR
TEMPERATURES FALL TO DANGEROUS LEVELS BUT THERE IS LITTLE OR NO WIND.

EXTREME COLD WARNINGS WILL BE ISSUED AS NON PRECIPITATION WEATHER
PRODUCTS...NPW...AND WILL USE THE VALID TIME EVENT CODE EC.W FOR
DISSEMINATION.

THRESHOLDS...

WIND CHILL ADVISORY...WIND CHILLS 25 BELOW TO 34 BELOW.
WIND CHILL WARNING...WIND CHILLS 35 BELOW OR COLDER.
EXTREME COLD WARNING...AIR TEMPERATURES 35 BELOW OR COLDER WITH
LITTLE IF ANY WIND.

CAVEAT...

THERE MAY BE SOME INSTANCES WHERE AN EXTREME COLD WARNING IS
ISSUED WHEN AIR TEMPERATURES ARE BETWEEN 30 BELOW AND 34 BELOW.
TIME OF YEAR...LENGTH OF OCCURRENCE AND IMPACT WILL BE SOME OF THE
CONSIDERATIONS IN THESE CASES.

IN ALL OF THESE CASES THE ABOVE CRITERIA WOULD NEED TO BE MET OVER
A WIDESPREAD AREA...NOT AN ISOLATED LOCATION...AND FOR A
SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF TIME...AT LEAST SEVERAL HOURS.

COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS...

COMMENTS SHOULD BE SUBMITTED TO THE FOLLOWING WEB ADDRESS...

HTTP://WWW.WEATHER.GOV/SURVEY/NWS-SURVEY.PHP?CODE=ECW

NWS CHANHASSEN EMAIL CONTACT AT TODD.KRAUSE@NOAA.GOV

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT THIS PRODUCT AND OTHER EXPERIMENTAL
PRODUCTS CAN BE FOUND AT:

HTTP://PRODUCTS.WEATHER.GOV/VIEWLISTE.PHP

Thankfully I don't see us reaching the -35 criteria for any extreme cold warnings (even with our weekend arctic front) in the near future. You can let Todd Krause (one of the best!) at our local Chanhassen NWS know what you think of the criteria.

PH

Comments (4)

Sorry for being pedantic, but isn't it spelled "trough" ?

Posted by Tyler | January 10, 2011 4:34 PM

Hi Tyler:

"Trof" is a standard NWS abbreviation for "trough" used in forecast discussions.

That's all you got today? :-)

Seriously...thanks. I added the NWS abbreviation explainer to the post. We get a little inside baseball now and then in "weathergeekdom."

TROF
Trough

Posted by Paul Huttner | January 10, 2011 4:45 PM

What goes around, comes around. Forty years ago the Weather Bureau would hoist a headline announcing a COLD WAVE WARNING.

Posted by Craig | January 10, 2011 5:22 PM

Why is it that whenever you see the weather on the TV that it only shows the weather/radar to the confines of the US borders. Is there a law or something?

Posted by Phil | January 10, 2011 5:38 PM

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