Issued at 9:15 AM CDT, Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
*Winter Storm Warning* until 7 AM CDT Wednesday for Duluth/Superior…Including Southern St. Louis and Douglas Counties…
As of 7 AM CDT: 1.1″ of snow had fallen at the NWS in Duluth Minnesota…
At 8 AM CDT…Low pressure averaging 992 mb was centered over Southeastern South Dakota… The low has made very little progress over the past 5 hours. Strongest pressure falls of 2 mb/2 hours have shifted into Western…Central…and Eastern Minnesota through most of Wisconsin This Morning…
Snow started to fall here in Duluth around 2 AM Today with some ice pellets mixed in during the wee hours of the morning… Snow continued to fall here in the city as of 9 AM with bands of heavier snow now beginning to develop to our south…With movement toward the north.
Temperatures as of 8 AM were in the upper 20s to 30 degrees in the city with howling east-northeast winds of 25 to as high as 45 mph!
The zero degree H85 temperature contour stretched from Central Pine County in Eastcentral Minnesota through Southern Price County in Northwest Wisconsin as of 8 AM Today…
The surface 32 degree temperature contour as of 8 AM extended from Southcentral Pine County in Eastcentral Minnesota through Central Washburn and Southwest Sawyer Counties in Northwest Wisconsin…
The surface wet bulb 32 degree temperature contour as of 8 AM was centered just south and southeast of the Duluth forecast area.
Latest RUC model guidance indicates only a very slow east-northeast track to the surface low…With the low moving from Southeast South Dakota into Southern Minnesota by late This Afternoon or early This Evening…
I’m pretty confident that precipitation that falls through the day will come down as snow here in Duluth and it will likely turn heavy at times as strong lift and forcing help to cause heavier bands of precip to our south while they lift north into our area.
The strong east-northeast winds of 20-35 mph will also persist through the day with gusts to 40-45 mph possible. This combined with the snow will create near white-out conditions at times in the city as the most intense snow bands roll through.
I’m still concerned that temperatures may warm up enough by late This Afternoon or early This Evening to cause the snow to mix with or change to drizzle or freezing drizzle here in Duluth…But by that time we could be getting into the dry slot of this whole storm… I’ll continue to monitor those trends throughout the day…
Stay tuned for more updates
Tim
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