/Issued 6:53 PM CST, Thursday, February 20, 2014/
Weather alerts per HAMweather.com
Pink=Winter Storm Warning
Red=Blizzard Warning
Purple=Winter Weather Advisory
NOTE: Winter Storm Warning covers all of Northeast Minnesota and Northwest Wisconsin through Noon CST Friday. The Counties of Cass and Crow Wing which were under a winter weather advisory before are now under a winter storm warning.
My snowfall map looks good so far so I won’t be changing that at all.
*Low pressure of 986mb as of 6 PM was located over far Eastern Iowa and this low should continue to lift northeast through the night while it continues to deepen to around 975mb or so Overnight. The mid/upper level trough is also beginning to take on a negative tilt now and this will only become more negatively tilted during the remainder of this event.
Water vapor image from 6:45 PM CST
Black line represents the position of the upper trough.
Blue line is the expected storm track.
Upper Midwest radar loop ending at 7 PM CST. Source, WSI/Intellicast
Blue=Snow
Green=Rain
Pink=Mixed precip
*Preliminary snowfall reports for February 20, 2014*
Source: National Weather Service Duluth, Minnesota
International Falls, MN (Koochiching County) 2.2″
1 N of Cloquet, MN (Carlton County) 6.0″
5 NW of Duluth, MN (St. Louis County) 4.9″ NWS total thru 6:05 PM.
6 S of Grand Rapids, MN (Itasca County) 3.5″
1 W of Scanlon, MN (Carlton County) 4.8″
2 SW of Webb Lake, WI (Burnett County) 3.6″
Brimson, MN (St. Louis County) 3.0″
Holyoke, MN (Carlton County) 4.0″
5 N of Motley, MN (Cass County) 1.0″
Alborn, MN (St. Louis County) 5.5″
Lake Nichols, MN (St. Louis County) 6.0″
10 E of Fort Ripley, MN (Crow Wing County) 3.0″
7 ESE of Superior, WI (Douglas County) 2.0″
Note: A twitter follower of mine @dchura asked me if I could add a snowblow schedule to my forecast, so here it goes.
Heaviest snow in the Twin Ports falls Tonight. Snow should be tapering off to lighter snowfall after 3-4 AM and that light snow/flurry activity should persist through Noon Friday.
Winds will really ramp up during the night. Wind direction will shift to the north/northwest Overnight into Friday with wind speeds of 15 to 30 mph and wind gusts possibly exceeding 35 mph. So if you’re waiting for the wind to subside to do some snowblowing you’ll probably have to wait until late Friday Afternoon for that to happen. Hope that helps you out a bit.
Storm Prediction Center has issued a meso-discussion for heavy snowfall rates of 1-2″ per hour through late This Evening (Pink outline area on the map)
Stay tuned for more updates.
Tim