A busted forecast, no way around it, even as late as Saturday afternoon it didn’t look like we’d get more than an inch of snow in Duluth, and here we are 4 AM Sunday with a snowfall total of 8″ at the Duluth Airport.
What happened? I’m not an expert, but my guess would be that a cold front approaching the area from the west slowed down enough where it allowed more moisture to build north as low pressure moved NE out of eastern Iowa Saturday evening. So the moisture, a cold enough air mass, and lift associated with a cold front, trough and low pressure allowed for a narrow but heavy snow band to become nearly stationary over a small portion of northeast Minnesota Saturday evening into early Sunday morning, that heavy snow band was maybe 30 miles wide at most, crazy stuff!
The good news is that the heavy snow is done, but we will continue to see some flurries and snow showers throughout the day Sunday, and will also have a strong northwest wind of 15 to 30 mph with gusts >40 mph today. Temps will range from the mid 20s to low 30s today.
Note: Heavier snowfall shows up as darker green and yellow colors on the loop below. Snowfall rates ranged from around 1 to nearly 2″ for several hours in the heavier areas of snow.
Radar loop time 9 PM Saturday to ~3:30 AM Sunday, November 14-15, 2020.
Source: https://weather.cod.edu/
A strong mid/upper level trough will continue to move ENE out of the upper Midwest and over the Great Lakes today.
Infrared satellite loop from ~9:30 PM Saturday to 3 AM Sunday, November 14-15, 2020.
Source: https://weather.cod.edu/
Power Outage links
Minnesota Power: https://mnpower.com/
Lake County Power: http://outage.lcp.coop/
Road Conditions
Minnesota: https://www.511mn.org/
Wisconsin: https://511wi.gov/
Thanks for reading!
Tim
