Heavy snow … for about 3 minutes

We had two brief intense snow showers during the day today.

The first was actually an intense downpour of graupel (snow pellets), which were mostly about 1/8" (3mm) in diamter. This happened around 12:15PM and lasted maybe 3 minutes. Visibility during this event was down to about 1/4 mile.

The second was near a near white-out, with visibility almost down to 1/10 mile … I could barely see the Lincoln Tower less than two blocks away. This was regular snow, and it left perhaps as much as 0.2" of snow in 3-5 minutes.

The rest of the day had periods of light snow and/or graupel; and we almost had a break in the clouds around 1PM … but couldn't quite pull it off.

We've had more snow showers this evening, and it is now nearly 30 degrees cooler than it was 34 hours ago -- Sunday's high was 52.2 at 3:06PM, at 1:06AM (Tuesday), it is 23.2.

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awc 2010-01-26 01:18:49

First test case for my CoCoRaHS rain gauge

We've had three bands of rain move through today, the first around 5AM brought 0.21", a minor one came through around 10AM and added just 0.03", and then we picked up 0.12" in the most recent band around 7PM. At times this afternoon, we had a few breaks in the cloud cover. This, along with the strong southerly breeze all day, drove our high to just over 52F this afternoon.

The real news of the day however is that my Davis Vantage Pro 2 rain guage reported exactly the same amount of rain as the official CoCoRaHS rain gauge; providing the initial vote of confidence in the accuracy of my 4.5 yr old Vantage Pro.

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awc 2010-01-24 19:57:20

There is an annoying shield around Fort Wayne

There was freezing rain throughout the state the last couple of days; but very little of it was able to penetrate the apparent weather shield surrounding Fort Wayne.

All day Wednesday, the storm to our west / southwest was sending bands of freezing rain ENE across Indiana … and into a strong, relatively dry, low level easterly wind. The bands began to weaken in the middle of the state, and some intrepid precip cells managed to make it to western Allen County. But absolutely nothing managed to make it as far as the city limits.

Overnight Wednesday and Thursday morning, the storm was more to our southwest and sending bands of rain / freezing rain in a more northerly direction across Indiana. The still strong, still relatively dry, low level easterly wind just wore them down as they advanced and again, few could make it past the southern Allen County line. We had a couple of brief showers in the early afternoon make it to downtown; but that was it.

Overnight last night, the storm had moved to our southeast, and it was sending bands of rain / freezing rain at us from the southeast. Around 11pm, one band managed to survive the trip and pushed through Allen County, leaving us with a thin glaze of ice on some surfaces (like my grill cover, trash can, and snow board), but no buildup was noticed on trees or anything that would pose a hazard.

COME ON ATMOSPHERE, IS THAT THE BEST YOU GOT! WHY DON'T YOU MAN UP AND SHOW US WHAT YOU CAN REALLY DO! I BET YOU CAN'T TOUCH US!

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awc 2010-01-22 12:50

Two oddities on the recent IWX NEXRAD

Source: http://wunderground.com

First, there is the large WNW-ESE cigar shape that seems to shoot from South Bend over to Fort Wayne and then drop due south into northern Wabash and Huntington counties. There was no weather, and the area once developed moves southward at about 15mph.

Second, is the smaller thinner linear feature (which becomes slightly bowed) heading out of near Racine WI southeastward across Lake Michigan, winding up a bit north of Michigan City IN (on the southeast "corner" of the lake). This features moves at about 27mph.

Curious … anyone have an explanation for either of these?

UPDATE 2010-01-20 08:33:14

This is the reply I got when I emailed the NWS Northern Indiana WFO (where the IWX nexrad is located):

awc 2010-01-19 20:47:58

Typical winter weather…

for Fort Wayne seems to be near freezing temperatures with a nearly featureless gray overcast and occasional fog. This has been a typical week of winter weather. I WANT SOME REAL WEATHER!

awc 2010-01-19 19:54

Two oddities on the recent IWX NEXRAD

Source: http://wunderground.com

First, there is the large WNW-ESE cigar shape that seems to shoot from South Bend over to Fort Wayne and then drop due south into northern Wabash and Huntington counties. There was no weather, and the area once developed moves southward at about 15mph.

Second, is the smaller thinner linear feature (which becomes slightly bowed) heading out of near Racine WI southeastward across Lake Michigan, winding up a bit north of Michigan City IN (on the southeast "corner" of the lake). This features moves at about 27mph.

Curious … anyone have an explanation for either of these?

UPDATE 2010-01-20 08:33:14

This is the reply I got when I emailed the NWS Northern Indiana WFO (where the IWX nexrad is located):

awc 2010-01-19 20:47:58

Not even close

The storm coming out of the Gulf Coast is now expected to stay well south and east of us. However, a little trough is expected to come through on Tuesday (19 Jan), starting out as snow/freezing rain/sleet from about 6AM thru 10AM, then turn over to all rain until it moves out by 5PM. About 0.08" w.e. frozen precip, then another 0.06" rain. This isn't a widespread thing … in fact a narrow east-west band of precip across northern IN and then northern OH, no more than about 50 miles wide. Kind of odd for winter (looks like the precip pattern of a convective cell).

We have rather heavy fog at the moment, visibility no more than 1/4 mile.

awc 2010-01-16 23:54

The weekend storm may graze us Sunday

The center of the storm coming out of Texas over the next few days will pass well to our south and east. However, the 12Z NAM is indicating that Fort Wayne will be on the northern fringe of the precipitation area between 1300 and 1900 ET Sunday (17 Jan), giving us between 0.1" and 0.2" precipitation (water equivalent).

Unfortunately, except for a very thin layer at the surface, the bottom 2 km of the atmosphere is forecast to be above freezing; and it looks like the surface won't dip below 30F. Definitely no snow, but freezing rain is a possibility; especially since tomorrow will stay near or below freezing, thus letting branches, wires, etc. stay cold enough to support ice build-up.

The 12Z GFS keeps the storm further south and east of us, and leaves us completely dry. I'll give the NAM slightly more weight and go with a 60% chance of freezing rain AT MY HOUSE Sunday afternoon and early evening, with less than 0.2" ice build-up (if any).

The heaviest precipitation in Indiana from this storm would be along and south of an Evansville-Dayton line, where they could get up to 0.4" rain.

UPDATE 15 Jan 16:30

Almost as soon as I post this, the 18Z NAM is finally done. That run actually gives us more precipitation, but less chance of it freezing. Precipitation would arrive around noon Sunday and move out by 1AM Monday. For the first couple of hours, the surface temperature will be at or slightly below freezing, for the remainder of the event it would be about 34F. Total precip of about 0.25".

UPDATE 16 Jan 00:40

The 16 Jan 00Z NAM now has the storm mostly missing us … staying further east. It has us getting only about 0.05" rain, and only between 7PM and 10PM Sunday evening. I wish it would make up its mind.

awc 2010-01-15 16:18

Joined CoCoRaHS

On Monday (11 Jan) I went to the Northern Indiana WFO for my CoCoRaHS (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network) training … and to get the official CoCoRaHS rain gauge provided free ($30 online), courtesy of Purdue University, to Indiana residents getting official CoCoRaHS training. When I found out the training was at the WFO, it was a "no brainer" for me to deal with the SA-APD and make arrangements to be trained in person.

Josh went with me (safety in packs), and in addition to the training we got a brief tour of the WFO from Sam Lashley, the meteorologist in charge of CoCoRaHS training. Sam was friendly, informative, and had a good sense of humor; he made us feel welcome and answered our questions without being annoyed or condescending. In the photo below he is demonstrating and explaining the AWIPS station where he monitors the weather and makes forecasts.

I installed my new rain gauge on the same post as my Vantage Pro 2 (VP2) instrument suite — this is not the time of year to be trying to dig a post hole. The two are far enough apart to not interfere with each other. This will let me confidently compare the manual rain gauge readings with my VP2 and see how accurate the VP2 is (which is not at all when the temperature is below freezing — somebody want to buy me a rain gauge heater?).

To see my data reports, go to the CoCoRaHS View Data page, pick a category, and then search for Station Number/Id IN-AL-39.

I am such a geek.

awc 2010-01-13 16:17