Storm #3 (Kayla)

[gunner55]

A couple more inches here overnight & not sure what the officially storm total is but I know it's on the low end of what was predicted. Almost 30 mph gusts yet so school has been cancelled for today here.

[nofishfisherman]

I think the storm shift a little further north than they expected.  Seems like the people south of the Twin Cities are saying they got less than expected but for myself in St. Paul we got a lot more than expected.  Reports were for 4-8" but when I went to bed last night we were already at 12".  I'm guessing we are at about 13" this morning with some more light snow still falling.

There was a stretch of time last night when we were getting 2" and hour.  I went out and cleared some snow around 7:30 and by 10pm there was another 4-5 inches on those areas again.  

All of my measurements were taken on my deck that is protected from the wind so it a large area of consistent depth that doesn't get really any wind.

1 hour ago, leechlake said:

Storm theory I talked to others about last night.  Back 30 years ago we had a lot of rear wheel drive cars and sometimes cars wouldn't start.  Now you turn the key and it just goes and we have AWD, FWD, four wheel drive.

All those things made the storms seem bigger and badder.  I still think we've had fewer storms.

I'm guessing this is part of it.  Storms probably seemed worse because the cars didn't handle it as well, snow plows didn't do as good of a job, and also I'm guessing snow blowers weren't as efficient assuming you had one.

Also there is something for the accuracy of memory.  Things in the past get distorted. People usually remember things as being way better or way worse than it actually was.  Its just part of being nostalgic. If you listen to older guys talk the TV was always better, life was always easier, storms were always bigger, people were friendlier, etc.  Guys now talk now like their childhood really was the golden years however the old guys they grew up around were probably saying the same thing about their childhood, and most of us will probably doing the same thing when we talk to your kids and grand kids, as will they when they talk to their future kids and grand kids.  It human nature to say things were always bigger and better when we grew up, its probably been going on since the cavemen were grunting at each other.

 

[delcecchi]

I have looked at all the records, which are available on line if you search.   The winters, by and large, have been milder recently.  The 70s and early 80s had a fair stretch of quite bad winters.   That is when we had winters with close to 10k degree days in Rochester, and -30 temperatures.

http://climate.umn.edu/text/historical/mspheatdd.txt

Oops looks like my memory of 10k degree days was flawed upon inspection of the record on this web page.  It does show that the 70's were pretty much all average or above for cold weather, especially in Jan and Feb 76 through 79 and 81 had 400 degree days above average, or temps 13 degrees below average.  Average was right around zero, if I did the calculation right. 

[DonBo]

The channel 9 weather guy here in the cities called it "epic".  10" is epic?  He just lost all credibility with me.

[ThunderLund78]

15 minutes ago, DonBo said:

The channel 9 weather guy here in the cities called it "epic".  10" is epic?  He just lost all credibility with me.

Ian Leonard is the most ridiculous Weatherman in MN TV history.  Even worse than the old "Goof on the Roof" Paul Douglas.  But he is entertaining to watch! I remember a couple of years ago in the summer, there was a minor sever weather break-out and FOX 9 felt the need to interrupt regular programming for live coverage.  Ian, in true fashion, was staying "Sky aware" with his sleeves rolled-up and REALLY pouring on the drama over a possible Tornado sighting somewhere on the edge of the the FOX 9 viewing area.  The only problem is that there was a NASCAR race on and it was in it's final laps.  The station was bombarded with phone calls saying to put the race back on; the only way you knew that was because he verbally chastised the callers live on the air saying people lives were at stake and if he didn't go on that people may die.  After about 5 more minutes of relentless phone calls, they went with a split screen of the race.

Edited February 3, 2016 by ThunderLund78

[nofishfisherman]

While discussing the wussy cities that closed schools and the businesses that closed early one interesting point got brought up.  Back in the day things didn't seem to close as easily but the one thing that doesn't seemed to get mentioned is that the amount of cars on the road, especially in the metro area, as nearly tripled in the last 20-30 years.  With 3x the number of cars on the road accidents have also gone up despite the better car technology.  That has to get factored in when making the decision to close schools.  A bus commute that took 1 hour in the 80's will probably take 2-3 hours now due to all the extra cars.  

[chasineyes]

8 minutes ago, nofishfisherman said:

While discussing the wussy cities that closed schools and the businesses that closed early one interesting point got brought up.  Back in the day things didn't seem to close as easily but the one thing that doesn't seemed to get mentioned is that the amount of cars on the road, especially in the metro area, as nearly tripled in the last 20-30 years.  With 3x the number of cars on the road accidents have also gone up despite the better car technology.  That has to get factored in when making the decision to close schools.  A bus commute that took 1 hour in the 80's will probably take 2-3 hours now due to all the extra cars.  

Lets not forget that we also have lot more transplants who have NEVER driven in snow, much less SEEN snow.  Yesterday there was a Somali woman driving 10 mph down 169 in Shakopee with her FLASHERS ON!!!

[nofishfisherman]

Thats also a good point.  There are a lot of transplants here of all types that make things more interesting. 

[RebelSS]

36 minutes ago, chasineyes said:

Lets not forget that we also have lot more transplants who have NEVER driven in snow, much less SEEN snow.  Yesterday there was a Somali woman driving 10 mph down 169 in Shakopee with her FLASHERS ON!!!

Isn't that considered normal? 

 

*PUFF*PANT* Finally got my driveway and the neighbors blown out while he worked on my front steps and sidewalk. Plow  came by just as I was getting to the driveway. He goes down the opposite side of the street, makes a U-turn at the end, so he has a huge load of snow on the double wing plow, then he comes up my side. First three houses get that double-winger of snow. I'm house #3.  I got buried. 

Edited February 3, 2016 by RebelSS

[nofishfisherman]

I'm looking forward to seeing what my new snow blower can do with the pile the snow plow will leave me this afternoon.  I got most of the snow cleared before I left work work this morning.  Tonight I'll be heading out to clear the snow for some elderly people that live within a couple blocks.  I think I'm up to clearing snow for 4 extra houses besides my own.  Luckily they don't have driveways so its just sidewalks and steps for the most part. 

[Dotch]

Snowfall amounted to about 7" near as I could measure. Looking at flat surfaces where there was little wind disturbance anyway. In town about 6". We lucked out and I'm not sad we did. The feedlot remained clear so no sweat there although the drifts in the yard were packed hard. Was about like moving concrete especially when you have no alternative than to push the snow uphill in the one spot. Took a couple whacks at it to get through with the bucket. With only one flat spot in the yard and ice underneath from the recent thaw, fluid in the rear wheels and chains on an older tractor such as mine are a must. A cab and a blower remain on my wish list.

Schools were closed today which surprised me. However they only plowed the blacktop roads so all the gravel roads needed attention. I imagine by the time they got that done, it wouldn't be worth bringing the kids in then turning around and taking them home. Used to be also there were lots of dairy farms so they needed to keep all the roads open for that alone. Just in Waseca Co. it went from more than 30 down to less than a dozen dairy operations in the past 30 years. 

Reminiscing about how things used to be is always fun. The storms back in the 60's and 70's were especially brutal and they were without a doubt colder. Pipes and hydrants freezing, hauling water to the barn, ish! In the early 80's I lived in ND so I got to learn firsthand what cold was all about. Several -40 lows with days where the highs reached -20. And the storms were vicious, seemingly coming out of nowhere. The radar and computer age hadn't really started to impact how we could see things coming as far in advance as we do today. We had some nasty stuff too in the 90's. The Halloween blizzard of '91 was an unprecedented event for me anyway and the series of winter storms in '96 - '97 covered our lambing barn entirely. It did it again in about '99 - '00. Winters have become warmer in the recent past in that overnight lows have become warmer. Some of the flora and fauna reflect have reflected that. 

This  last storm was unique but it followed the same general pattern as the one in December where it moved north farther than expected and pounded on the TC in the process. Something else the snowfall events of the last several years seem to lack is the extremely high pressure on their backsides, with cold Arctic air plunging down and blowing like mad (30 - 45+ mph) causing low visibility and drifting for a day or two. Those were typical of the storms I remember as a kid and they seem to be occurring with less frequency as I get older. I knew there had to be something good about getting old! 

[jbell1981]

7 hours ago, RebelSS said:

*PUFF*PANT* Finally got my driveway and the neighbors blown out while he worked on my front steps and sidewalk. Plow  came by just as I was getting to the driveway. He goes down the opposite side of the street, makes a U-turn at the end, so he has a huge load of snow on the double wing plow, then he comes up my side. First three houses get that double-winger of snow. I'm house #3.  I got buried. 

I know the feeling. I used to live in a house that the driveway lined up with an adjacent street. The plow would plow the end of that street right to my driveway (I swear he just did that to pee me off). He would then go to the end of the street we were on, which was a dead end and we were the 3rd house from the end, so I would get a big pile of that snow too. A 12" snowfall would result in a 5' high x 5' wide snow berm at the end of our driveway and we unfortunately just used a shovel in those days. Man, I am glad we don't live there anymore.