Winter Storm Dumps On Wisconsin (Snow Day! Snow Day!)

Channel3000.com ^ | December 9, 2009 | Staff Writer

[Diana in Wisconsin]

MADISON, WI - A combination of heavy snow, strong wind and freezing rain continued to pound Wisconsin early Wednesday as many residents attempt to dig out.

Heavy snow and strong winds pummeled Wisconsin overnight as a major snowstorm crept across southern Wisconsin on Tuesday night. The storm has caused widespread power outages, hundreds of school closings and treacherous travel for those braving the roadways. State offices and the University of Wisconsin campuses are closed as well.

The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for the southwest corner of the state through Wednesday evening.

The Wisconsin State Patrol said as many as a dozen tractor-trailer trucks became stuck on interstate ramps where Interstate 39, I-90 and I-94 intersect near Madison. Patrol communications operator Lance Thomas said the heavy snow made the ramps impassible.

All Madison Mero Bus services are canceled for Wednesday.

We Energies worked Wednesday to restore power to 26,000 customers around southeastern Wisconsin. Utility spokesman Barry McNulty said the snow and high wind knocked down power lines and tree limbs. McNulty says hundreds of crew members were out in the storm working to restore service.

Forecasters expected 9 to 16 inches of snow to fall in parts of Wisconsin. The National Weather Service said some parts of the state are expected to get 15 inches of snow, with most likely to fall Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning. The National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning for the southwest corner of the state through Wednesday evening.

On Tuesday afternoon, Gov. Jim Doyle declared a pre-emptive state of emergency across Wisconsin. The governor said the declaration was a precaution. The declaration means in part that certain members of the Wisconsin National Guard could be activated if necessary. Doyle's declaration comes in the wake of a major 2008 storm that left thousands of motorists stranded between Madison and Janesville, some for 12 hours.

Doyle ordered state government offices and all University of Wisconsin campuses closed on Wednesday morning, except for those workers whose job duties are in the emergency response, public health or public safety arena.

The Madison Metropolitan School District, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Madison Area Technical College have all canceled classes for Wednesday due to the winter storm.

The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning until midnight on Wednesday for extreme eastern Iowa and all of southern Wisconsin. In Iowa, this includes the counties of Clayton and Allamakee. In Wisconsin, this includes the counties of Monroe, Juneau, Adams, Marquette, Green Lake, Vernon, Richland, Sauk, Columbia, Dodge, Crawford, Iowa, Dane, Jefferson, Grant, Lafayette, Green, Rock and Walworth.

A blizzard warning means severe winter weather conditions are expected or occurring. Falling and blowing snow with strong winds and poor visibilities are likely. This will lead to whiteout conditions, making travel extremely dangerous. People are advised not to travel. Those who must travel should bring a winter survival kit with them. Authorities said that if travelers become stranded, they should stay with their vehicle.

WISC-TV meteorologist Gary Cannalte said snow accumulation of 6 to 12 inches is possible by Wednesday morning. He said blowing and drifting snow will develop, especially toward Wednesday morning.

By Wednesday, total storm accumulations by midnight of 10 to 16-plus inches are possible, with the heaviest amounts near Dubuque, Iowa, to Madison to Fond du Lac line, according to Cannalte.

Blowing and drifting snow could create blizzard-like and whiteout conditions, especially in rural areas, making travel extremely dangerous and nearly impossible.

Cannalte said the high temperature Wednesday will be 28, with temperatures falling to around 20 by late afternoon. Winds on Wednesday will be north/northwest 20-35 mph with gusts to 45 mph diminishing in the afternoon.

State emergency officials said that they want people to stay home. People who must travel should prepare an emergency supply kit for their vehicles and monitor their local media for storm updates.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

If you had ordered cheese from us, it won't be shipped today, LOL!

Our state is effectively closed down for the day, if not longer.

Anyone else enjoying a snow day today?

[MplsSteve]

Not here in Minneapolis-St Paul. It’s business as usual - albeit a little slower than usual. MSP Airport is running really behind today.

Southern Minnesota is a different story. Lots of rural schools closed for the day and some rural businesses too.

The snow is starting to let up here but the wind is still blowing pretty strong.

[YankeeReb]

The midwest and us here in New England are getting dumped on with snow and the pretender in chief is off to Norway to pick up a prize for breathing and then on to Copenhagen to tax us to death for GLOBAL WARMING!!! How much of a carbon footprint will this junket cause? Nice to know Soetoro doesn’t need to be in Wash DC to screw the country.

[oh8eleven]

Winter Storm Dumps On Wisconsin
Pssst, it's not winter yet ... technically it's a late fall storm.
We need a little more global warming to keep winter in it's proper place.

[ASA Vet]

We’re just getting started here in Western Michigan. Blizzard Warning until tomorrow afternoon. Radar is really pretty now. Lots of colors.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

We’re waiting for the wind to pick up; THAT’S the part that will be brutal. I’ve shoveled a path down to the coop, but it’ll need to be maintained all day. Had to bash off a few trees that were dangerously bent from the snow, and Husband was in a panic because the Dish wasn’t working...but a clean-up of that and all was well in his little world, LOL!

It’s really very pretty - I’m so GLAD I don’t have to go anywhere today; couldn’t even if I wanted to because we’re out in the boonies and the plows haven’t been out this way yet.

We’re on the list for plowing, but I’m thinking that won’t happen until tomorrow at this point...

[Diana in Wisconsin]

He’s good at phoning it in from wherever he happens to be, isn’t he? *SPIT*

[cynicalman]

Forecasters expected 9 to 16 inches of snow to fall in parts of Wisconsin.

In my days I walked to school with that much snow on the ground. And it was 6 miles, up hill both ways.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Have you ever seen this site? If not, have fun! It really puts things into perspective. This storm is HUGH and Series! :)

http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/full_loop.php

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“Ba-Dump-Dump!” :)

Oh, yeah? But I’ll bet you didn’t have a headcheese sandwich in your tin lunch pail!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“Ba-Dump-Dump!” :)

Oh, yeah? But I’ll bet you didn’t have a headcheese sandwich in your tin lunch pail!

[IYAS9YAS]

In my town, schools were closed not due to snow, but to the fact that the school district doesn't want to run the buses without two-way communication for safety purposes. The winds snapped the communication tower at the top of Sandia Peak near Albuquerque, NM.

In southern NM, they had 100 MPH winds in the city of Cloudcroft (about 10 miles or so east northeast of Alamagordo), and winds blew the roof off the police station at White Sands.

[Man50D]

Anyone else enjoying a snow day today?

Not Al Gore!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

WOW! That’s some wind!

[DuncanWaring]

Across the lake (Grand Rapids):

... Blizzard Warning remains in effect until 4 PM EST Thursday...

Hazardous weather...

* snow will become heavier by early afternoon. Another 1 to 2 inches of snow can be expected through this evening. Periods of heavy lake effect snow are expected to begin tonight.

* Winds will become southwest and increase to 25 to 35 mph will develop by late afternoon with gusts of 40 to 50 mph. These winds will last into Thursday and cause considerable blowing and drifting of snow.

* Visibilities will frequently be reduced to near zero at times this evening into Thursday.

* Gusty winds along with rapidly falling temperatures will produce wind chills in the single digits by tonight.

* Expect additional snow accumulations of 6 to 10 inches through Thursday afternoon.

Impacts...

* all travel should be completed as soon as possible.

* Travel will be most severely impacted late this afternoon as snow... blowing snow... and rapidly falling temperatures occur near the time of the afternoon commute. Blizzard conditions are expected throughout the evening... especially along U.S. Highway 131.

* Power outages will be possible tonight into Thursday morning due to the strong gusty winds.

Precautionary/preparedness actions...

* it would be best not to travel tonight through Thursday.

* If you must travel... keep an extra flashlight... food... and water in your vehicle in case of an emergency.

* A Blizzard Warning is issued when sustained wind speeds or frequent gusts of over 35 mph are expected with considerable falling and/or blowing and drifting snow. Visibilities will become poor... with whiteout conditions at times. Those venturing outdoors may become lost or disoriented... so persons in the warning area are advised to stay indoors.

[netmilsmom]

That’s a great site!
I watched it over and over. Somehow the storm is parting like the Red Sea right over my area in Macomb county MI, north of Detroit.

Sweet!!!!

[Star Traveler]

I'm looking forward to the coming decade of colder winters... :-)

---

Dalton Minimum Returns

 21 Apr 09 - Paul Stanko of NOAA writes meteorologist Anthony Watts to tell him of an interesting development in his tracking of the International Sunspot Number (ISN).

Paul writes:

My running mean of the International Sunspot Number for 2009 just dipped below 1.00. For anything comparable you now need to go back before 1913 (which scored a 1.43) which could mean we're now competing directly with the Dalton Minimum. Just in case you'd like another tidbit, here is something that puts our 20 to 30 day spotless runs in perspective… the mother of all spotless runs (in the heart of the Maunder Minimum, of course!) was from October 15, 1661 to August 2, 1671. It totaled 3579 consecutive spotless days, all of which had obs. To say that that we in interesting times is a huge understatement. We are about to enter a Grand Minimum, which in the past have produced a cooler planet, while our government is preparing for run-away global warming. Who could have predicted this stupidity?

---

Is a new Dalton Minimum approaching?

Russ Steele

Well 2008 arrived last night and Sunspot Cycle 24 was absent. While we had a flurry of excitement a few week ago when a patch of reverse polarity showed on the Suns surface it soon faded. The Sun reverses polarity with each cycle change. As we have discussed in the past the length of the roughly 11-year sunspot cycle is correlated with temperature and a late arriving cycle can have some long term climate implications for us folks here on Earth. The Cycle 23 solar minimum was at 1996.5, so with an average 11 year cycle we should have seen the new minimum in mid-2007. Here we are in 2008 and the next cycle is already six months late, and the defining minimum generally occurs 12-20 months after the first spot of the new cycle. This would indicate the ending minimum of Cycle 23 and the start of Cycle 24 will come in mid  2009, resulting in a 13 year cycle, the longest since 1784-1797. Interesting to note that this cycle started a long series - 13.6, 12.3, 12.7 years, which coincided with the cold period known as the Dalton Minimum. Stay tuned, these are going to be interesting times. Sun cycles indicate cooling and the politicians are trying stop global warming. We may need a little extra warming over the next thirty years.

Thanks to David Archibald for this graphic showing the relationship of cycle length to temperature in New Hampshire.

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Dalton Minimum

The Dalton minimum in the 400 year history of sunspot numbers The Dalton Minimum was a period of low solar activity, named for the English meteorologist John Dalton, lasting from about 1790 to 1830. Like the Maunder Minimum and Spörer Minimum, the Dalton Minimum coincided with a period of lower-than-average global temperatures. The Oberlach Station in Germany, for example, experienced a 2.0° C decline over 20 years. The Year Without a Summer, in 1816, also occurred during the Dalton Minimum.

[riverrunner]

6 or so inch's in Hayward windy lots of blowing snow. But then I have a garage full of fire wood a freezer full of venison, shelves full of can goods. A 4x4 trk and Iam on a vacation day today. Let snow let it snow.

[MplsSteve]

Damn!

You guys are gonna have a rough day and evening. Definitely a lot worse than what we had.

Stay warm and safe!

[DuncanWaring]

So far, just light snow, not sticking, and minimal wind.

We’ll see.