New 2 day record December snowfall amount to the Minneapolis/St Paul area
While there have been a few high temperature records in the desert southwest and western Oregon, the majority of weather records in the USA this week have been for cold, snowfall, or rainfall. The biggest number of records have to do with the lowest maximum temperature.
Here’s a summary of the weather records:
| Record Events for Mon Dec 6, 2010 through Sun Dec 12, 2010 | |
| Total Records: | 2002 |
| Rainfall: | 319 |
| Snowfall: | 320 |
| High Temperatures: | 71 |
| Low Temperatures: | 426 |
| Lowest Max Temperatures: | 767 |
| Highest Min Temperatures: | 99 |
Uncharacteristically for the Associated Press, they give this latest snowstorm the title of “monster”:
Rutgers snow lab has the current snow cover for 2010:
Last year, we seemed to have a bit more snow cover in the USA (and globally) at this time:
I think Rutgers is having a little joke by making snow cover “yellowish”.
Here’s a Public Information Statement (PIS) from the NWS in Minneapolis
Dec 10-11 Snowfall…New December Record
The December 10-11 snowstorm brought a new 2 day record December snowfall amount to the Minneapolis/St Paul area, and perhaps to other areas as well. The new record is 17.1 inches. This storm was bit unusual in that it was a Pacific type storm system. The snowfall amounts were in the category of what would be more typical of a storm moving out of the southwest U.S. toward the Mississippi valley.
This storm also ranks in the top 5 of the largest snowfalls in the Twin Cities. See the Minnesota State Climatology site for further details.
Here is the broad picture of the storm total snow.
PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN
800 PM CST SUN DEC 12 2010
...SNOWFALL TOTALS FROM THE WINTER STORM EVENT DEC 10-11...
THE TOTALS BELOW ARE SEPARATED INTO SNOW...AND ICE AND SLEET
CATEGORIES...THEN BY AMOUNT...AND ARE NOT NECESSARILY THE
FINAL AMOUNT FOR EACH LOCATION.
SNOW REPORTS LISTED BY AMOUNT
INCHES LOCATION ST COUNTY TIME
------ ----------------------- -- -------------- -------
23.00 5 SE OSCEOLA WI POLK 0900 AM
22.00 EAU CLAIRE WI EAU CLAIRE 0500 PM
TELEVISION STATION WQOW.
21.50 NEW MARKET MN SCOTT 0930 PM
21.50 SHAKOPEE MN SCOTT 0700 PM
21.00 OAKDALE MN WASHINGTON 0330 AM
20.00 RED WING MN GOODHUE 0800 AM
20.00 MAPLEWOOD MN RAMSEY 0330 AM
19.20 EAU CLAIRE WI EAU CLAIRE 0100 PM
18.50 4 NNE MENOMONIE WI DUNN 0945 PM
18.00 MENOMONIE WI DUNN 0800 AM
18.00 EAST FARMINGTON WI POLK 0630 PM
18.00 3 SSW BURNSVILLE MN DAKOTA 0615 PM
18.00 2 W PRIOR LAKE MN SCOTT 0900 PM
17.50 3 NW MINNEAPOLIS MN HENNEPIN 0100 PM
17.40 LAKEVILLE MN DAKOTA 0900 PM
17.20 WOODBURY MN WASHINGTON 0900 AM
17.20 1 W CARVER MN CARVER 1000 PM
17.10 MINNEAPOLIS MN HENNEPIN 0130 AM
MEASURED AT THE MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL AIRPORT
17.00 EAU CLAIRE WI EAU CLAIRE 1100 AM
17.00 2 N MENOMONIE WI DUNN 0630 PM
16.50 SAVAGE MN SCOTT 1130 PM
16.30 HASTINGS MN DAKOTA 0830 PM
16.10 BLOOMINGTON MN HENNEPIN 0600 PM
16.00 RIDGELAND WI DUNN 0100 PM
16.00 DURAND WI PEPIN 1030 PM
15.50 CHANHASSEN MN CARVER 0130 AM
MEASURED AT THE NWS OFFICE
15.20 ST LOUIS PARK MN HENNEPIN 1030 PM
15.00 1 SSW DELANO MN WRIGHT 0630 PM
14.70 WACONIA MN CARVER 0745 AM
14.50 3 SSW WHITE BEAR LAKE MN RAMSEY 1030 PM
14.20 STANLEY WI CHIPPEWA 0930 AM
13.70 LESTER PRAIRIE MN MCLEOD 0930 AM
13.50 1 ESE CHASKA MN CARVER 0700 PM
13.50 ELK MOUND WI DUNN 0700 PM
13.00 STILLWATER MN WASHINGTON 1200 PM
13.00 JIM FALLS WI CHIPPEWA 0930 AM
12.50 NORTH BRANCH MN CHISAGO 1100 AM
12.50 1 ENE CAMBRIDGE MN ISANTI 0630 PM
12.00 FARIBAULT MN RICE 0900 PM
11.50 ANDOVER MN ANOKA 0145 AM
11.00 HAUGEN WI BARRON 1130 AM
10.00 ST JAMES MN WATONWAN 1230 PM
10.00 CUMBERLAND WI BARRON 0730 AM
9.50 NORTH BRANCH MN CHISAGO 0430 PM
9.00 VESTA MN REDWOOD 1230 PM
8.00 MANKATO MN BLUE EARTH 0715 PM
7.00 4S ST CLOUD MN STEARNS 0630 PM
6.00 WINTHROP MN SIBLEY 0830 PM
Here is a Radar Replay during the time of some of the heavier snow (9 am to 3pm).
Snow Depth as of December 12
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Don’t worry, there’s a lot more snow coming…………
I love this. Anthony, you should include the old quote “snow falls will become a thing of the past!”
Watch out where the Huskies go….don’t you eat that yellow snow!:)
No problem as the models allow for this , in fact those AGW models allow for anything you like. With the possible exception of ‘rain of frogs’ but I understand the ‘team’ is working on that one too.
Rocky Balboa, here’s the very link for you:
Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past.
How about this for a record: 157 inches of snow already in Breckenridge and it’s still a week before winter starts.
All Anthony’s rainy days are paying off in spades for us (thanks)
@Franklyn Durilla Balboa –
Thanks for that quote – I looked it up and found the article here: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-724017.html along with a couple other priceless quotes from Dr. David Viner at CRU that snow will become “a very rare and exciting event”. and “Children just aren’t going to know what snow is.”
I hope the Wayback Machine keeps that page archived 🙂
“Absolute Proof of Global Warming! This is what we always predicted!” – The Team
And to think, “our children won’t know what snow is…..” *blink*
The radio this morning welcomed us with “Sunny and Seven degrees (F).” This is in Mountain Home, AR. Everyone’s cars, porch thermometers, etc. all reflected singled digits for much of the earliest morn. NOAA? They reported the lowest it got was 10 (F) and only that for an hour. I guess NOAA is more accurate than every temperature gauge in town, to the warm, of course.
I don’t know if 7 (F) is a record for my small town, but as stated in another of my previous comments – it is abnormally COLD for this clime. Even the old birds from Chicago and Wisconsin are admitting it’s indeed cold. And the “damn yankee” meter is never wrong. If they say it’s cold – it’s cold – even if it is a former Confederate State. (no offense to old birds or damn yankees)
At the end of the video clip, look who is wedged in between 3 other “monster” video clips.
Youtube works in mysterious ways
It’s possibly an example of the Gore Effect in St Paul.
Will Steger, who’s an Arctic Explorer and Climate Change Activist, had to cancel last Friday Night’s 20th anniversary celebration of his 1990 Antarctic trek due to the bad weather conditions in St Paul.
A link to a commentary piece building up the event is given below.
http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentary/111290944.html?elr=KArksUUUoDEy3LGDiO7aiU
Well, Gary, we’re having a heat wave down here in Mountain View, Ar. It was 9F on my thermometer early this morning, and even our cat has more sense than to go out in this. He stuck his head out, looked at me, and scurried under the nearest bed. He didn’t want to take any chances, I guess. Anyway, it’s the coldest morning I ever remember here for this date, and I’m sure we will see a slew of new low temp records, regardless of NOAA and its propencity to skew/manage the temps toward the warm side.
Remember – weather is NOT climate … unless the title “warmest year EVER” is on the line!
Just eyeballing the map, it looks like the eastern ⅓ to ½ of the United States is experiencing unusually low temps (thanks to an Arctic blast), while the rest is experiencing unusually high temps. The record highs are being set down in Mexico, though, where they don’t count. This pattern is predicted to continue for the next few days.
Clearly it’s global warming! We’ve had loads of global warming here in the UK in the last couple of weeks.
Here’s a quote from another “enlightened” climate “expert”…
Expert: Snowfall set to get rarer
Published Date:
16 January 2010
By Sion Donovan
Education reporter
A climate scientist has predicted the recent snowfall could be the last we see for a long time.
Dr. Nick Pepin, from the University of Portsmouth, believes such long-lasting snow will become a rare event in the future.
…
‘And it will, on average, get rarer so people should enjoy it when it happens. Snow that sticks to the ground will be less frequent.’
[sigh]
So if it is cold now, what does it mean when the AO forecast models seem to be agreeing with a drop down to -6 AO around 17-December? Super cold blast right before Christmas?
http://www.cpc.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/daily_ao_index/ao_index_ensm.shtml
In Florida the non-native manatees need FPL customer money to stay warm. Power plants good when they protect manatees so eco-nuts can beat boaters over the head with misleading statistics — http://www.sfltimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6013&Itemid=199
When the eco0nuts found non-native species anchoring beaches and inlets, they cut the Australian pines down, which has then caused massive beach erosion .. it is debatable how the Austrailian pines seeds got to Flodia, most say they were washed up by the sea. So why protect the non-native manatees. Do you think we can stop the sun?
Sheesh is it getting cold in SWFL, our inshore fish are being decimated, by the cold. The weather guys, the ones that avoid the tourist approved forecast and lies, are saying the next few days are the coldest so far, and winter is still a week away.
Yes, but we have been hearing climate change is causing increased snowfall/precipitation too. Next, climate change will be responsible for cooler than average temperatures.
It seems from the map shown by Anthony that there have been many record low maximum temperatures in parts of the midwest and southeastern US. The number of record temperatures is influenced by the density of stations, which, based on the map is very high in the areas where record low max temperatures have occurred. If we examined the area in which there were high versus low temperatures, I wonder if we would come the to the conclusion that the area where there were below normal temperatures in the US exceeded the area where there were record high temperatures. That would seem to me a more significant measure of what is happening than the numbers of weather stations.
Despite the number of record lows in the US, the GISS Global Land-Sea temperature record for this November has an anomaly of .96 which is quite warm to say the least. In addition, the Year for Dec-Nov is the warmest year on record despite the fact that a fraction of the US is experiencing colder than normal temperatures .
REPLY: Mr. Adler, at least TRY to have the appearance of knowing what you are talking about.
” November has an anomaly of .96 which is quite warm to say the least.” is false.
According to the published GISS data itself, GISS GLOBAL Land-Ocean Temperature Index, which you can read here:
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/tabledata/GLB.Ts+dSST.txt
2010 70 75 86 75 64 55 51 55 54 63 74***** ***** 65 69 75 53 63 2010
Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec J-D D-N DJF MAM JJA SON Year
The November 2010 anomaly is .74 not .96
In fact, .96 does not appear anywhere in the GISS record. – Anthony
Greater snowfall is an indication of an accleration in the hydrological cycle…not a cooling of the earth. This finer point seems to be missed by some. The coolest place on earth is also the driest and gets very little actual snowfall…and that is Antarctica. When I see skeptics point to greater snowfall as any indication that AGW must not be happening it does make me chuckle a bit. It takes tremendous energy to move the mass of moisture in snow from the ocean to cover your driveway. As an acceleration of the hydrological cycle has long been predicted by GCM’s when looking at rising CO2 levels (as that is what the earth has done for millions of years when CO2 levels rise) and heavy record snowfalls are exactly that, I would suggest that some skeptics really take a look at all that is implied in that accleration.
The urban heat effect is well demonstrated, And I have noted before the unlikely juxtaposition of hot and cold records. This most frequently happens in Texas and here we have it again.
Well, something is going on. We’ve had a SECOND day of observable snowfall (little to no accumulation) in BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA. Snow in the deep South is a rarity, in and of itself, and even a single event, before Christmas (heck, even before the official first day of winter), is virtually unheard of. As the cold air mass passes over, we’re projected to go to 16 degrees overnight, thanks to no cloud cover behind the front.
Gary says: (December 13, 2010 at 6:48 am)
That agrees with data from Weather Underground, which as far as I’m aware is a commercial enterprise not associated with NOAA. They probably both get their data from the Ozark Regional Airport anyway. Maybe that’s far enough away from Mountain Home to account for the difference? I notice, for example, that the Marion County Regional Airport only had a low of 12°F, and that’s less than 10 miles further west.