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Friday, October 23, 2009

October 23 Rain, Then Wet Slushy Snow caused problems in some areas.

Moderate snow that fell Friday afternoon.

what a mix up of a day it was today! at first people woke up to moderate rain showers, like when I woke up it was raining pretty heavy then near 11AM it turned to sleet then big snowflakes started falling down, then it remained snow and actually became quite heavy in the afternoon, the snow flakes were large, and came down heavy enough to accumulate on roads, This caused some traffic issues in areas, Traffic was definitely slowed. Towards evening some places even had a change back to light rain! Watching this system on radar was interesting, The radar showed snow falling in the middle of the preip, with rain all along the edges of the area of preip.



White oak branches bending under wet snow Oct 23rd


rainfall totals of 0.10 to 0.20 that fell earlier made it perfect for the snow to stick to trees, this made them quite heavy, It wasn't enough to cause any major tree damage at my location, but trees did bend low enough that it was quite noticeable.

Areas that got more snow such as northern Barron county and southern Washburn County, and Southern Dunn County have some minor tree damage, Some trees snapped under the weight of the snow, Also Power was cut off to parts of the City of Menomonie likely due to falling tree limbs. Slippery roads also caused many car accidents and slide offs across the area.

Front Yard Snow Oct 23rd.

Snowfall Reports
There were not many reports made but most places reported around 1, to 2 inches, But A friend of mine Dirk, an area blogger of a blog called Dirks Forecasting Center reported nearly 4 inches of snow in his area Northwest of Rice Lake, The area the got the heaviest snowfall totals seems to be confined to Northern Barron and Southern Washburn counties, places like Shell Lake, Sarona, Cumberland and Haugen, This area had colder air and heavier snow, South and West of this area, had less snow accumulations Baldwin Reported 1 inch and Menomonie reported 2 inches, At my backyard here in Clayton, I picked up 1.0 inch of snow. places in the far west, had even less that, maybe near an inch or less, This area had the warmest temps as warmer air got wrapped back in, which caused snow to turn back over to rain towards evening.

Comparing This October's Snow to Average October Snowfall.
so the area got another minor snow event! most places are definitely Well above the normal October snowfall average! My backyard picked up 5.50" of snow so far this October, This is 5 inches above the normal October average of 0.50 half inch! We are also well above normal on Rainfall as well So far I have gotten 7.70" of rain this is 5.31" above the normal amount of 2.39"

so we are really catching up on moisture

1 comment:

Josh Herman said...

I am happy to read of your above average precipitation this month. Your part of the state really needs it. As far as snow, I am sure this October will go down into the records books for you all. Quite impressive. Thanks for the thorough report once again.

For an archived radar loop of this snowfall click on the Daily Weather Description for the 10/24 observation here. You were right about the edges of precip staying liquid.