Powerful Christmas Storm System brought Heavy Snow, Sleet, and even Rain to the area.

Snow covered Christmas Decorations December 25th-Christmas Day.


A Very powerful system hit the area from late Wednesday through parts of our Saturday. This system was Very large, and very hard to forecast for, The main part of the storm started off a Low pressure system in Texas, It then strengthened and moved northeast towards MO, This storm brought heavy snow accumulations to many states, From Oklahoma all the way to North Dakota, But on the flip side of this storm, also know as the warm side, There were reports of Tornado's and Severe Weather, along with flooding conditions. This storm effected at least 25 states.


Effects in Northwest Wisconsin

Snow plies around our house December 26th

This storm effected many communities and families across the area, as it hit right in time for The Major Christmas holiday, and a major time for Travel, Our family actually postponed our Christmas, for the first time Ever! This storm did not come out quite as I forecasted it too, but it was still a very impressive system, We had weather conditions ranging from Heavy Snow to Sleet to even just plain old Rain across the area, The first wave of snow started late Wednesday, into Thursday this brought a quick 3-5 inches to the area, But as the next wave hit later Thursday, It turned to Sleet or Rain and for Friday was much of the same some areas were getting snow while some sleet or Rain, but at one point Friday all areas were getting rain. What happened was as the storm sucked up Gulf moisture it pulled mile temps north with it, This turned snow to sleet then rain, With all this rain and sleet, Snow totals were significantly less then forecasted because of the rain and sleet cut down totals.

At My Location, Wednesday and early Thursday we picked up a quick 4" in the first wave then later Thursday it turned to sleet and Freezing drizzle, only to turn back to snow overnight Thursday, Then as even warmer air wrapped in early Friday it again turned to sleet, Then wet snowflakes, Then after this just plain old Rain and Drizzle as temperatures rose to the Mid to upper 30s! after while colder air got wrapped back into the storm, and this turned Rain into Heavy snow, Another thing to note was the wind, Winds were fairly strong from the NE strongest gust I has was 29MPH

In total I picked up 0.4 of actual rain, some sleet and Ice Accumulation, and 6.75" of snow, with a water content of 1.02" when I took a core sample, This amount includes all Rain, Ice and Sleet accumulation that may have accumulated on the snow. The snow in this storm was Very heavy and very wet, slushy type of snow, Then it cooled off Saturday and re froze, this made it very difficult to shovel! Radar Image from The Weather Channel.

Here is a radar image of this very Impressive storm! as you can see there were precipitation all the way from the Gulf Coast to the Canada boarder! The center of the low is over Northern Arkansas in this image, As it spun counter clockwise it drew warmer air all the way up north, While on the back side is was pulling in colder air. In places that kept cold air long enough, Snowfall amounts as high as 12- 23 inches was reported across the River in Minnesota. The highest Reported snowfall accumulations in the 6 county area were in Northwest Burnett County, Were the cool air remained the longest, This area reported amounts as high as 12.50" while the least amounts were reported in Southeast Dunn county, Where only 4.50" were reported, In this area there was more Rain and Sleet, this held down snow totals significantly.

Snowfall reports, Note that some of these areas may have gotten as much as 0.50" of rain and sleet or ice accumulation along with this .

Danbury 12.50"

Sarona 10.80"

Rice Lake 10.00"

Webster 9.00"

Chetek 8.90"

Boyceville 8.60"

Cumberland 8.50"

Menomonie 7.50"

Clear Lake 7.50"

Roberts 7.00"

Connorsville 7.00"

Clayton 6.75"

Baldwin 6.0"

Elk Mound 4.50"

Even with the storm, I hope everyone had a Great Christmas holiday!