Dec. 1 Winter Storm Recap

Light to moderate snow still making it' way across the state this morning in one last band behind this system which is currently over the Great Lakes and areas south. This storm is going to continue to give winter storm conditions over the northern Great Lakes and into the northeast over the next 48 hours. The storm however has moved past Iowa and other areas of the plains, leaving behind snow, ice and a mixture of everything winter in it' path. North of the IA/MN border and near the IA/SD border and west, mainly snow was received with little in the way of other precip forms. Portions of eastern NE got hit hard with ice/sleet mixtures, others began with ice but melted off before the storm was over due to rain. Iowa was a mixed bag of precip form, snow in the northern half mixed with glazes of ice; a quarter of an inch or more of ice throughout much of the southern half of the state. Some areas receiving over a half of an inch of ice and portion of southwestern Iowa mainly receiving rain.

Travel conditions were strained in the morning hours as mainly ice fell with drivers apparently not noticing the worsening conditions. By early afternoon many portion of the state were out of the 'Travel Not Advised' conditions, all except for east-central Iowa where large amounts of ice were falling. These areas were the main reports of power outages as well, although there were some scattered throughout the state; east-central Iowa was hit the hardest with nearly ~15,000 houses without power for at least some time. One western Illinois town is still without power this morning due to several downed lines; a community shelter was opened up there for people.

As for forecast verification, main problem was not total precip amounts but instead the coverage of those areas. The major pockets of ice were kept into a small coverage area for the most part, instead of being widespread as models were indicating. Also the presence of ice pellets and sleet were much higher than what my forecast indicated, here in Ames a majority of the morning was sleet compared to the expected freezing rain. Snowfall amounts were generally smaller than expected, areas in the northern third of the state received generally 1-3 inches although the northeast corner saw 3-6 inches amounts. Generally however the QPF amounts were above an inch, which is what forecasts were calling for. Main problem with this winter storm was the precip type, which generally is going to be extremely hard when you have this type of system.

Hope readers enjoyed the updates yesterday, the blog was at near-record numbers for visits and page views. We were competing with days in the month of June during TWISTEX, which is quite impressive for a winter storm making a run at severe weather and chasing. Hope many of you continue to come back to read the latest forecasts for the state of Iowa and when that next winter storm is likely to occur. Please, leave comments if you wish! Thanks