Storm Wrap-Up

Friday, December 1 11:00AM--

The first winter storm to hit St. Louis in a couple of years proved to be a mixed bag of frozen (and not-so-frozen) precipitation....

Talking to my brother this morning, he heard an interesting stat on one of the TV stations: if all of the water that fell on the metro area during this storm had been in the form of snow, it would have made for 29"+ inches of snow...that's good for about 3 inches of water. For those of you who are math deficient, 1 inch of water equates to 8-12 inches of snow; an inch of water makes about 8 inches of "wet" snow, and about 12 inches of "powder" snow.

I am sure you are all dying to know how the "My House, Chesterfield, Missouri" prediction turned out. Well, I was right about some things, and wrong about some things. But, before I get to the breakdown, check out what a pine tree did to my childrens's swingset.

The "My House" prediction called for 1/4" of ice, followed by 1/2" of sleet accumulation, followed by 5 inches of snow.

In reality, it turned out to be about 2 inches of a sloppy freezing rain/sleet mix that froze hard under about 2 inches of snow.

So, I was wrong about the exact amounts. Too much of the water fell as freezing rain and sleet, and amazingly, the center of low pressure rotated warm air into the STL metro area and kept the snow at bay for most of the storm.

What was I right about?

• I was right that there would be almost universal school closings, which I first predicted on Tuesday. This morning, the roads were fairly treacherous in the STL area, because of all of that frozen sleet/rain mix under the snow, and the school closings were certainly justified. Also, about half a million people in the area are without power.



• I was right about Hannibal getting a foot snow....they got exactly 12.0 inches.



• I was right about the "thunder-sleet." We indeed had lightning and thunder in Chesterfield during our sleet storm last evening.



• And I was right to buck the trend of the TV weather guys who predicted 10 inches of snow....when are they going to learn?

Anyway, that's the wrap up....hope you tune in again for the next storm!

WD

Winter Storm Observations

Thursday, November 30 3:20PM--

We are in the middle of a moderate sleet storm as of 3:20PM.....been a mix of freezing rain and sleet most of the day. Could have more than 2 inches of the sleet before the snow ever starts to fall. May even see some "thunder-sleet" during this event.

NWS forecaster named "Glass" put out a revised forecast at 2:30, where he advertised 7-9" of total snow accumulation by tomorrow morning....not 20 minutes before (at 2:10PM), the same forecaster put out a "Hazardous Weather Outlook" statement saying 3-8" of total snow. I am hoping that he simply got some better information in those 20 minutes.

For now, I will stick to my prediciton of 5" of snow. Hope I am wrong! Would love nothing better than to eat some crow because we get drilled....

WD