The Blizzard of 2009: This storm will definitely be remembered...maybe not so much in the local-area, but for much of Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and northwestern Illinois. People will remember this storm for many years to come. A dynamic mid-latitude cyclone took shape across the Midwest (December 8-9th, 2009) with the low-pressure center deepening near a whopping 980mb as it moved through the Midwest. Trust me you don't see that strong of a storm system most years! The models verified this storm nearly a week in advance which we all know is saying something! This system buried much of the Midwest in deep snow pack with some areas receiving over a foot of snow. Add a very tight pressure gradient in the mix and winds were insane as well gusting to 50mph in some places and being sustained 20-30mph. My personal outdoor Davis weather station found here recorded the barometric pressure as low as 29.03in and the storm system ushered in the coldest air of the season thus far...dropping temps below zero for a time with wind chills well below zero. If you're wondering 29.03in comes to roughly around 983mb as the low pressure moved nearly overhead here in Kewanee, IL. Since this system tracked in close proximity to my hometown we received just about every precip-type during the storm thanks to warm air surging north into the surface cyclone. We started with 2" of snow by midday, switched to sleet through mid-afternoon, to rain during the evening, to freezing rain, back to sleet, and back to snow overnight. Crazy couple days of weather may be an understatement in this case! Snow totals easily reached a foot in much of Iowa and Wisconsin in the deformation zone axis meanwhile locally we ended up meeting the low-end of my 4-8" forecast with 4" storm total. A detailed summary from the NWS (MKX) of the event can be found here. Due to this event being a monster storm...I went a little crazy taking nearly 1,000 photos. Hey, why not?..we received a bunch of precip-types here locally which created some spectacular shots. I've added many of my favorites below:
"Christmas tree" during the holiday season
"Looks like you've seen some action"
effects if you use it to your advantage
progressively becoming worse...
Rudolph, nearly unrecognizable thanks to the snow
withstanding strong winds which is quite amazing
Blue LED Christmas lights giving this snow drift a blue appearance
This was a epic storm especially west of the Mississippi River. One big storm down...a couple more to go this winter season...
