National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Severe Thunderstorms in the Northeast and Northern Plains; Critical Fire Weather in the West

Scattered severe thunderstorms capable of damaging wind gusts and hail are forecast across the Northeast U.S. and North Dakota today. Heavy to excessive rainfall is possible over eastern New Mexico into western Texas and over the western Florida peninsula today. Critical fire weather conditions will persist today over parts of the interior Northwest and Great Basin. Read More >

December 11-12, 2010, Snowstorm

Overview

A strong winter storm affected much of the Upper Midwest on December 11th and December 12th, 2010. A surface low moved east from northern Nebraska late in the day on December 10th, and tracked into Ohio by the morning of December 12th, intensifying as it moved east. Leading up to the storm, weather forecast models varied considerably in the track of the low. It turned out that the low wound up taking a more southerly track which placed the heaviest snow and blizzard conditions south of the NWS Duluth area of responsibility. However, there were still significant snowfall accumulations across parts of northwest Wisconsin. 6 inches or more of snow fell to the south of a line generally from Pine City, to Minong, to Drummond, to Washburn.

Parts of the Gogebic Range in Ashland and Iron Counties received over a foot of snow due to a combination of system snow and lake effect snow. Gile reported 17.8 inches of snow. The highest snowfall total from purely system snow wound up being Sarona in far southern Washburn County (16.4 inches).

A heavy band of lake effect snow, combined with wind gusts as high as 40 mph, lead to parts of Highway 2 west of the city of Ashland being shut down for a time as the road became impassible. The heavy snow and gusty winds closer to the lake caused similar problems on roads over much of northern Ashland and northern Iron counties.

Image
Snowfall accumulation map
Image Image
POES 1km 11-3.9 micron satellite image at 9:40pm on December 11, 2010. Lake effect band of snow from Isle Royale to Ashland County becomes evident. POES 1km IR satellite image at 9:40 pm on December 11, 2010. Convective elements near Green Bay had cloud tops as cold as -65C.
nws logo Media use of NWS Web News Stories is encouraged!
Please acknowledge the NWS as the source of any news information accessed from this site.
nws logo