Heavy Snow Blankets Area on December 17th, 2000
Yet another potent winter storm developed over the Ohio valley on Saturday December 16th. A very strong jet stream, 150 Knots or 173 mph, was responsible for developing intense low pressure at the surface in the Tennessee valley, which then intensified rapidly as it moved northeast into Ohio and then north into Ontario, Canada. Very intense, heavy snow developed late Saturday night and early Sunday morning on the back side of this low on the edge of the dry slot. Snowfall rates of over 2 inches per hour were observed in parts of northern Indiana and southern lower Michigan.
Forecaster's knew a strong winter storm would develop over the weekend and winter outlooks were issued as early as 330 pm on Thursday, December 14. Computer models, which aid Meteorologists in forecasting winter storms, were having difficulty determining the exact track this storm would take and where heavy snow, if any, would fall. By early Saturday morning, computer models were in better agreement, developing strong low pressure over western Tennessee and tracking it into Ohio. The forecast problem then became, when will the arctic cold air arrive and where will the moisture be located when it does arrive. The computer models Saturday morning indicated the cold air would interact with the best moisture in far eastern Indiana and northwest Ohio, where 3 to 5 inches of snow would be possible. Over northern Indiana and southern lower Michigan, it appeared only enough moisture would be present for 2 to 4 inches of snow.
The low intensified rapidly during the afternoon and evening and moved into Ohio as expected Saturday night. In the meantime, a strong upper level disturbance that was located over Missouri Saturday afternoon, moved northeast across Indiana at the same time the surface low moved north and strengthened. An area of snow began to develop over central and north central Indiana Saturday night between the surface low and the upper air disturbance within the developing mid level deformation zone. This area can be seen in satellite imagery along the right edge of the enhanced clouds and is known as a deformation zone. Intense snowfall rates have been observed on the eastern edges of these cloud features. This upper air feature, combined with the deepening surface low, pulled significant moisture from Ohio back west into northern Indiana and southern lower Michigan. As the deformation zone intensified and moved across the area, snowfall increased dramatically. Read this discussion from the Storm Prediction Center, issued at 1117 pm EST.
Between Midnight and 700 am EST Sunday, snowfall rates were between 1 and 2 inches per hour occurred along a Rochester...Warsaw...Lagrange...Coldwater line. Here at the Northern Indiana office, 2.1 inches of snow fell between Midnight and 100 am EST! Many locations received 2 to 6 inches of snow. Those areas under the eastern portion of the deformation zone experienced the most intense snow bands and received 7 to 10 inches of snow in only 6 hours! Far Northwest Indiana and Southwest lower Michigan only recorded an inch or less of snowfall from this storm. However, they did pick up another inch or two from lake effect snow Sunday morning.
Behind this intense low pressure system...winds increased dramatically, creating blowing and drifting snow. Many roads were impassable Sunday morning due to snow drifts over 3 feet deep. Winds howled most of the day with gusts above 30 mph!
Here is a Public Information Statement(PNS) with snowfall reports from Saturday night and Sunday morning.
These amounts have also been plotted on a map for easy viewing.
This story written by Sam Lashley and Todd Holsten