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Thunderstorms and Heavy Rain Across the Southern and Eastern US; Heat and Fire Weather Concerns in the West

Showers and thunderstorms are expected across the southern and eastern US this week, with heavy rain and localized flooding, particularly near the Gulf Coast. Monsoonal moisture will bring rain and potential flooding to parts of the Southwest. Heat and fire weather threats will continue to impact the West. Read More >

Snowfall Map for February 13, 2007

...Blizzard Conditions and Heavy Snowfall Created Impassable Roads and Dangerous Conditions Over Much of the Area... 

A strong upper level disturbance moved out of the southern plains on Tuesday. This disturbance helped generate an area of low pressure at the surface in central Texas. The surface low pressure moved northeast across central Kentucky while the upper level disturbance moved across central Indiana. Deep moisture from the Gulf of America was drawn northward ahead of this system which resulted in widespread heavy snow across most of northern Indiana, southwest lower Michigan and Northwest Ohio. At the same time...a very cold arctic high pressure area was settling south across the lower Great Lakes. The pressure gradient between the high and low pressure areas created 20 to 30 mph sustained winds with wind gusts around 45 mph at times. The wind and snow combined to create snow drifts of 4 to 7 feet across the area. Many counties were forced to stop plowing because they could not keep up with the drifting and some trucks were getting stuck themselves. Numerous county roads were closed or nearly impassable Tuesday afternoon and night.

The heaviest snow from this system fell across north central Indiana. Snowfall amounts ranged from 12 to 18 inches in the heaviest band which occurred from Near Lafayette, Indiana...east to Marion and Portland, Indiana.  A secondary heavy snow band also occurred from near Laporte Indiana to Goshen Indiana. 10 to 14 inches were reported in this narrow area.

Click here a summary of snowfall amounts from some reporting stations around the area. Note that not all of these amounts are final storm total amounts.

Submitted by Sam Lashley - Senior Meteorologist