Tracking a Winter Storm; Unusual Early-Season Heat Wave in the Southwest

A major winter storm will organize across the Northern Plains today and then rapidly strengthen as it moves into the Great Lakes on Sunday. Heavy snow and blowing snow are likely to persist over the Great Lakes into Monday night. Dry and gusty winds will produce a critical fire risk across the central/southern Plains. An early heatwave will begin to intensify over the western U.S. into next week. Read More >

Overview

A significant winter storm passed through Upper Michigan, dropping around a foot of snow over most of the area and over two feet of snow over parts of Marquette County where lake enhancement significantly increased totals.

At the NWS office in Negaunee Township:

The two-day snowfall total of 25.6 inches is the second highest two-day snowfall total for the month of February, behind 26.4 inches on Feb 2-3, 1983.

The two-day precipitation total of 1.58 inches is the 7th highest two-day precipitation total for the month of February.

Summaries from other NWS Offices

N WS Green Bay: Heavy Snow Blankets Much of Wisconsin on February 12, 2019

Radar loop of the event. System begins to move in from the South and slowly rotates becoming much more lake-effect driven, creating snowfall rates of 1+ inches per hour

Social Media and DSS
Photos & Video
Snowfall Reports
Environment

Social Media and DSS


The first mention of a significant storm came with Sunday evening's weather story.	Messaging continued Monday morning.	Specifics on the timing of heavy snow were shown Monday afternoon.	And amounts with Monday evening's weather story.

The Tuesday morning weather story emphasized that only light snow would fall before noon.	But later that morning an updated map was shown, depicting higher totals than the previous evening.	The Tuesday evening update showed how much more snow was still to come as synoptic scale snow transitioned into lake-effect.	Wednesday morning, snow diminishes.

Photos & Video

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The snow depth at the NWS office after this storm reached 46 inches, the most since March 4, 2012.	Deep snow drifts on the south side of the NWS office.	A snow drift on the south side of the NWS office reaches about 9 feet deep, partially blocking the window.	Clearing out the area around the radar.

1 N Negaunee (NWS Employee)	AuTrain (Becky McCollum Cain)	Chatham (Karen Schaeffer)	Newberry (Catherine Freese)

Gwinn (Brenda Keni)	Harvey (Anne Lund)	Marquette (Lori Nemancheck Appleton)	Bergland (Tina Maki Cook)

Lake Independence, Big Bay (Craig Frank)	Negaunee (Tina McCorkle)	Marquette (Emma Goebel)	Escanaba (Trenton Bellingar)

Negaunee (Abbie Kapper Tireman)	Munising Bay from Sand Point (Diane Rantz)	Superior Central School District (Bill Valima)	Grand Marais (Sara Secrest)

Eben Junction (Jeff Cady)	Fayette (Carrie Farley)	Negaunee Township (Brad Werling)	Sands Township (Kathy Carter Wirkula)

Diorite (Cassie Spence Dobson)	Garden (Paula Winter LeFevre)	Ironwood (April Fabbri)	Marquette (Lily Cheryl Anne Morrin)

Iron River (Sarah Barker)	Munising (Samantha Hoffman Meyer)	Gladstone (Linda Madalinski)	Limestone (Patricia Maki Tyner)