Winter weather thread 2009-2010

[Beerambassador]

Monona Drive is a wreck right now, and Monona likes to pride itself as being not like Madison. They're failing in that regard.

[PeaveyFury]

I want to leave this embarrassment of a town soon....why the locals praise Madison is beyond me...

 

Because it's great in all aspects except for snow removal. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[burniebrewer]

I may have gotten a tad dramatic there....http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[JumpinMacFlash]

I'm not in Madison, but I'm not pleased with the street department in Hartland or the highway department for Waukesha county. Major highways seem to be fine, but anything else is also covered in packed snow. Coming back from the store last night, I was driving slow coming around a curve on Capitol Drive, my car slid sideways, I tried to correct, it caught, slid to the other side of the street, and hit into a snowbank.

 

A lot of the roads around here are terrible. I'm more than used to snow covered roads, and driving in less than desirable conditions. I'm from the Richland/Crawfod/Vernon/Grant county area, and back roads there seem to be better taken care of then more major roads here. It's a joke.

[owbc]

I suspect the government budget deficits have something to do with the decrease in plowing services, even if they aren't using it as an excuse. Meanwhile, Madison was paying all of its plow drives overtime today for what seemed like a full scale salt/plow operation. At least the roads are better now, although I did see more spinouts/wrecks today--more than 72 hours after it stopped snowing.

[PeaveyFury]

Mayor Dave has issued a public apology for the condition of the roads in the city:

 

http://host.madison.com/wsj/weather/article_d51699fe-5392-56dd-9996-9267a3e82db1.html

[TooLiveBrew]

"In hindsight, [Cieslewicz] said he would have made a 'hybrid' decision, using some of the 30 vehicles to apply salt and the others to plow residential areas."

 

So wait -- you can do both?!

[PeaveyFury]

I'm glad they finally made the realization yesterday that you can indeed send the plows back out a couple of days after the storm to clear some of the loose stuff off the roads.

[Hammer]

Sounds like Christmas Eve and Christmas Day could be a mess. OWBC, what is your latest model telling you?

[hawing]

OWBC is finishing up his undergraduate education this weekend...so let's cut him some slack if he doesn't reply right away.

[owbc]

Only one exam left!!!

 

Models are all over the place for Christmas eve. In the last 2 days, the same model has given Madison a heavy snow, mostly rain with some snow mixed in, and then the latest run sends the storm to the Ohio Valley and keeps it dry here.

 

The problem is that the energy for this storm is out in a data sparse region of the far northPacific Ocean. The last storm originated from a wave that moved down the Pacific Coast, so we had a good sampling of the atmosphere even 5 days in advance. No such luck this time so the forecast is not going to be reliable. The storm is also projected to be much smaller/weaker than the last one, so pinpointing the location of the moderate snow is going to be more difficult.

 

All the forecasts on TV are educated guesswork. Nobody really knows what is going to happen. We probably will not have some solid answers until Monday. I refuse to speculate until there is some model agreement.

[owbc]

Well, I just wrote a big post about the storm and then accidentally deleted it. The original forecasts were wrong (as expected), and there are still lots of details to iron out based on the next few model runs.

 

Basically, we are expecting some light snow to begin with on Wednesday evening, quickly changing to freezing rain/sleet/snow for overnight Wednesday into Thursday. Everyone in Southern WI will gradually change to all rain for Christmas eve night into Christmas. Flooding will be a possibility in areas with the big snow pack still around. Everything will change back to snow on Christmas afternoon, but only light accumulations are expected.

 

It is difficult to say how big of a travel impact this will be. If the precipitation stays as sleet and freezing rain for an extended period on Thursday, it could be really, really nasty. If the temperatures are a little warmer, there will likely be little or no travel impact (although Minneapolis/NW Wisconsin can expect up to a foot of snow). The NWS will likely issue a winter storm watch for much of Wisconsin. The Milwaukee area may be excluded again, as a faster rain changeover is expected due to the warm lake waters.

[hawing]

And may I just add that OWBC now has the UW-Madison equivalent of a meteorology degree, which I believe gives his weather posts here that little extra oomph, or zazz, or notch of authenticity. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

(UW-Madison doesn't call it "meteorology.")

[Patrick425]

Congrats OWBC. I'm a little jealous. I've always had a very strong interest in weather. My freshman year at UWM (1984), I took a class call "Forecasting the Weather". It was taught by Bart Adrian (Fox News Chanel 6 in Milwaukee meteorologist).

 

However, I was better with numbers than I was with science, so I went into accounting instead.

[adamb100]

Winter offically begins at 17:47 tonight, which is 5:47 Wisconsin time

[Invader3K]

Sounds like the wife and I have to figure out if we're going to leave on the evening of the 23rd, or risk waiting until the 24th. I hate making decisions like this. We have to travel four hours north (her parents live near Antigo), and the unpredictable Wisconsin winter weather makes planning ahead kind of a chore in itself.

[pitchleague]

we fly from Vegas to Detroit to Appleton on 12/23 so hope all will be okay for that.

 

We have plans on 12/24-26, too, but not as worried about that as I am with safe flights (and landings.)

[BlueFever]

Winter offically begins at 17:47 tonight, which is 5:47 Wisconsin time

Happy shortest day of the year, everybody!

[owbc]

I'm so glad to be done with school, it feels great!!! However, I am going to have to sit here nervously waiting to for responses from grad schools starting in mid-January... As for travel times, the precip starting time is still very much in question. Models have been slowing this thing down, so the precip could hold off until Thursday morning.

[RyDogg66]

So what does it look like for the Oshkosh/Valley area. We arent really GB and we arent really Milwaukee when it comes to weather.

[hawing]

Sounds like the wife and I have to figure out if we're going to leave on the evening of the 23rd, or risk waiting until the 24th. I hate making decisions like this. We have to travel four hours north (her parents live near Antigo), and the unpredictable Wisconsin winter weather makes planning ahead kind of a chore in itself.

This sounds familiar, except I don't have a wife (http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif) and we're expected in Kenosha - so at least in the opposite direction from the heavier stuff, but how relatively clear it is there wouldn't matter so much if we spin out while leaving Dane County. But we are split between trying to leave Wednesday evening or waiting until Thursday. I'll be watching local weather sources and, of course, will eagerly absorb whatever our newly degreed resident weatherman has to say here.

 

And I hate to rain/snow/sleet on adamb's winter parade, but the NWS said the solstice was at 11:47 AM central time. Still, happy winter. (blue for the iciness, not sarcasm)

[NeedMoreFans]

We have a short distance...just to Monroe...but I'm keeping an eye on this. It's looking like driving in icy stuff either on Wednesday night or Thursday morning. If I had to choose, I'd rather drive when it's light outside.

[hawing]

A short distance, but PB and 69 are only considered major thoroughfares if you live in Green or southern Dane County. Don't spin out into the mighty Richland!

[sdcheezhd]

Solstice was 17:47 GMT/UTC/Zulu which is 11:47 am CST.

[burniebrewer]

I hate snow! Why can't it just be below zero instead? It may be cold, but at least it makes for easier driving.

 

If today is a precursor to the rest of the week, I'm not going to be very happy.