29. Playing catch-up again, starting with a summary of the last ice storm.
While I measured only a brief glazing of ice before the precipitation turned over to rain, but several tenths were measured along the North Shore. Some ice totals reported from Minnesota:
0.10" Brainerd 5SW, Crow Wing Co. 0.10" Payne 4E, St. Louis Co. 0.10" Littlefork, Koochiching Co. 0.10" Lutsen, Cook Co. 0.15" Silver Bay, Lake Co. 0.15" Duluth (on the hill), St. Louis Co. 0.20" Finland, Lake Co.
This map (to the right) comes from the NWS in Duluth and shows the smoothed contours of where the heaviest icing occurred after 9 February.
The complete summary from NWS Duluth can be found (here).
Otherwise, it was a rain event.
While ice was a concern, the system brought enough warm air northward that the freezing rain was quickly replaced by only rain.
My weather station recorded a maximum temperature of 41.6 degrees at 7:20 on 10 February.
Overall, I measured 62 consecutive hours and 50 minutes above freezing, beginning at 12:00 on 9 February.
This is another map (to the left) from the NWS Duluth with smoothed contours of measured rainfall.
From the two days (9th and 10th) I had 0.11" of rain, sleet, and freezing rain.
A large swirling system.
While the upper-level low was spinning across the Northern Plains, the cold front swept through Red River of the South.
The northern states received snow, freezing rain, & cold rain, the southern states saw a severe weather outbreak.
From Oklahoma and Texas there were 12 reports of tornadoes and funnel clouds. Initial reports from Lone Grove and the Oklahoma City area indicate that 2 people died and 26 were injured from multiple tornadoes.
The initial SPC storm reports from 10 February can be found (here).
Ice storms.
While the ice that fell across western Lake Superior on 9 February, it was only the first of the season... there is always the threat of another one (or two). With some luck, any further ice will not be severe.
A severe ice storm already made headlines across the US three weeks ago in Kentucky (27-29 January 2009). I found this picture (to the left) from that event. It's a beautiful shot of a female Cardinal sitting on a fence. Such ice events can be brutal on wildlife too. What is there to eat when everything is covered in ice??
I follow a couple blogs that spoke of the Kentucky Ice Storm: