A strong low pressure system currently over the Pacific Northwest will move our way the first half of this week, bringing a swath of heavy snow to the western Great Lakes region.
After a partly sunny day on Saturday, and blue skies on Sunday, the nice weather will hold on one more day for Monday, before going downhill on Tuesday.
The NWS Offices in Duluth and Minneapolis have begun changing some of their Winter Storm Watches to into Warnings, in places where there is high confidence that snow totals will reach over six inches. In other places, exact storm totals are more questionable until we get closer to Tuesday.
This warning map (above) is from MichiganWxSystem.com and shows the watches and warnings for northern Wisconsin. The storm will arrive on Tuesday and last into Wednesday.
How much is expected?
We still have two days until the snow starts (Tuesday afternoon), so the amounts might be tweaked once we get closer to the start of the storm.
In the meantime, this graphic (to the left) shows where NWS Duluth believes the heaviest snow will fall.
Rain may mix into northern Wisconsin and therefore reduce the snow amounts, where less than 6" is possible.
Along the north shore of Lake Superior, Duluth, and points westward through Grand Rapids and Brainerd may see up to 12".
My front yard on Maple Hill.
This morning, for CoCoRaHS and my report to the NWS, I measured 14.0" of snow still on the ground, with only a trace of lake-effect snow from yesterday.
This afternoon (Sunday), I took a picture from the front deck (to the right).
In the center of the shot is my weather station on a pole, behind that is the green snow gauge, and off to the right is my snow board.
I'm not sure what I'll do for the 'end of winter' photo series this year. Last year I made a snowman from a snowstorm on April 11th (10" of new snow!) and took a photo each day until the snowman disappeared. I called the project "The Death of Frosty", it can be viewed (here).
How much is expected?
My front yard on Maple Hill.