29. Over a foot of snow fell in Minnesota from the last storm, almost a foot in Wisconsin.
NWS Duluth put together this map (to the right) of all the reports they received from spotters, observers, and law enforcement officials. I won't post all the reports (there are quite a few), but here are the two highest from Wisconsin:
15.5" Askov 4NNE, Pine Co. 15" Isabella, Lake Co. 15" McKinley, St. Louis Co. 14.5" Babbit, St. Louis Co.
The blowing and drifting snow forced highway closures.
During Sunday afternoon, Highway US 2 (this western portion runs 2120 miles from Everett, WA to St. Ignace, MI) was closed by law enforcement officials in two locations: just west of the City of Ashland and in the City of Superior. The rest of US 2 between Ashland and Superior was closed by 19:00 Sunday evening by State Troopers.
This map (to the left) shows road conditions at 19:00 on Sunday. The black and red color on US 2 in the northwest portion of the state is labeled as "IMPASSIBLE".
US 2 was reopened on Monday afternoon once road maintenance crews were able to clear drifted snow and ice from the roadway.
Wisconsin DOT updated their website yesterday with a new layout and new graphics, to bring Wisconsin up to par with neighborning states. A new interactive google map will provide the same color-coded road status information, in addition to other real-time hazards. The new page can be accessed (here). Bitter cold temperatures and winds created dangerous windchills after the snowstorm.
Temperatures plummeted into the minus 20s and 30s overnight while winds stayed high enough to drop the windchill values even lower.The threat was great enough for the NWS offices to isssue Windchill Advisories and Warnings for a large portion of the Western Great Lakes last night.
This graphic (to the right) shows the NWS Duluth forecast area and the forecast windchill values across northern Wisconsin and northeastern Minnesota last night and into this morning.
My weather station briefly reported a windchill value of -25 degrees at 3:30 this morning, other places dropped much lower.
Here are several of the more impressive minimum windchill values in the region from last night from Minnesota and Wisconsin:
-52 Longville, Cass Co., MN -46 Orr, St. Louis Co., MN -45 Babbit, St. Louis Co., MN -42 Inger 3SW, Itastca Co., MN -42 Hill City, Aiktin Co., MN -40 Grand Marais airport, Cook Co., MN -37 Ashland, Bayfield Co., WI
More snow in the picture this week.
I've been reading of a possible upcoming low pressure system in area NWS discussions from the last two days, so I thought it was worth mentioning.
I'm glad I found this graphical Daily Weather Story (to the left) from the NWS Milwaukee, which highlights what they are monitoring between now and Friday.
It does seem like the models are still moving around a bit on the exact location of the low pressure, and therefore do not yet show a consistent location of heaviest snowfall. This system bears watching closely as we get closer to the event.
My final numbers from our first major winter storm this past weekend.
When I got up this morning to submit my weather report to the NWS, it looked like the cover of a Mannheim Steamroller CD album in my backyard. This picture (to the right) is what it looked like once the sky lightened up a bit.
11.8" of total snow. 1.48" of water equivalent. 15.9" the maximum snowpack depth.
27 mph maximum windgust. -25 F lowest windchill reading.
-1.0 F afternoon high on Monday. -18.4 F low temp Tuesday morning.
*** A low temp of 18.4 below zero already beats my minimum temperature measured last winter (-16.4 on January 19, 2008).
The blowing and drifting snow forced highway closures. 
Bitter cold temperatures and winds created dangerous windchills after the snowstorm. 
More snow in the picture this week. 
My final numbers from our first major winter storm this past weekend.