OK, one last time

I’m honestly tired of this too – I find the anomalous weather pattern that is causing this extreme cold absolutely fascinating, but I’m more than tired of all the moping and whining (and cancelled baseball games and everything else).*

 

So here goes: THIS IS THE LAST WINTER/POSTWINTER/APRUARY UPDATE OF 2017-18.

 

• A cold rain mixed with some thunder and/or sleet (maybe even some thundersleet!) this afternoon is likely to transition toward sunset, with any precip (snow or otherwise) ending by dawn.
• A Winter Weather Advisory is in effect for far northern areas, including Lake and McHenry. 1-3” of snow looks like a decent bet there.
• Chicago may not see much snow, although a coating to 1” looks probable. That amount increases slightly as you go west and decreases as you go south.
• Sunshine and warmer temps tomorrow (Thursday) will quickly eat up any snow that has accumulated.

 

And yes, that really does it. The overall pattern is breaking down and we will soon revert to seasonable temps.

 

• Friday, Saturday and Sunday look downright pleasant, with partly to mostly sunny skies and high temps in the 50-60F range inland and 45-55F along the lake.
• Early next week temps should be even milder, and we should stay mostly or completely dry.

 

Also:

• Today’s storm is going to put down 3-6” of snow across northern Iowa, southern Minnesota, southern Wisconsin, and most of Michigan. Travel delays are likely.
• Erie, Pennsylvania needs 1.6” of official snow to break 200 inches for the season, and that looks like a good bet tonight/tomorrow. Incredible! That would make Erie the first major city (pop. >100k) in America to exceed 200 inches in a season. (Buffalo was agonizingly close at 199.4” in 1976-77.) There are some ski resorts in the west that would love to have that much snow. Erie has already had more snow than ski resorts like Vail and Park City!!
  • YTD totals: Taos 78 inches, Purgatory 120 inches, Park City 167 inches, Telluride 171 inches, Vail 171 inches, Beaver Creek 193 inches
• Based on (the crude approximation of) average temperatures, this is the coldest April-to-date ever recorded in Chicago. (The 1881 data which is nominally colder is not comparable and may not be entirely reliable.)
  • Chicago has also posted an all-time record for most sub-30F lows in April at 13; the prior record was 11 set in 1950.
  • It has generally been the coldest-ever April across the entire Upper Midwest and Great Lakes region.
• This guy supposedly confirmed my suspicion that this April has seen the most-ever cancelled Major League Baseball games. We’ve had 25 so far, and the prior record was 18.
• You want upside from this super-cold spring? No thunderstorms or severe weather. NWS points out that this is the latest point in any calendar year since 2001  without NWS Chicago having to issue a single severe thunderstorm or tornado warning.
  • Remember last year with all the crazy January and February thunderstorms? This year has been the polar (ahem) opposite.

 

* Scroll to the bottom for a cartoon that perfectly depicts many of the responses I get. Sorry in advance for the profanity – NSFW! – but it is very timely.

 

 

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