Newsletter of the TWIN CITIES CHAPTER of the AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY December 2009 Vol. 31 No. 4 Editor: Kevin L. Huyck

The December meeting of the Twin Cities Chapter has been RE-SCHEDULED until 7 PM, Tues- day, December 15th, 2009 at WCCO. We are limited to one hour at the studio so make sure you arrive no later than 7pm. We won't be having a business meeting this month given the limited time allotment. This is a Members-Only event, check your email for more details.

of people we are allowed. If you wish to attend, send an e-mail December Meeting: WCCO-TV Tour to [email protected], and if you don't get a Chris Shaffer will host our confirmation within a day or see your name at group for the December meeting. http://twincitiesams.org/wcco_tour.html, send another e-mail. If We'll have a tour of the station you didn't get the notice, send me a message. and a chat with Chris about how Our science fair season is coming up. Please look at the list of the meteorologists at WCCO fairs at which we judge (on the Chapter website), and plan to produce their broadcasts. attend one of them. If you'd like to help out, contact Tony Chris was raised in Stillwater, MN. He left our great state for Sudano at [email protected]. four years to attend the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, And I know you're all busy with your winter holiday where he earned degrees in Meteorology and Mass preparations, so I'll end this here. Have a good holiday, and talk Communications. to you here next year. Chris is a proud member of the American Meteorological -Cb Society and has been awarded the AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist (CBM) designation. Member Tidbits It is no wonder why Chris is so passionate about Minnesota weather. His great uncle Wilbur was struck and killed by Several members attended the Northern Plains Winter Storm lightning while farming in southern Minnesota in the summer of Conference in Saint Cloud and hosted by the Saint Cloud State 1952. His family vehicle was once chased by a tornado near Earth & Atmospheric Science Department. Look for more Maplewood, MN and one December on the way to Grandma and details about the conference later in this issue. Grandpa's house, his family spent the night snowed in at a church If you have news in your personal or professional life you in Winthrop, Minn., praying the blizzard would let up so they would like to announce to the chapter, please send a summary to could get to Redwood Falls and open their presents the next [email protected]. morning. Chris loves the weather because it is always changing and is a constant challenge, much like raising his three daughters, who News and Notes are as loud as a thunderstorm, pretty as a sunset and strong as a straight-line wind. Changes coming for the GFS --Biographical information from WCCO website On December 15, beginning with the 12Z run, the Global Forecast System (GFS) will see upgrades to several components. President’s Corner: Chris Bovitz As part of the upgrade the GFS [email protected] and Global Data Assimilation Thanks to everyone who helped to bring System (GDAS) post processors Dr. Joe Schaefer here and to get will be unified. The main everything set up for the presentation. benefit of merging the two posts We had a big and engaged crowd, and is reduced code maintenance although it would be nice if it would turn going forward. Dr. John Ward at into more members. But I think it was the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) says good to give us some good exposure in that the two were destined to be combined but the heavy processing load of the GFS post processor made it too time the community. I hope we can do this regularly. intensive to use for the GDAS until recent computing upgrades You should have already received a notice about the WCCO were completed. meeting. We are constrained by time and (again) by the number --News and Notes continued on Page 2 radio equipment at the forecast office to conduct longer range More News and Notes communication. In addition to the combination of post processors there will also This years activity was enjoyed by several forecasters and Sky- be changes to the analysis including addition of, among other warn volunteers. This year operators contacted event parti- things, new satellite observations from several platforms. The cipants at 41 other forecast offices including Monterey, CA, New model itself will benefit from changes to output cloud definition Orleans/Baton Rouge, Melbourne, FL, and Sterling and Wake- and a new Earth System Modeling Framework. Some of the field, VA. In all over 230 contacts with other amateur radio oper- products will see improvements in post processing including ators were made including weather enthusiasts in Estonia and vorticity parameters and isentropic potential vorticity. Australia. There are many other changes and you can read about them in Skywarn Recognition Day is sponsored by the National Weath- the Techincal Implementation Notice. er Service and the American Radio Relay League to recognize the accomplishments, effort, and commitment of amateur radio There are also changes to the GFS Model Output Statistics Skywarn volunteers. For more details about the event and the (MOS) starting with the January 26, 2010 12Z run. These Skywarn program you can read the news story on the Twin Cities changes include improved equations for 2-meter temperatures, 2- NWS website. meter dewpoints, wind speed and direction, and several other parameters. With the upgrade to the GFS MOS MAV 19 stations CoCoRaHS Comes to Minnesota will be removed from the guidance product but 118 new sites Starting December 1, 2009 Minnesota is part of the Community will be added. There will also be station additions and removals Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS). for the GFS MME Marine message product. CoCoRaHS is a network of volunteers measuring precipitation In Minnesota the Willmar KILL station is being removed from using low-cost tools, stressing training and education, and utiliz- the MAV. This is a result of the change in citing and identifier ing an interactive for the Willmar METAR site to the KBDH location outside the website. The net- city limits to the west. It's likely that KBDH will be added to the work was MAV eventually once enough data has been collected from the established by the new obs site to establish statistical relationships. There are Colorado Climate several new sites being added in Minnesota and Wisconsin. In Center in Fort Collins and is now expanded to include volunteers Minnesota these are Buffalo Municipal Airport (KCFE), Granite in all 50 states. The program aims to provide accurate precipita- Falls Municipal Airport (KGDB), Isedor Iverson Airport (KHZX) tion data on a timely basis, increase the spatial density of near McGregor in central Aitkin County, Luverne/Aanenson precipitation data, encourage members of the public to have fun Field (KLYV) near Luverne, Stanton Airfield (KSYN) just south participating in meteorological science and increasing their of the Metro west of Cannon Falls, and Tracy Municipal Airport awareness of weather, and provide enrichment activities for (KTKC) near Tracy in Lyon County. In Wisconsin Kings/Land o' teachers, educators, and the community at large among many Lakes Airport (KLNL) in northern Vilas County, Menomonie other goals. More information about the program and informa- Municipal Airport (KLUM), Waupaca Municipal Airport tion on becoming a volunteer is available through the news story (KPCZ), Ladysmith/Rusk County Airport (KRCX), and on the Twin Cities NWS website. Tomahawk Regional Airport (KTKV) will be added to the MAV product. Newsletter contributors welcome For all the details about the change to the GFS MOS view the We are seeking several members who are interested in contrib- Technical Implementation Notice. uting material for the newsletter. There are many different op- portunities available for those who wish to participate. We have Several TCAMS Members Participate in Sky- ample room for monthly or bi-monthly columnists. If you want warn Recognition Day this year to help but don’t think you have enough material for either of The first Saturday in December has, for the past ten years, been those two options we welcome single articles and one-time con- set aside to recognize the efforts of Skywarn severe weather spot- tributions. If you are interested in helping out please contact ters and volunteers. This year's event was from 00Z Saturday Kevin by email at [email protected]. December 5 (6pm Friday night, Central time) until 00Z Sunday Call for Bloggers (6pm Saturday night). The Twin Cities National Weather Service Member Nicolle Morock is starting her own company, Forecast Of- http://whatever-weather.com/. The company goal is to become fice has a the one-stop shop for meteorologists, their employers, and weath- fairly extens- er geeks in general. In addition to hosting free job postings, the ive amateur site will offer a retail store, chat rooms, and blogs. Nicolle is cur- (ham) radio station to communicate with Skywarn radio groups rently looking for bloggers to share their knowledge with her across their area of responsibility. The station is equipped with a readers. If you are a meteorologist and have a specialty or in- computer for the volunteers to use and six radios each on separ- formation that you would like to share in a blog format, please ate antennas. These radios are designed mainly for short-dis- contact her at [email protected]. Some examples of blog tance communication of no more than fifty miles miles, on aver- topics include: new technology coming online, a hiring manager age. Depending on atmospheric conditions some stations can be writing about qualities for which he/she looks in a candidate for contacted more than one hundred miles away but generally not employment, or tricks for quantitative precipitation forecasting in on severe weather days. Each year volunteer ham radio operat- a particular scenario. Also, please contact her if you are a hiring ors and a few of the forecasters, with help from the Minnesota manager and would like to post jobs on the site. Youth Amateur Radio Council, setup additional, lower frequency, weather events in Minnesota and Western Wisconsin: 2009 Severe Weather Season in Review April 24: Several reports of 1 inch hail are reported in the Eau Guest feature by Tony Perkins Claire, WI area and near Albert Lea. These are the first severe [email protected] reports in the MPX CWA this season. Many storm chasers and forecasters alike thought the 24th might be the first tornado day in If you thought the skies seemed quiet this year there is a Minnesota given the strong dynamics associated with this severe reason, they were. The Twin Cities National Weather Service weather outbreak. In the end it was largely a hail and wind event office (MPX) issued 95 severe thunderstorm warnings for it's with several reports of golf ball size hail and even a few 2” hail County Warning Area (CWA) in 2009. This is down from 290 reports from central and northern part of La Crosse's CWA severe thunderstorm warnings in 2008. A generally quiet severe weather season is responsible for part of the difference. In addition to the quiet weather, however, there was a change to the threshold for a hailstone to be considered “severe” across much of the nation. As mentioned in the April TCAMS Newsletter the criterion for “severe” hail was increased to 1” in diameter on April 1, 2009. Severe hail and damaging wind reports decreased from the values in 2008 much as the warnings did. There were 95 combined wind and hail reports in 2009 versus a whopping 700 reports in 2008 in the MPX CWA. The trends in tornadoes go in an opposite direction, however. In 2009 there were 51 tornado warnings issued by MPX compared with 46 warnings in 2008. Confirmed tornadoes in the MPX CWA ticked up in 2009 as well with 23 verified tornadoes this year; 17 of which were in the 42 county Minnesota portion of the CWA while the other 6 were in the 9 county Wisconsin portion. This year's tally of 23 in the MPX area is up from 17 in 2008. The July 14th tornado that hit Swift Falls was rated EF-2 and was the strongest tornado in the MPX CWA this season. In June 17, 2009 Austin, MN Tornado © Brad Nelson Minnesota there were 24 tornadoes in 2009 June 17: Minnesota's first tornado day of 2009. The first Nationally, the skies were quiet in the traditional tornado peak tornado touched down just after 5pm near Campbell in Wilkin month of May. The number of tornado watches issued for May, County. The fairly weak supercell that produced the Wilkin which usually averages 168, withered at just 100 nationally. That County tornado quickly weakens without producing any further is the lowest number since 1992. During May, there were 199 severe weather. Several hours later at around 7:30pm another tornadoes in 2009 vs 461 tornadoes in 2008. For the MPX CWA tornado is reported, this time in the southern part of the state near in May, just 4 thunderstorm and tornado warnings combined Geneva in Freeborn County. Just half an hour later at 8pm a w e r e tornado struck Austin, MN. The Austin tornado was rated EF-2 issued. on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. Five more tornadoes are also T h e reported this evening near Blooming Prairie, Waseca, and s e v e r e Morristown. 3.25" hail was measured near Blooming Prairie. w e a t h e r You can see Brad Nelson's Chase Summary, Images, and Video season was and Shawn Hewitt's Chase Highlights from the day by clicking effectively the appropriate link. over by the June 21: Not to be outdone by Father's Day, Mother Nature end of catches our attention again with 6 tornadoes near the Iowa A u g u s t . border, in Freeborn and Faribault counties. 4.5" of rain also falls September overnight in Faribault, MN. David Drufke has a couple of videos shaped up near Alden, MN available. to be one July 14: Five tornadoes touchdown in Swift, Pope, Kandiyohi, of the and Stearns counties in Minnesota. One of the tornadoes strikes w a r m e s t the town of Spicer, MN causing the only injury in the state this and driest year and another leaves EF-2 damage behind in Swift Falls. on record Jacob Thumberger has his chase summary, videos, and event in Minnea- review from the Spicer tornado available and Tadd Parris has p o l i s . posted some still photos, radar data, and video from Kandiyohi D u r i n g County as well. A u g u s t , July 21: A 14 year girl is struck and killed by lightning in September, Stillwater, MN. and even early October a "second season" can occur as cold air August 2: 2.75" hail falls near Bird Island, MN, torrential rain starts to progress farther south once again. Similar to the largely causes some minor urban flooding in the Twin Cities. The inactive “primary” severe weather season the “second season” storms that produced the rain and hail near the Cities also had a never arrived in 2009. vigorous lightning display. Here is a brief review of some of the more active severe --Severe Weather Season Review continued on Page 4 --Severe continued New format for Non-Precipitation and August 8: A tornado was reported near Mound, MN. This Winter Weather messages this winter tornado trekked across the Lake Minnetonka area and lifted in By Kevin Huyck Plymouth. The storm later produce damaging winds in the [email protected] northern Metro before moving east into Wisconsin. After crossing the St. Croix River the supercell produced additional This winter several National Weather Service Forecast Offices tornadoes near Burkhardt, WI., and Hammond, WI., where a roof will be participating in an experimental program to make winter was partially blown off a house. Heavy rainfall amounts of 5.5" weather products easier to fell in Prescott, WI, and 6.2" in Chaska, MN. Tony Perkins has for users to read and glean video of the tornado near Plymouth and Tadd Parris has still critical information. The photographs, radar, and video from the Lake Minnetonka area. parameters of the experi- August 19: A surprise tornado outbreak occurred across much mental change state that of central and southern Minnesota as an area of low pressure Winter Weather (WSW) and tracked over the area. An EF-0 tornado touched down at 1:50 Non-Precipitation Weather pm and traveled northward through south Minneapolis, lifting (NPW) advisories, watches, just at the edge of downtown. Numerous trees are felled along and warnings will adopt a Park and Portland Avenues in south Minneapolis. The tornado bullet format to convey im- caused damage to the Minneapolis Convention Center and portant details about the Central Lutheran Church. Tornadoes also touched down in threat. Cottage Grove, MN., Hudson, WI., Forest, WI., and NE of North All of the Central Region Branch, MN during the early afternoon. During the traditional forecast offices will be parti- storm time of late afternoon, 2 more tornadoes were reported in cipating in the program but SW MN. in Blue Earth and Brown counties. 6" of rain falls near the start dates vary. Duluth, Braham, MN in 12 hours. Two of the tornadoes, Cottage Grove Sioux Falls, Grand Forks, and New Trier would be rated as EF-1 twisters. In all 11 "Ice Mask" by Frank Hurley and Des Moines are all tornadoes occurred in a synoptic setup no one suspected could slated to start using the new produce tornadoes. You can read the overview of the event and message format on December 8 however, Duluth and Des the findings of the damage surveys from MPX. Paul Hutner Moines are both using it already for the upcoming winter storm from Minnesota Public Radio writes about how strange the event due Tuesday of this week. Green Bay and Milwaukee are also was on the Updraft blog. Kristin Clark has a video on Youtube ...WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM TUESDAY she shot from her apartment as the first tornado approached AFTERNOON THROUGH LATE WEDNESDAY NIGHT... downtown Minneapolis. The storm system that produced * ACCUMULATING SNOW IS EXPECTED TO BEGIN TUESDAY AFTERNOON ALONG THE NORTH SHORE OF LAKE SUPERIOR...AND RAPIDLY tornadoes close to home went on to produce gusty straight-line EXPAND ACROSS MUCH OF THE REST OF THE NORTHLAND TUESDAY winds in Duluth's forecast area. NIGHT...AND CONTINUE THROUGH WEDNESDAY. AREAS AFFECTED INCLUDE THE NORTH SHORE...THE TWIN PORTS AREA... HINCKLEY...HAYWARD...ASHLAND... PARK FALLS AND HURLEY.

* SNOW ACCUMULATIONS GREATER THAN 6 INCHES ARE EXPECTED OVER EAST CENTRAL AND NORTHEAST MINNESOTA. GREATER ACCUMULA TIONS OF 8 INCHES OR MORE ARE POSSIBLE OVER MUCH OF NORTHWEST WISCONSIN.

* IT WILL BECOME WINDY AND GUSTY AS NORTHEAST INCREASE TO 30 MPH AND HIGHER. THE WINDS WILL CAUSE BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW THAT COULD CREATE WHITEOUT CONDITIONS.

* TRAVEL AND ROAD CONDITIONS COULD DETERIORATE RAPIDLY TUESDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING IN SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW.

* COLD ARCTIC AIR WILL SPREAD ACROSS THE REGION AS THE STORM DEPARTS...WITH WIND CHILL VALUES DROPPING INTO THE SINGLE DIGITS AND TEENS BELOW ZERO WEDNESDAY AND WEDNESDAY NIGHT

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A WINTER STORM WATCH MEANS THERE IS THE POTENTIAL FOR SIGNIFICANT ACCUMULATION OF SNOW THAT WILL IMPACT TRAVEL AND COMMERCE. YOU ARE ENCOURAGED TO STAY CURRENT WITH THE LATEST WEATHER INFORMATION REGARDING THIS DEVELOPING WINTER STORM VIA LOCAL TELEVISION... RADIO...THE INTERNET...OR NOAA WEATHER RADIO. August 19, 2009 Minneapolis, MN Tornado © Kristin Clark --Example of the new bullet format from a Duluth Winter Storm Watch This strange event was the last for the severe weather season of 2009 in the Twin Cities CWA. You can find more details about using the new bullet format for the mid-week storm. The Min- this severe weather season and previous seasons on the MPX neapolis and La Crosse offices will start using the new format Severe Weather Records page. after the current storm moves through. Participating offices have the option to revert back to the “standard” message format as the Thanks to Todd Krause and Kevin Huyck for contributing to workload and other particulars require. this article. --New Format continued on Page 5 is, La Crosse, Grand Forks, Sioux Falls, and Omaha, Minnesota --New Format continued Climatology Office, and several radio, television, and newspaper A list of participating offices is available as is an example of partners. In addition you can find the PSS on Facebook and the experimental format. Since this is an experimental program Twitter! there is a request for feedback from media, emergency manage- In 2008, the first year of the survey, there were 500 responses ment, transportation, and the public. The survey is available until and in 2009 that number jumped to 2700 responses. Between the May 29, 2010 and your participation is encouraged. two years of study completed there are more than 3200 re- sponses. The preliminary data is instructive but there may be a few biases in the data set since respondents mainly found the sur- St. Cloud State Post Storm Survey gears vey through NWS websites suggesting a bias toward web users up for another season and individuals who get their weather data from the NWS dir- By Kevin Huyck ectly over the web. Hopefully with a broader net cast this year [email protected] some of those biases will be better defined. From the 2009 sample more than 52% of the respondents were concerned about In 2007 forecaster Amanda road conditions in addition to other concerns and made adjust- Graning from the National ments to their daily routine as a result. More details about the Weather Service (NWS) in Du- 2009 response are located on the NWS Duluth website. luth and Matt Taraldsen as student at St. Cloud State Uni- Several TCAMS members attend the versity studying Meteorology Northern Plains Winter Storm Conference and Communication decided to By Kevin Huyck pick up a gauntlet thrown down by Ray Wolf, a forecaster at the [email protected] Davenport, IA office. While The Department of Earth the National Weather Service and Atmospheric Sciences regularly issues advisories, at Saint Cloud State Univer- watches, and warnings for sity hosted the fourth annual winter weather no one had attempted to gauge the usefulness of Northern Plains Winter this information to the intended users. Ray realized that NWS Storm Conference on needed a method to, as he put it, “systematically gather local cus- November 9-10. Several tomer input and local research results…and turn that information members of the Twin Cities into improved products and services”. So in 2008 the Post Storm Chapter were able to attend Survey (PSS) was born. the conference and a few It is important to note that the PSS is not intended to be a cri- presented research projects. tique of the quality of a forecast but a method to measure how This year there were 19 the public, media partners, emergency managers, and decision presentations over the two- makers received, understood, and responded to the different day event and one poster winter weather messages issued by the NWS. A few of the ques- presentation. Speakers and attendees traveled from Bismarck, tions ask “Based on the forecast, what special preparations did ND, Marquette, MI, Davenport, IA and even Camp Springs, MD. you take for this Dr. David Novak from the Hydrometeorological Prediction Cen- storm?”, “Do ter was the keynote speaker during lunch on the second day of you belong to the event. In addition to representatives from several local Na- any weather re- tional Weather Service (NWS) offices several members of the p o r t i n g media and students were also in attendance. A few of the stu- network?”, and dents presented preliminary results of their research. “Based on the Terry Simmons from the NWS office in Davenport opened the forecast, what conference with a presentation of the Armistice Day Blizzard of did you feel was 1940. The Minnesota Climatology Office ranks the storm as #2 the primary in the Twentieth Century for Minnesota. As the storm moved on- weather threat shore it was responsible for the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows from the Bridge. When it arrived in Minnesota it deposited nearly 17” of storm?”. The "Jessie the Sheltie in Snow" © Rob Brooks snow in the Twin Cities and in the Willmar vicinity there were questions are reports of snow drifts 20 feet high. asked in an open-ended way allowing the respondents to select as Mike Fowle from Aberdeen talked about some anecdotal evid- many answers as they feel applied to their situation and many of ence he's come across suggesting that early season snow the questions have a free-form response option to add additional forecasts tend to rely too heavily on the concept of “ground to information when answering a question. warm for accumulation” and gave many examples where this line That first season only the NWS office in Duluth participated as of thinking resulted in busted snowfall forecasts. Amanda Gran- a trial run. Last year the program expanded to include many sur- ing from the Duluth office presented a project their office is rounding offices. This winter will be the largest study area to working on to provide some additional data about threat levels date with participation from Minnesota Homeland Security and Emergency Management, NWS offices in Aberdeen, Minneapol- --Northern Plains continued on Page 6 --Northern Plains Continued for winter storms based on numerous parameters including time of day, type of precipitation, wind, does the event occur over a heavy travel period, on a weekend, and other factors that would impact public and private response to winter weather conditions. The Sioux Falls contingent presented information about Probab- ilistic temperature fields they have been experimenting with to provide another “value added” product for their users to use as a reference when making decisions based on temperature informa- tion. Beyond these few examples there were many other good research presentations given. There were also several instructive case studies presented of past winter storm events across much of the Northern Plains, Upper Mississippi Valley, and Great Lakes regions. Two members of the Twin Cities Chapter presented topics at the conference. Mike Bardou, with some help from Shawn "Snowy Leaves" from early October snows. © Pamela Huyck DeVinny presented some observations made during the cold It's been a fairly odd Autumn and early Winter thus far. After weather outbreak last winter. On several occasions last winter, the cool temperatures and snow of early October we managed to following the passage of a strong Arctic cold front low clouds stay near or below average for temperatures. Statewide temps comprised of ice crystals developed. These low-level cirrus averaged quite cool for the month and the temps in the Twin clouds were largely transparent optically but yielded in overcast Cities placed 2009 firmly into 4th place for coolest Octobers on conditions being reported by automated weather stations across record. 2002 is still #3 and interestingly enough the drought year the Metro. This is a concern especially given the presence of a of 1988 is #6. On top of being cool October was the 5th wettest major international airport in the Cities which can be greatly im- on record for the Twin Cities with 5.57” of precipitation. pacted by low ceilings during normal operations. October also ranked in as the 7th snowiest on record. Things Chapter Vice President Matt Friedlein discussed some work turned around fairly substantially for November. November he's been doing with the North Central River Forecast Center re- 2009 is in a four-way tie for least snowiest on record with only a garding snow melt. Each Spring there are concerns about trace of snowfall on the 29th. November is in second place for flooding and one of the points that Jim Husaby made when he the second warmest on record, too. The average daily spoke to the Chapter earlier this year was a “good” snow melt. temperature for the month checks in at 42.7°, the only year Jim defined “good” as not too warm during the day and below warmer was 2001. The average daily temperature of 42.7° is freezing at night. This setup allows the water to slowly enter the more than 10° above the normal. If we restrict our gaze to only streams and rivers instead of melting all the snow at once and the high temperatures November turns in a value higher than creating flood concerns. October. The averaged high temperature in November was 51° Matt's research attempts to develop a predictor for snow melt meanwhile October's averaged high temperature was only 49.1°. based on the National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) hourly This marks the first time since “modern” records have been kept gridded forecasts. Initial results seem to indicate that reliable that November turned in an averaged maximum temperature forecasts are possible from the NDFD but additional fine tuning warmer than October. of the parameters going into the predictor is required. Work on Cooler temperatures have returned and we've seen periods of fine tuning the parameters continues with more testing later this flurries off an on early this December. At the airport we've Winter and early Spring. logged 0.5” of snow so far this month. I'm sure that value is going to increase mightily over the next 72 hours. Looking out Editor's Notes my window I can see a thin veil of ice on the retention “swamp” out back telling me that Winter is certainly on the way. With the Meteorological winter snow and blowing snow on the way you may want to take a few arrived December 1st and minutes to review your Winter Weather Preparedness. Given the with it so has our annual impending snow and cold we may be forced to cancel or Winter Weather Contest. postpone our meeting at WCCO this month, stay tuned to your Hopefully you sent in your email for more details on this Members-Only event. entries already otherwise It seems like folks in South Dakota are having more fun with you may be short of luck. winter than we are so far this year. One of the overheard As I write this early conversations at the NPWSC in St. Cloud last month was the Monday afternoon the idea of “lake effect” snowfall from very small lakes and even region is bracing for the first “major” winter storm of the season. rivers. Some examples were the man-made lakes in central and I know some of my readers may argue my use of “major” but I western North Dakota, Upper and Lower Red Lake in think that Winter Storm Watches/Warnings and Blizzard Watches northwestern Minnesota, and even the Mississippi River near out at present with the expectation of 18-36 hours of snow and Davenport, IA. Whether as a result of these discussions or totals approaching a foot in some locations would qualify as a independent of them the Aberdeen NWS office has put together a “major” winter storm. There were earlier storms that passed far story about “lake effect” snow in their state. Winter weather may south of the Twin Cities area in October and we did have that be challenging to live with, but it's always interesting. measly 3” snow during the first week of October here locally. -Kevin