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Thank you for stopping by the Weather Watch 12 blog! There is a lot to discuss in the blog over the next 7 days. From the release of the long range February forecast on Tuesday, to the arrival of the ‘signature’ storm, this is Milwaukee’s home for the inside scoop on the weather!
Let’s get started with the light snow early Saturday.
A band of light, fluffy snow pushed across the region to start the weekend. Snow totals in most areas fell into the 1 to 2 inch range. The snow was so fluffy that a leaf blower worked great to clear off driveways and sidewalks.
Here are some snow statistics for Milwaukee for the day, month, and season.
- Snowfall Saturday 1.6″
- January Total 12.6″ (+1.6″)
- Season Total 20.9″ (-5.9″)
The total of 1.6″ in Milwaukee was from only 0.02″ of liquid precipitation. That is an amazing snow ratio of 80 to 1! This means if 1.00″ of liquid would have fallen in this storm, it would have translated to 80″ of snow!
Outside of some snow showers and flurries near the lake on Sunday, the next chance for accumulating snow moves in on Monday. Temperatures won’t be nearly as cold, so the snow ratios won’t be as crazy as Saturday morning. The snow should still be enough to stick and produce a fresh coating.
Below is the latest snowfall forecast from our high resolution computer model. Just click to enlarge.
I think 1 to 2 inches of snow on Monday is a good starting point for our forecast. Again there isn’t much moisture for the storm to work with. The light snow should begin in the morning and continue on and off througout the day.
In honor of Sunday’s Packers-Bears game, here is a picture of a Packer snowman that was posted on the U-Local section of WISN.com This picture comes from user: aronasoc of Burlington. To be fair, if anyone posts a picture of a Bears snowman in the U-Local section I will add it to the blog!
In Sunday’s blog we will look ahead to the possible storm next weekend, and show how it relates to the previous 2 times through the cycle!
If you have questions or thoughts please post them to the comments section of the blog. Have a great weekend and watch WISN 12 News for the updates!
Jeremy Nelson
WeatherWatch 12 
80 to 1 ratios? That would explain why the snow mostly melted off of sidewalks and roads even though it was only 15 degrees today. That kind of snow is mostly air.
Daniel,
Just think if we had 0.02″ of rain overnight. The roads may have dried off by morning and no one would have even known it rained. Snow is different, it leaves a mark:)
Jeremy
When dealing with such a small amount of precip both snow/liquid, it is hard to really get a true amount sometimes. I am not sure I go for 80:1. In looking at the sat precip amount estimates, it shows it could have been closer to .05-.08 for MKE which would have brought the ratio to a more fathomable 20-30:1 for a very dry snow. But really…when talking about a difference of a few hundreths of an inch, it probably doesn’t really matter ultimately.
Close to a half inch of snow on the ground here on the south side of town, with no signs of to stopping anytime soon. What happened to the forecast?
Dave,
Last night at 10pm I mentioned a chance of lake effect snow showers mainly this morning, as did Luke this morning. We didn’t put a number on the snow as it was going to be very isolated in the spots that would see say an inch or two of snow, or just flurries. As I always say, predicting exactly where a heavy band of lake effect snow will hit is like predicting where a tornado will form. We may have severe weather or lake effect snow in the forecast, but pinpointing more than minutes or hours ahead of time is tough.
Hope the half inch or so of snow didn’t keep you from enjoying your day. Thanks for sharing your total.
Jeremy
Jeremy,
No worries! I’ve lived close to the lake for some time and am used to the precipitation and temperature extremes. Just a bit bewildered at how it was coming down this afternoon. I really thought that it would stay offshore. Between 2.5 and 3 inches in Cudahy easily.
Getting a bit snow weary, considering how many days we’ve been shoveling this month!
Dave,
Thanks for the total. The radar image I posted on the blog sat over the same area for close to an hour. Not surprised that some picked up that much snow, but forecasting it is difficult to say the least!
Jeremy