February 1-7, 2004
Midwest Weekly Highlights - February 1-7, 2004
Winter Weather Persists
Cold weather continued unabated through the first week of February in
the Midwest.
A series of storms brought more wintry weather and reinforcing shots
of cold air to the Midwest during the week. Most of the region received
some snow, but the heaviest snow fell in the far western portions of
the Midwest.
Temperatures this week ranged from 8F below average in far western
Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri to 4F above average in northern
Wisconsin. An area of slightly above average temperatures
included much of Wisconsin, northern Michigan, northeastern Ohio, and
eastern Kentucky (Figure 1).
Precipitation for the week was normal to well above across most of the
region. The exception was a small area encompassing northern
Indiana, southern Michigan, and extreme northern Ohio, where
precipitation was 50 to 75 percent of normal (Figure 2). Snowfall
was well above average except for most of Kentucky, eastern Indiana,
and Ohio (Figure 3).
The month began with a storm system developing in the southern and
central Plains on February 1. This storm dumped heavy amounts of snow
on Nebraska, Kansas, and western Iowa (Figure 4, NWS). This
was the second such storm in a week and brought snow depths western Iowa/eastern
Nebraska to 12 to 18 inches (Figure 5). The heaviest snow fell in a band from western Iowa through
southern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin (Figure 6). Further to the east, a
mix of snow, sleet, and freezing rain spread over Missouri, eastern
Iowa, Illinois and Indiana. Four to six inches of snow blanketed
eastern Iowa, southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois, and lower
Michigan. South of this area, snow amounts were much lighter as
warmer air entrained by the storm circulation caused some precipitation
to fall as freezing rain or rain.
As high pressure settled in over the Midwest late on February 4 another
storm was already starting to organize over the central Rockies.
Winter storm watches and warnings began to be issued for the western
half of the region in anticipation of the system. However, the storm
followed a more southerly track than the previous system, limiting the
amount of moisture available for precipitation over the central and
northern Midwest. The heaviest snow with from this system once
again fell in eastern Kansas, eastern Nebraska, and western Iowa (Figure 7). Four to eight
inches of snow brought snow depths in some areas to more than 2 feet (Figure 8, NWS).
To the south and east, a mix of snow, sleet, and freezing rain fell in
parts of Missouri, central Illinois, and western Indiana causing
hazardous travel conditions. Icing from freezing rain brought
scattered power outages. In the warmer air closer to the path of
the storm, rain, some of it heavy, fell over portions of southern
Missouri, southern Illinois, and much of Kentucky.
Cold air returned to much of the region on February 7 as upper level
disturbances rotated around a large upper low over the Great
Lakes. These triggered light snow over much of the Midwest,
dropping amounts ranging from 2 to 4 over Minnesota, Wisconsin, and
Michigan to 1 to 2 inches over Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. By February
7 the southern extent of snow cover reached to the Ohio River (Figure 9), with snow
depths over two feet in the western quarter of Iowa.