February 1-7, 2006
Midwest Weekly Highlights - February 1-7, 2006
Warm Weather Continues into
February
The weather pattern that produced the abnormally
warm
weather during the month of January extend through the first part
of February. The first days of February were particularly
mild,
with high temperatures reaching the low 50s as far north as central
Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana (Figure 1).
Temperatures the
first week of February were as much as 13°F above normal in
northern Wisconsin and Michigan and well above normal across much of
the northern Midwest. The smallest departures from normal
(+3°F to +4°F) were found across southern Kentucky and
northwestern Minnesota. (Figure 2).
Precipitation this week occurred on the periphery of the region.
Precipitation was well above normal from southeastern
Missouri
through Ohio, north through eastern Michigan, and then west through
northern Wisconsin and Minnesota (Figure 3).
Most of the
precipitation over the northern Midwest was snow, while rain and snow
fell on parts of Ohio and Indiana. (Figure 4).
The precipitation missed
most of the drought-affected portions of the Midwest (Figure 5),
although northern Illinois did receive some light amounts (Figure 6).
Winter Returns...Sort Of
An expected pattern change more favorable to cold weather
finally
began to take shape early in the week as a large trough aloft developed
over the central U.S. (Figure 7).
This was reflected on the
surface by a strong low pressure system that intensified over the
Ohio Valley on February 4, moving to the eastern Great Lakes by the
morning of February 5 (Figure 8).
The storm produced a shield of
moderate to heavy snow across northern Wisconsin and Michigan. This
snow eventually transitioned to lake-effect snow as strong winds
circulating around the low pulled cold air over the open and relatively
warm Great Lakes. Alpena, MI received a record 12.8" of snow
on
February 5, breaking the old record of 7.9" in 1978. Houghton
Lake, MI received 2.7" of snow, breaking the old daily record of 2.4"
set in 1971. By the time the snow tapered off, 4 to 18
inches of
snow of new snow was on the ground across all of northern Michigan.
It was only the second time in the last 8 weeks that northern
Michigan has had a significant snowfall.
Further south, there were initial concerns that the storm would
significantly hamper travel to the Super Bowl on Sunday February 5.
However, only about an inch fell in the Detroit area, but
high
winds combined with heavy wet snow brought down power lines in parts of
eastern Michigan, leaving customers without working televisions on
which to watch the Super Bowl. Detroit Edison reported that
11,000 customers were still without power at 8:30 p.m. EST Sunday
night. Half of these were in the "thumb" region, and the remainder were
in Livingston, Oakland, and Macomb Counties. More than 100,000
customers of Hydro One, the government-owned utility in Ontario, Canada
also lost power due to the storm.
Colder air spilled into the Midwest behind the storm, and in the
southern and western portions of the region temperatures actually
dropped below normal for the first time in weeks (Figure). However,
across much of the region temperatures, while more winter-like, still
remained above average. Temperatures in Milwaukee, WI have
reached at least 30°F for 48 consecutive days through February
7, a
new record. The old record was 31 consecutive days from
December
1-31, 1931. Madison, WI established a new record of 44
consecutive days of maximum temperatures 30°F and above, from
December 22 to February 3. The old record was 29 days set
December 1-29, 1889 and again December 1-29, 1981.
At the end of the week, only the northern and eastern Midwest had any
appreciable snow cover. Snow was virtually absent across the southern
third of Minnesota, the southern third of Wisconsin, and the
southwestern quarter of Michigan (Figure 9).
Much of the snow that
had fallen in the February 4-5 storm had melted in central Indiana and
Ohio by February 7.
SDH