January 1-10, 2008
Midwest Weekly Highlights - January 1-10, 2008
A Roller Coaster Start
The start of the new year ushered in a dramatic shift in temperatures throughout the first ten days of January. The entire Midwest saw temperatures moderately to well above normal (Figure 1). Temperatures ranged from 8°F to 16°F above normal across Minnesota and 10°F to 14°F above normal across Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. Temperatures ranged from 8°F to 10°F above normal near Paducah, KY, to 0°F to 2°F above normal near Cumberland in the southeastern portion of the state. Hundreds of records were set across the Midwest for record highs and record warm lows.
The precipitation pattern followed a southwest to sortheast path continually dropping abundant rains across the same locations (Figure 2). North central Illinois, Northern Indiana and sections of South west Michigan received 200% to over 500% of the normal precipitation for the period. Minnesota and most of Iowa only received less than 25% of what they should typically see this time of year. The heavy precipitation across Illinois and Missouri helped to downgrade the drought conditions (Figure 3). The far southeastern areas of Kentucky continue to remain in extreme drought despite the heavy December rains.
2008 Welcomes with Frigid Temperatures
A clipper system that moved out of the Midwest left a light covering of snow at the end of 2007, with Michigan receiving the brunt of the snowfall. Snow fell up to 16+ inches in southern Michigan and Northern Indiana (Figure 4). According to news reports the village of Capac, MI received a record setting 16 inches of snowfall closely followed by Clarkston and Ortonville. The official National Weather Service Cooperative Weather Observers noted a few records as well. Flint received 9.6 inches through Wednesday the 2nd. The previous record was 3.7 inches set back in 1978. Over 30,000 homes were reported without power and travel conditions were quite hazardous. January of this year also marks the 30 year anniversary of the historic blizzard that gripped much of the Midwest. An exceptional write up by William Deedler, Weather Historian at the Detroit National Weather Service Forecast Office, can be found on their web site.
Following the New Years cold front passage a large bubble of high pressure settled in across the Plains and slowly drifted to the east. Skies cleared out helping to drop temperatures across Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky to well below normal for this time of year (Figure 5). Wind chills across the region dipped as low as -30°F. Those few days were a sharp contrast to the warmth that came in the following days.
The Disaster of Warmth
As the high pressure that was over the Midwest earlier in the week drifted over the Carolinas (Figure 6), winds became southerly ushering in dramatically warmer air. The unseasonably warm air caused a variety of problems. On Sunday January 6th, what was described as a 'Wall of Fog' wreaked havoc across south-central Wisconsin. A series of crashes Sunday on Interstate 39-90 killed two drivers who did not adjust to changes in visibility, said a State Patrol expert. "People drove into that crash at 65 and 70 miles an hour, maybe even more, " said Major Dan Lonsdorf, director of transportation safety at the state Department of Transportation. "The fog did not cause the crash last night. People cause crashes because of the way they drive, because they fail to adapt to their environment." Visibility at the Dane County Regional Airport was less than 600 feet for most of the morning and dropped to less than 300 feet around noon. Conditions gradually improved through the day and by 5:00 PM visibility was over one statue mile. The dense fog was formed as warm and moist air was riding over the cold snow pack.
Wisconsin wasn't out of the cross hairs of mother nature on Monday the 7th, as a matter of fact neither were Missouri or Illinois. Waves of low pressure rode up the eastern flank of a trough that carving through the heart of the US. The warm air, plentiful moisture and moderate forcing dynamics allowed the formation of a rare but significant weather event. Hundreds of severe weather storm reports were recorded on January 7th (Link Opens in New Window). There were at least 63 tornado reports in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Central Illinois and even as far north as Southern Wisconsin. Tornado activity north of the Chicagoland area is considered extremely rare for January. Climatologically, January has seen only a handful of tornados in Missouri. At least 40 tornadoes have been confirmed during the outbreak from January 7th and 8th and also on the 10th. Missouri alone reported over 30 tornados (Figure 7). Damage was widespread across the region. A well known Edwards Apple Orchard near Poplar Grove, Illinois received a fair amount of damage from one of the tornados rated at EF-2. Barns with farm equipment were leveled but much of the orchard was not damaged. A Union Pacific freight train had 12 cars by the tornado and one of the freight cars contained leaking ethylene oxide. Over 100 homes from the town of Lawrence (Figure 8) had to be evacuated as Hazardous Materials response teams were called in to clean up leakage.
Flooding was occurring all over Illinois and Indiana as the already saturated ground had to deal with persistent rainfall (Figure 9) and the rising streams from the melting snow pack to the north. Iroquois and Livingston Counties in Illinois were declared disasters by the state as rivers swelled well beyond their limits. Minor to major flooding was occurring at over 100 river gauges in Illinois, Indiana, Southern Michigan and parts of Western Ohio.
The last of the severe weather events occurred on Thursday the 10th in rural Barren County Kentucky. According to the National Weather Service in Louisville an EF-1 tornado touched down 2.8 miles southwest of Park City. The tornado first touched down at 2:02 pm, and it was intermittently on the ground for 3 miles. Several barns were severely damaged or destroyed, minor roof damage occurred to a nearby house, and numerous trees were uprooted or had their trunks snapped.
Many hundreds of records were set over the first ten days of the new year. Please follow the links provided to access any and/or all of the records that were set. Records include high maximum temperature, high minimum temperature, lowest maximum temperature, lowest minimum temperature, 24 hour rainfall and 24 hour snowfall. The data is provided by the National Climatic Data Center.
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