Midwest Weekly Highlights - February 1-7, 2010

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Temperatures

The first week of February saw near normal temperatures from southern Missouri to Ohio and into southern Michigan. Further south, temperatures ranged to 3°F below normal in south central Kentucky. To the north, temperatures ranged to 5°F above normal in parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin (Figure 1). Just a handful of daily temperature records were set during the week.
 

Precipitation

A mid-week storm refreshed the snow pack blanketing the Midwest (Figure 2). Snow totals for the week were dominated by the daily snow measured the morning of the 6th (Figure 3). To the north of the surface low, snow fell from northern Missouri to eastern Ohio, hitting the areas where there was the least snow prior to the storm (Figure 4).

Precipitation totals were less than 50% of normal in northeast Minnesota, extreme northern and eastern Wisconsin, all of Michigan, and parts of northeast Illinois and northern Indiana. Above normal precipitation fell across the western and southern parts of the Midwest. Totals exceeded 200% of normal in southeast Kentucky and 500% of normal in western Minnesota (Figure 5). Nearly 100 daily precipitation records were set.
 

Winter Storm Goes to Washington

A winter storm took shape as it moved into the Midwest on the 4th leading to widespread advisories and watches (Figure 6). The storm strengthened as it moved east, dropping up to 18 inches of snow in Ohio. The storm continued on to the Mid-Atlantic states developing into a historic storm for that region as the week ended.

Flooding

Flooding continued in Illinois (Figure 7) and into a few nearby locations. On the Fox River in northern Illinois (LaSalle County) and on the Rock River in northwest Illinois (Rock Island County), ice jams kept localized areas above flood stage. Along the lower Illinois River and lower Ohio River, minor flooding occurred during the week as previous rain and snow melt continued downstream. Smaller rivers and streams in western Indiana, western Kentucky, and eastern Missouri also briefly went above flood stage during the week.
 

-MST-