Mar 02, 2012
Most of southeastern Wisconsin, including Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine and Kenosha had a chance to escape the winter of 2011 - 2012 without a Winter Storm Warning issued all season. How fitting it would happen during the first week of March.
Snow began its journey northeastward toward the Milwaukee metro early Friday afternoon, but temperatures were above freezing which helped the snow mix with rain. Further west near Madison, Wisconsin it was cold enough for all the precipitation to fall as snow. Around 3:00 PM, temperatures had cooled below freezing for the rain snow mix to change to all snow for most of the Milwaukee area. The snow was heavy and wet that caused many branches on trees to limp over powerlines. This March snowstorm contained stronger winds close to Lake Michigan for a time that brought on over 10,000 power outages across southeastern Wisconsin. Many areas received between 4 - 7 inches.
The Water Vapor image shows strong thunderstorms along the cold front in Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. These storms produced killer tornadoes across the Ohio Valley and southeastern U.S.
The low pressure system had deepened rapidly into the 980 - 990 mb range as it traveled northeast into Michigan. If it had slowed down some, Wisconsin and Michigan, would have received more snow.
A warmup will return next week for much of the Midwest, thanks to a higher sun angle and warmer temperatures projected. March came in like a Lion; let's see if it goes out like a Lamb.
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