Fallen Snow November 14th

An Early season winter storm hit Northwest and West Central Wisconsin this past weekend, According to the NWS is was the largest Pre Thanksgiving snow we’ve since the 1991 Halloween Blizzard! The storm Left a blanket of more then half a foot of snow in some areas. Snow was very wet and heavy, causing trees and power lines to snap this took power out to some areas. Power was reported to be out for a time in the City of St Croix Falls and Gransburg. Multiple trees and large branches were also reported on county roads in the Siren-Grantsburg area of Burnett County. The wet slushy-like snow made roads slippery, many car sidings were reported in Turtle Lake.
Heavy Snow November 13th

This storm has many interesting traits, one was how the snowfall accumulated to an unusually high about for our 1st real snowfall accumulations of the season, in addition, this snowfall actually came before the ground froze, 3 days ago when highs were in the mid 60s, I was planting flower bulbs! Even with the un frozen ground the ground was cool enough that snow had no problem accumulating.

Young front yard shrubs taking a significant snow load.

Snow started at my location not long after dark on the 13th, one of the things I noticed on radar was it was suggesting that it would start out as a rain/snow mix, but it started off as all snow. During the next morning for about an hour or 2 it did turn to sleet before turning to heavy snow, but for the entire duration of the storm it remained of a frozen type. The radar showed the that the snow was very localized on the very northwest corridor of the storm, which seemed to effect a thin area from Duluth,MN to Western Wisconsin area, South through Central Iowa. The snow was localized enough that 60 miles from my location in Eau Claire,WI where my brother lives there is under half inch of snow on the ground from this storm and that’s it. Even as little as a 20 mile difference made the difference between just 2.20″ inches of snow in Ridgeland and 5.50″ of snow in my yard.

Balsam Fir tree branches near breaking point.

This snow was of very wet nature. Temperatures remained above freeze for the entire event making the snow heavy like a wet waterlogged sponge. Snow accumulated to 5.50″ inches in my yard and it was sticky enough to stick on everything even on bare trees and power lines. My dad said as he was traveling on County road D near town, He saw a power line wire bending significantly, he said that large trucks were having difficultly passing under it. He also mention that the tension of the line was pulling wires on the rest of the lines down the road tight to the pole.

Broken White pine tree branch November 13th

The snow proved to be too heavy for some trees, Pines and firs took the hardest hit. this large 4 inch White Pine branch snapped under the weight of the snow. The snow weighed down our entire Balsam fir and Spruce trees, the branches bent so far down they touched the ground and the center truck of the tree, some branches have broken up in the tree but didn’t fall down. It also appear that one of out lilac bushes may have lost a large branch out of it. Widespread minor damage can be seen across the area, I’ve seen large branches down, but some of the worse damage I saw was entire Juniper trees split and bent half way to the ground, and shrubs next to homes flattened to the ground.

This storm brought 5.50″ of snow to my location with a water ratio of 1.22″, this beat the highest snowfall for November hands down in my records for the past 3 years. It was also noted by locals as “early for this much snow before Thanksgiving” The storm also produced my lowest daytime high of the season so far, which was just 33.F on Sunday. It will be interesting to see temps will be cool enough to allow this to be our sticking winter snow pack!

Snowfall reports seem highest in Northwest areas, especially in Polk, Northwest Barron and Burnett county, where up to 7 inches has fell, where most of the damage from snow was seen. While places in the Southeast area got little to no snow where mostly rain fell.

Snowfall Reports

Danbury 7.60″

Grantsburg 6.50″ Trees and Power lines down. Poweroutages in county

Sarona 6.50″

Rice Lake 6.50″

Clayton 5.50″ 4 inch pine tree branch snapped.

Cumberland 5.00″

River Falls 5.00″

Roberts 4.80″

Baldwin 4.00″

Chetek 3.00″

Menomonie 2.50″

Ridgeland 2.20″

Elk Mound 1.10″