Snow piles next to our house December 9th. The green bush in the picture is 3 feet tall.

A Powerful “Panhandle Hook” Snowstorm hit the entire state of Wisconsin Tuesday and Wednesday. Causing Blizzard Conditions across much of the upper Midwest! Blizzard Warnings were issued for large portions of states as this storm moved past, The storm first slammed into southern California, This storm moved across 14 other states before reaching Wisconsin! The storm started out near the Panhandle of Texas, before gaining strength and “hooking” northeast right towards the Upper Midwest. Which is why they are called Panhandle Hook storms. Widespread reports of at least 6 inches was reported across most of the state of Wisconsin. And a Thick blanket of snow now covers the state, and most of the upper Midwest! The shear size of this storm Amazed me and I actually never had seen so many Blizzard Warnings issued at once. some spots in Central Wisconsin picked up nearly 16 inches of snow from this storm!

Effects in Northwest Wisconsin.

“Digging Out”

This storm will be one to remember, it brought a foot of snow to some places, with Snow drifts of a foot and a half to nearly 2 feet in many places across the local area, With Windy blowing snow and near blizzard conditions, Snow started early Tuesday and didn’t let up until Afternoon on Wednesday, Snow started out light early Tuesday, but after dark it became Moderate and even Heavy across parts of the area, Around this time, The winds started picked up from the NNE, This caused lots of blowing and drifting snow, by Wednesday Morning winds had shifted Northwest and were fairly strong gusting from 30 to 40MPH this caused Moderate to even at times Severe drifting in localized spots.

The highest snowfall accumulations was centered in Southern Polk, Southwest Barron southwest Dunn and across all of St Croix County where up to 12 inches was reported. There was actually kinda sharp cut off in where the heaviest snow ocurred. While I got 8.50″ 18 miles north in Cumberland, there was less 5.50″ was recored there, and Western Burnett county was around the 4″ range.

A snow drift measuring over a foot and a half!

Although my total Accumulation was 8.50″ with a water content of 0.80″ one of the biggest snow drifts I could find in our yard, it measured 19 inches deep! many drifts were around a foot deep! with very strong northwest winds, The highest wind gust I picked up was 30MPH. How does this snowfall stack up to past ones? Well I look back in my Records and this if the first time I have gotten over 7.70″ of snow in one storm! so it has been at least 2 years since my area has seen this much snow at once! Snowfall and wind Reports Below and please note these totals may have to be added to, We still have light snow falling across the area.

Snowfall Reports

Baldwin 12.00″

Menomonie 12.00″

Sarona 9.60″

4 E River Falls 9.50″

Turtle Lake 9.00″

Clayton (my yard) 8.50″

Hammond 8.10″

Elk Mound 8.00″

Connorsville 7.50″

Roberts 7.10″

Ridgeland 7.00″

Spooner 6.00″

Haugen 6.00″

Cumberland 5.50″

Hertel 4.0″

Danbury 4.50″

Grantsburg 3.20″

Wind Reports

Amery 42MPH

Menomonie 40MPH

Rice Lake Airport 36MPH

Spooner 36MPH

New Richmond 32MPH

Clayton (My Station) 30MPH

Osceola 30MPH

Snow piled up on top of overwintering plants in pots.

Well What Happened here!!! is what I thought when I dug out to the garage and opened the door. These are 2 plants over wintering outside one is a White spruce the other is a hardy Azalea, inside our garage. There is a small space between the garage celling and the roof, and with all the snow blowing in, it pretty much just fell through like an hour glass! and just piles there because it has no wind to blow it off! This pile measured about 11 inches!