Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Record “Land Hurricane” rages: Wind, cold and snow now

Update 10:10am:

Some amazing storm reports coming in this morning....Check out these reports from Grand Marais.

DLH: Grand Marais [Cook Co, MN] law enforcement reports NON-TSTM WND DMG at 12:00 AM CDT -- roof of grand marais municipal pool damaged by strong winds. Two boats lost their moorings in the harbor and were blown onshore. widespread power outages in cook county. numerous trees down along the gunflint trail.

DLH: Grand Marais [Cook Co, MN] asos reports NON-TSTM WND GST of M59.00 MPH at 11:56 PM CDT -- sustained 43 mph gusting to 59 mph. beginning at this time...and lasting for 7 hours...gusts at Grand Marais were regularly measured over 50 mph.

Grand Marais Harbor Cam shows a rough harbor with debris on the shoreline today.

And from closer to the Twin Cities.

MPX: 1 Sw Menomonie [Dunn Co, WI] trained spotter reports NON-TSTM WND DMG at 08:03 AM CDT -- 1 foot diameter pine tree uprooted on UW Stout campus.

MPX: Stillwater [Washington Co, MN] trained spotter reports NON-TSTM WND DMG at 08:31 AM CDT -- sporatic trees...up to one foot diameter...blown down around town.

PH

Update 8:20am:

The amazing Land Hurricane of 2010 continues to roar today.

The focus has shifted to snow and winter storm warnings for much of northern Minnesota and North Dakota where a full blown blizzard is raging. Here are some snow totals as of this morning.

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DULUTH MN

703 AM CDT WED OCT 27 2010

..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...

..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....

..REMARKS..

0530 AM SNOW 5 NW TWO HARBORS 47.08N 91.75W

10/27/2010 M5.0 INCH LAKE MN TRAINED SPOTTER

2 INCHES ON PAVEMENT.

0605 AM SNOW CULVER 46.93N 92.56W

10/27/2010 M2.0 INCH ST. LOUIS MN TRAINED SPOTTER

0630 AM SNOW 3 NE BRAINERD 46.39N 94.15W

10/27/2010 M3.8 INCH CROW WING MN CO-OP OBSERVER

SNOW DEPTH 3 INCHES ON GRASS AND 1 INCH ON PAVEMENT AT

630AM.

0630 AM SNOW SAGINAW 46.86N 92.44W

10/27/2010 M4.0 INCH ST. LOUIS MN TRAINED SPOTTER

0640 AM HEAVY SNOW 5 SE TWIG 46.84N 92.29W

10/27/2010 M5.0 INCH ST. LOUIS MN NWS EMPLOYEE

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DULUTH MN

803 AM CDT WED OCT 27 2010

..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...

..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....

..REMARKS..

0752 AM HEAVY SNOW 7 NW TWO HARBORS 47.10N 91.78W

10/27/2010 M7.1 INCH LAKE MN CO-OP OBSERVER

0800 AM SNOW FLOODWOOD 46.93N 92.92W

10/27/2010 M4.0 INCH ST. LOUIS MN CO-OP OBSERVER

LAST 24 HOURS - 2.69 INCHES LIQUID PRECIPITATION AND 4

INCHES OF SNOW.

0802 AM SNOW FORT RIPLEY 46.17N 94.36W

10/27/2010 M3.0 INCH CROW WING MN CO-OP OBSERVER

CURRENTLY 3 INCHES OF SNOW ON THE GROUND.

Temperatures are above freezing right along much of the North Shore and Duluth Harbor. Note the lack of snow this morning on the LSMM webcam.

Areas inland from the North Shore are getting hammered with 7" of snow reported 7 miles inland from Two Harbors! Conditions may improve a bit later today as temperatures begin to climb above freezing.

PH

*******

Original post 9pm Tuesday evening:

Welcome to the Super Bowl of Weather.

The deepest low pressure system on record continues to rage with fury over Minnesota.

The storm has already smashed the all time state record for the lowest barometric pressure ever recorded in Minnesota Tuesday.

It also appears to have set the record for the lowest barometric pressure ever recorded in a non tropical storm in the continental United States!

The new final low pressure record will be subject to verification by climate gurus, but reliable observations of at least 28.20" were recorded by NWS weather stations in Orr and Big Fork in north central Minnesota during the 5pm hour Tuesday. As posted here earlier, these pressure readings are what we would expect to see in Category 3 hurricanes!

The previous record low barometric pressure in Minnesota was 28.43" in Austin & Albert Lea on November 10, 1998.

Twin Cities NWS weather story highlights record low pressure over northern Minnesota.

(click on image to enlarge)

Anatomy of a "Land Bomb:"

Check out this amazing loop from SPC of the low rapidly intensifying as it undergoes "bombogenesis" over Minnesota Tuesday to become the deepest low in Minnesota and USA history.

The next phase of the storm features whistling winds and a wintery blast of colder air and wind driven snow. Winter storm warnings are flying from Brainerd into the red River Valley through Wednesday. The season's first blizzard warnings are up for most of North Dakota.

High wind warnings for sustained winds of 30 to 40 mph with gusts to 60 mph reamin up through Wednesday evening for the southern half of Minnesota including the Twin Cities metro.

As the cold air funnels in temperatures are plunging into the 30s over much of Minnesota. It looks like the first snow flakes of the season will fly in southern Minnesota as well, including the Twin Cities metro area.

A web of pressure lines (isobars) wrap around the strongest low pressure system in Minnesota history.

Winds will continue to whistle and howl in Minnesota through Wednesday. Here are some of the highest gusts as of Tuesday evening from the Twin Cities NWS.

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN

630 PM CDT TUE OCT 26 2010

...PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT...

...SUMMARY OF THE PEAK WIND GUSTS IN SOUTHERN MINNESOTA

AND WEST CENTRAL WISCONSIN ON TUESDAY...

LOCATION PEAK GUST TIME OF PEAK GUST

------------------------------------------------------------

...AUTOMTED ASOS AND AWOS SITES...

ALEXANDRIA 61 MPH 5:27 PM TUE

GLENWOOD 60 MPH 3:34 PM TUE

BENSON 59 MPH 2:33 PM TUE

GRANITE FALLS 59 MPH 3:33 PM TUE

ST. JAMES 59 MPH 2:55 PM TUE

REDWOOD FALLS 57 MPH 2:53 PM TUE

MARSHALL 57 MPH 2:15 PM TUE

NEW ULM 56 MPH 2:55 PM TUE

OLIVIA 56 MPH 12:33 PM TUE

MORRIS 54 MPH 12:32 PM TUE

PAYNESVILLE 53 MPH 3:53 PM TUE

WILLMAR 53 MPH 2:56 PM TUE

MONTEVIDEO 52 MPH 2:34 PM TUE

MINNEAPOLIS 52 MPH 5:15 PM TUE

ST. CLOUD 50 MPH 3:53 PM TUE

...AUTOMATED MESONET DATA...

MEHURIN 65 MPH 4:23 PM TUE

GEORGEVILLE 65 MPH 6:01 PM TUE

HANLEY FALLS 63 MPH 2:10 PM TUE

SAUK CENTER 62 MPH 4:03 PM TUE

LANGHEI 61 MPH 2:16 PM TUE

GEORGEVILLE 59 MPH 4:11 PM TUE

LESTER PRAIRIE 55 MPH 3:54 PM TUE

BELLE PLAINE 52 MPH 3:47 PM TUE

Huge footprint:

The footprint of this huge bomb of a mid latitude cyclone stretches from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Over 1,000 miles of territory from north to south is feeling the impacts of this gigantic system.

At least 21 tornadoes have been reported as of Tuesday evening along the leading edge cold front that tails through the Ohio Valley ionto the deep south.

Some perspective:

This storm will go down as the deepest low pressure system on record in Minnesota. The central pressure is lower than the Halloween Mega Storm, The Edmund Fitzgerald storm, and The Armistice Day Blizzard.

But this forecaster thinks it is a stretch to say it's the strongest storm in Minnesota history. Central barometric pressure is just one measure of a storms intensity and impacts. Because temperatures were well above freezing and rain rather than snow fell on the front side of the system, the overall effects from this storm are likely to be much less than many of the great Minnesota blizzards.

Still, this amazing and record storm will howl with wind and snow through Wednesday before finally easing gradually Wednesday night into Thursday. Just the latest in a series of incredible weather events in the land of 10,000 storms in 2010.

PH