Comments on: Great for Winter Sports

By: Travis Ulberg (West of Martin, Allegan County)

Travis Ulberg (West of Martin, Allegan County) — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 01:14:36 +0000

Thank you! It was definitely a night that I’ll never forget. Luckily I know the trails like the back of my hand and know where I’m going. And yes, they have moved/expanded/shrunk the trails virtually every year.

By: Todd In Nunica

Todd In Nunica — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 22:25:53 +0000

Think I remember that meso! It dropped south through the whole area if I am not mistaken…..I remember one that set up on some of my accounts , I remember plowing 1 account on Jackson in Grand Haven (south side of draw bridge) had 8-10″ in it and My account downtown Spring Lake (like 1/2 mile away) had 3″….it was Crazy. You could sit just outside the band and see the wall of snow.

By: Jack

Jack — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 21:25:54 +0000

Thanks CORT, Love the Links, You Share, Always Informative and Great Learning Tools !!!!!

By: Matt (Spring Lake)

Matt (Spring Lake) — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 20:33:10 +0000

I LOVE these events.

By: Yup (Grandville)

Yup (Grandville) — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 19:37:16 +0000

Thanks Cort, your posts are always informative and much appreciated!

By: Cort S.

Cort S. — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:52:32 +0000

Here is a satellite picture with station plots and streamlines.

http://i.imgur.com/BosEQtf.png

The yellow streamlines illustrate the direction that air is moving.

The swirl in northern Wisconsin is the center of high pressure. Winds at the ground are spiraling out from it clockwise.

Western Michigan has winds from the E, and Eastern Wisconsin has winds from the N or NNW. The air is converging over the middle of Lake Michigan and creating a band of lake-effect snow.

Sometimes the shape of the coastline and differing amounts of wind speeds in different spots can lead to kinks forming along that convergence band. Sometimes those kinks can grow into a medium-scale, lazy rotation… a meso-low.

Here is an image of perhaps the best meso-low of the last decade.
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/iwx/program_areas/events/2003/02_07_03_pileup/images/mesolow_les_14z.gif
Usually they are smaller than this one.

By: Cort S.

Cort S. — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:30:28 +0000

Today is a good day to look at the visible satellite picture. Watch out for any meso-lows that might develop in the middle of Lake Michigan. Those are always interesting.

http://climate.cod.edu/flanis/satellite/1km/index.php?type=Michigan-vis-24

3 things you see:

The white in Michigan is snow cover.

The wispy white over Wisc/Ill. are high-level cirrus clouds

The white clouds over the lakes are lake-effect cumulus clouds.

By: GunLakeDeb

GunLakeDeb — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:26:59 +0000

Your pictures at Burger King were impressive!! I think I’ll go explore the trails a bit this afternoon – I still need to learn my way around this area without benefit of road signs or the usual landmarks! There’s clearly more trails than what shows up on the DNR trail maps!

By: GunLakeDeb

GunLakeDeb — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:20:36 +0000

My car was reading -10 around 7:30 this AM – and it truly felt cold until the sun came up! Now, it’s just freakin’ BEAUTIFUL I LOVE winter!!!!!

By: GunLakeDeb

GunLakeDeb — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:17:34 +0000

Ben – it sounds like you should head to the Allegan State Game Area for DEEP snow!