WEATHER SNAP SHOTS: October 2006 Archives

Chuck Hagen of Oak Lawn, who's shared spectacular lightning shots with us in the past, shares these photographs of our Chicago area fall colors in all their glory. Thanks Chuck!

Photos courtesy: Chuck Hagen, Oak Lawn, Illinois

The record-breaking Buffalo storm, responsible for such widespread destruction of that area's trees and the massive power outages, occurred two weeks ago (we're carrying out this posting Friday, Oct. 27). But, we thought you'd find these late-arriving photos, relayed to me from Chris and Alysha Garvin of Amherst, N.Y. (a southern suburb of Buffalo) by Joe Charlevoix, staff meteorologist of WPBN, Traverse City, Mich., interesting. Remarkably, the huge snowfall in Buffalo occurred with lake waters at 62°.

The National Weather Service's Buffalo, N.Y., forecast office has generated a fascinating explanation of the freak storm's remarkable meteorological backround indicating mammoth snow accumulations occurred despite lake temperatures of 62°!

The temperature spread between the lake surface and approximately a mile aloft plunged 43.2 degrees, a level of atmospheric instability which supported towering 25,000-30,000 foot lightning-bearing clouds. The snow/water ratio was 6 to 1 (i.e. six inches of snow occurred for each inch of water)--an extraordinarily WET snow. It's little wonder trees and power lines cames down under the weight of the waterlogged snow accumulation.

Joe Charlevoix, by the way, was a WGN-TV weather office intern years ago, and also reports that Storm Warnings have been hoisted for Lake Huron nearshore waters Saturday into Sunday (Oct. 28-29) for high winds and 8-12 foot waves!
--Tom Skilling, WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist

My meteorological colleague here at WGN-TV Richard Koeneman shares this photo of fog in the valleys of western North Carolina outside Asheville. Richard took this photo at 10 a.m. this morning (Thursday, Oct. 19, 2006) from the deck of his home at the 3,650 foot level there. We thought
you'd enjoy seeing it.
--Tom Skilling, WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist

October 12 snow.

John Kennamer of Huntley, Ill., sent us this photo of the snow in progress at his house.
Thanks, John.

Never before in 121 years of weather records dating back to 1885 has as much snow fallen as EARLY in a new snow season as it did Thursday. That was true not only in Chicago, but in DeKalb and Rockford as well. Across the lake, Grand Rapids, Michigan, the 1.4" of snow which had accumulated by midday was the heaviest so early in the season. On only 6 occasions in all the years since official snow measurements began in Chicago back in 1885, has snow fallen (including "traces" of snow—i.e. less than 0.1") as early or earlier, underscoring the uniqueness of Thursday's snow event.

Our National Weather Service colleagues at the Chicago Forecast Office report the first flakes of snow fell for 23 minutes at O'Hare between 1:17 am and 1:40 a.m. Thursday morning. Midway Airport didn't report snow until just after 9 a.m. For periods of 15-30 minutes, visibilities across sections of the metropolitan area dropped under 1/4 mile, lending the snowfall a truly wintry appearance---especially once it began to stick. That the snow DID stick is rather remarkable all by itself, considering ground temperatures immediately below the surface were reported at 54-degrees as recently as Wednesday evening.

The scenes produced by these rare nearly season snow accumulations—a cover of snow on autumn leaves which have only reached their peak color over the past week or two and which have only
begun to fall—can only be described as surreal—but surreal AND beautiful at the same time! Warm ground temperatures have rendered the day's accumulations fleeting, to say the least. But, before melting, 0.3" was measured officially at both Midway and O'Hare, according to veteran weather historian and climatologist Frank Wachowski. Other preliminary area accumulations which our viewers and readers have shared with us include:

1" Algonquin
1" Crystal Lake
0.5" DeKalb at Northern Illinois University
1.2" Mundelein
0.4" OakBrook
0.1" WGN studios, Chicago's northwest side

Before Thursday's snowfall, the earliest measurable snow here occurred in two different years at O'Hare International on October 18—approximately one week earlier than today's date (October 12). The first was the 0.7" which fell on October 18, 1989 and the second was a 0.2" accumulation in 1972. With southern Lake Michigan's water temperatures still averaging 60-degrees, it took the day's strong west winds to assure that lake-generated warmth wasn't a factor in lakeshore areas in deterring Thursday's snow from accumulating.

Matt Hoelter sent us these images of Thursday's unusual snowfall in McHenry County. He reports the snow showers there were dramatic in appearance as they hit but that, as in other sections of the Chicago area, they were comparatively brief. Matt reports 0.5" accumulated before melting in his backyard. Thanks for the great photos Matt!

-Tom Skilling, WGN-TV chief meteorologist

PHOTO COURTESY: Matt Hoelter

Visibilities dropped to fractions of a mile in Thursday's heaviest snow showers. This photograph taken by Jennifer Jordan from the 13th floor-level around 11:05 am this morning in Schaumburg shows one of Thursday's approaching snow showers and clearly shows its concentrated shaft of snow it produced. It's easy from this to see how heavily snow fell from some of the day's snow squalls and how accumulations occurred despite the warm ground on which the snow fell.
-Tom Skilling

PHOTO COURTESY: Jennifer Jordan

PHOTO COURTESY: Jim & Jeremy Draftz

Thanks to Steven Smith of Barrington for sharing these shots with us from Barrington.
- Tom Skilling

PHOTO COURTESY: Steven Smith

The snow which covered this rose Thursday in front of the Glenview Library illustrates the anomolous nature of the day's brief snow accumulations. Our thanks for John Lykowski, Jr. for the beautiful photograph.
-Tom Skilling

PHOTO COURTESY: John Lykowski, Jr.

By 11 a.m., Paul Voykin, grounds superintendent at Deerfield's Briarwood Country club tells us 1 and 1/4" of snow was on the ground. It proved enough for this rare early October snowman. Paul, who tells us he's referring to this shot as "Indian Summer at Briarwood Country Club", also reports Thursday's accumulating snow may only have been Deerfield's 10th or 11th snowfall this early in the season in over the past 110 years!

PHOTO COURTESY: Paul Voykin, Grounds Superintendent, Briarwood Country Club

This was the scene in Algonquin around 9:45 a.m. Thursday morning as snow accumulated despite the warm ground. Our good friend Anson Mount shares took this photo and we thank him for sharing this with us.

PHOTO COURTESY: Anson Mount, Algonquin, Illinois

Photographer Robert Feuss, who shares with us these amazing shots he took in Round Lake during Monday night's thunderstorms, says electricity in the air made the hair on his neck twitch a bit--a development which convinced him it was time to head indoors. Thanks for these incredible
shots, Robert!
-Tom Skilling



PHOTO COURTESY: Robert Feuss

Professional photographer David Mayhew shares these dramatic shots with us of Monday night's (October 2) breathtaking lightning display. Thanks David!
-Tom Skilling


PHOTO COURTESY: David Mayhew

The spectacular and frequent cloud to ground lightning which accompanied Monday's waves of thunderstorms was, to put it mildly, stunning! Arpan Shah shares these lightning shots he took from the Gold Coast.
-Tom Skilling


PHOTO COURTESY: Arpan Shah

The 55,000 ft. tall thunderstorms Monday evening (October 2) across the Chicago metro area produced straightline wind gusts estimated as high as 80-100 mph at the hardest hit locations and produced these huge hailstones in southwest suburban Plainfield. Mike Webb reports hail the size of quarters grew to golfball size as the storm proceeded and provided us these photos which he snapped around 7:30 p.m. Thanks Mike! Veteran National Weather Service observer Frank Wachowski says the waves of storms which swept the area Monday evening are the worst in an October here since a series of powerful thunderstorms lambasted this area in October, 1954.
-Tom Skilling, WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist


PHOTO COURTESY: Mike Webb