Blizzardcast

7:40am -- Disheartening confirmation to a snowstorm bust here in Grand Forks. Granted this measurement is at the wind-ravaged open territory of the airport, but I can't imagine much more than a 3" total at the University. Sigh...

0600 AM     SNOW             GRAND FORKS             47.92N 97.07W   
01/12/2013  E2.4 INCH        GRAND FORKS        ND   OFFICIAL NWS OBS  

------
4:30am -- Still snowing, fairly decently too - combined with the blowing snow, it has the facade of heavy snow. Going to be a fun drive to work, fortunately it's only a mile away. The less I have to accelerate and decelerate, the better. My driveway varies between 6-18" drifts and a sheet of ice. Hard to say how much actual snowfall has occurred with all this wind, but my best guess would be around 3". Certainly not the 5-9" I had hoped for in my forecast. I will post a couple pictures once we get some daylight.

4am Observations:
4F, NNW wind 29 mph gusting to 38 mph, wind chill -20F, 1 mile visibility
------
10:55pm -- HEAVY SNOW!!!! I can go to sleep in peace now - hopefully I wake up to a verified forecast.

------
10:00pm -- Oh man that deformation band of heavy snow is tantalizingly close for those of us living in the north end of GFK! Buxton, Reynolds, and Thompson should be getting crushed - maybe even the southern outskirts of Grand Forks. Mainly just blowing snow here though. Come on heavy snow, keep filling in!!

------
9:15pm -- Still waiting for the secondary deformation band to fill in. Appears to be coming along nicely on radar. In the meantime, just some blowing snow and light snow. 9pm conditions: 12F, North wind 28 mph gusting to 37 mph, wind chill of -9F. Visibility 1 mile at the airport, probably 2-3 miles here in town.


------
3:30pm -- Getting some really fine light snow out there right now. I am happy to see on radar a band of snow developing to our southwest. Heavy snow (1/4 mile vis) being reported on the surface map from Cooperstown-Jamestown-Mobridge-Rapid City. Looking forward to that expanding over us tonight!

 ------

2:35pm -- Not really doing anything right now, just a waiting game until snow moves in this evening. I took a drive through town a little bit ago for an errand, and I would categorize the roads as slick (main roads) to treacherous (intersections, side streets). I was shocked to see one salt truck. I did not think Grand Forks treated roads unless it was a day before or a day after a storm.

Since The Weather Channel is calling this 'Winter Storm Gandolf', I am going to see a matinee of The Hobbit. You can't ignore fate when signs like this come along. When I leave the theatre at 6:30 or so, it should be snowing and hopefully our first inch has fallen by then.
------
12:30pm -- My driveway and street are a solid sheet of ice thanks to the freezing drizzle/rain overnight into morning. Currently some sort of fine snow grain/freezing mist c-c-c-combo. Air temperature 18F, north wind 24 mph gusting to 31 mph, giving us a wind chill of 0F.