:: Spring Begins with Snow - 8" of it!
Not a-typical for Minnesota, March has doled out a doozy of a snowstorm for the first day of spring. Part of a seemingly never-ending train of storms that has plagued the midwestern US since the end of February, today's storm was well modeled and predicted due to the consistent nature of the pattern. What forecasters at NWS and media/commerical WX outlets didn't do is overhype the snowfall potential. That was good and bad. Good because the ground is warming (and we are just past equinox, so solar radiation remains on the rise), and thus despite the intensity and volume of the snowfall, cleanup was a snap. Bad because where the warnings and advisories projected 3-5" for the metro area, and we got 5-10", people once again feel slighted by meteorologists.
But the forecasts were really pretty dead-on. Model outputs and forecast methodology proved very scientific and solid. Overall, the NWS really said 2-4" overnight, and 2-4" today. This was a split of the total snowfall potential for the system. 4-8" was therefore the storm total target, and it was hit...just not exactly when they said it would be hit. Most of the snow fell between 7am and 2pm. Timing is always the hardest part of a forecast.
Here at lakevilleweather.com, we measured snowfall at 0800, 0900, and again this afternoon around 1700. We ended up with a storm total of 8.0" measured. As is our practice, we reported to NWS-MPX, and our measurement is listed as the "official" record for Lakeville in their storm reports and PWS's today.