Thursday, November 22, 2007

Biggest Storm Since Blizzard of 2007 Stuffs Lafayette



Nature served up its own version of stuffing yesterday as we were walloped with our biggest storm since the blizzard of 2007! We tracked at least 3 thunderstorms across Tippecanoe County from late afternoon through the evening hours. Travel was snarled and a slow go across the area. Some areas had more than a months worth of rain. Millard See in Frankfort reported water standing everywhere. So the big question was if this was snow how much would we have seen?



The Blizzard of 2007 had a liquid equivalent of about 1.5" which translated into 17" of snow. Yesterday we had 2.25" of rain and using a 10:1 snow ratio it would have come out to 22.5 inches of snow. So today we could have been more busy digging out from the storm than eating which would not be a good combination. Even though I usually root for snow I was even happy this did not happen. We just have too many folks traveling and I really do care about my viewers getting to their destinations safe and sound! So on a day we count our blessings this is one more thing to be thankful for.



Now I did find some areas that will have a White Thanksgiving. A band of one to three inches of snow fell from Oconomowoc, Wisconsin to Oshkosh, Wisconsin. My brother-in-law, Rob Becker and Dad of Carson that was on the blog last week sent in a picture to get us ready for today's Thanksgiving forecast. Yes, the baby is doing great along with the rest of his beautiful family. Here is his deck last night being covered in a nice coating of snow. Carson will spend his first holiday in a winter wonderland. It still looks like here at home we will have a few snowflakes without any accumulation. We will have just enough snow to get you into the holiday spirit. If you want to see a dusting of snow you will need to drive about 60 minutes north of Lafayette to northern Jasper and Pulaski Counties, but the main thing is it should not keep you from getting to your destinations. Any accumulations should be on grassy locations. The only "drifts" you will find will hopefully be on your Thanksgiving dinner plates. Check out your Thanksgiving Dinner Forecast below.



I want to take this opportunity to thank all of our viewers and weather blog readers for all their support throughout the year. This job is my dream job and I know how lucky I am able to do something I love so much. But what makes this job really special is you and the great community I live in. I cannot even begin to thank you and I look forward to another great year of weather in one of the country's best kept secrets. Lafayette is the family capital of the country and the Midwest way of life is unsurpassed. The weather lives up to the hype and it is certainly a meteorological paradise. Enough said, now it is time to give thanks and chow down. That picture above has made me even hungrier. Part of this job is to work holidays which I have learned to accept and it has now become second nature. The good news is that I will spend most of the day with my family where I belong and then I will look forward to seeing you tonight at 11 p.m. Tune in to stay warm because I will have a special picture from Hawaii that you will likely enjoy. Happy Thanksgiving from our WLFI family to yours. Thanks again!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

And WE all thank YOU, Mike! Without you this would be nothing.

I have local friends who just can't get over me being able to call a TV station and actually TALK to the weather guy, LOL!

I speak of the night in October when I called while driving home from southern Benton County when there were severe warnings out. I HAD to know what we were driving into as i had no radar handy. YOU and the entire wx team were there taking calls and really helped us feel safer!
Mary Anne

Anonymous said...

Mike your a great Weather Man..of course we can't blame you when the weather changes.LOL You do make a big commitment in getting the Weather to us..as we always get the weather information that we need..we know that the Weather information comes first...and your family second..you just don't know how much that means to all of your listners..we want to Thank-Your family for sharing you with all of us. Hope that you had a Happy Thanksgiving with your family..and hoping that you'll have A Merry Christmas with them also. Till..then we will be looking forwards to all of your Weather forcast. Keep up that Great smile.