Storm Teri Steams Our Way With Rain, Wind, & Maybe Some Sticking Snow

We did have some brief glimpses of sunshine on Thursday and it was mild but you can still see the ominous clouds that mixed in with some of the sunshine. This was a sign that we are still in a very active pattern. We have officially named our fifth significant autumn storm after one of our star bloggers Teri. She is not only a great weather enthusiast and blogger but a wonderful person. Teri won the vote on names by a landslide! Last night on the news I said I named the storm Teri or in my book Terrific Teri since it will have something for everybody and great dynamics for a meteorologist to enjoy and study. Now you know the storm is also named after a terrific person! Some others like Jeff Smith are calling the storm Terrible Teri, especially if you do not like cold weather, wind, and snow. Another reason to call the storm Terrific Teri was it helped form a beautiful corona around the moon last night and the cirrostratus clouds made the full moon rise with a brilliant orange tint to it. So here is your weather blog proverb of the day. We will have to come up with more of these together and publish a book some day. Enjoy.


A big storm indeed! Teri means business. We will have to watch Live Doppler 18 closely as we do have a big storm in sight. Last night's moon was an official full moon and it is known as the full frosty moon. It does portend some cold weather on the way. The moon wasn't the only thing sounding the warning bells but our satellite picture was showing wave clouds that I usually only see with the strongest of weather systems. You can see the ripples on the map toward the lower left.


You can even make a case those wave clouds are actually rare gravity wave clouds. It basically means you have tremendous vertical displacements of air in an otherwise stable atmosphere. You can compare it to throwing a big rock into a glassy pond. You have huge waves created close to where the rock lands with less impressive waves farther downstream. Last night nature was throwing a big rock from the upper-levels of the atmosphere toward the lower-levels in the form of jet stream winds near 200 mph. Gravity waves allow a tremendous amount of energy transfer to take place. This will feed and help develop a huge low pressure that could drop to 995 mb as it heads into northeast Ohio. This means we could have barometers drop below 29.50" which is pretty impressive. With such low pressure we will have windy and blustery weather on the way. Take a look at the isobars on Saturday. The closer the lines of equal pressure the more wind you can expect and it does look like wind chills will be stuck in the 20s throughout much of Saturday.


What gets my attention is the nice deep blue area showing rich moisture interacting with plenty of polar air. I do think parts of northern Indiana and Michigan could be hammered with several inches of snow with some lake enhancement. Right now I will just say we have a chance for cat tracks plus across the area by Saturday night. It all depends on the timing of the heavier bursts of snow. If it holds off until late day and early evening as temperatures fall to near freezing I do think we could see a candy coating of snow on the ground, but probably not enough to shovel or sled on. If you are traveling up to South Bend and even Chicago and point north make sure to check those travel plans because there could be more than just a light coating of snow and a few slick spots. I will have updates for you on this as we get closer. It looks like another cosmic bowling weekend. Abbey does a nice demonstration on form below when she was bowling last weekend.


She almost topped 100! This pattern is really helping her game. At this rate she will average well over 100. Lauren and Megan will make sure they are not left behind. Now the question is what does this mean for our winter. What will nature bowl us over with. I did sleep on my winter forecast and nothing has changed. Winter has not been canceled and we have storm Teri to thank. Remember what happens in November nature will remember come early winter. We will have a cold and snowy start so with a milder January and February and I still think we could squeeze in a good snow or two even in late February and March. I will keep the original forecast of 24 to 28 inches of snow with slightly above average temperatures and near average precipitation. I do think our chances of seeing a big flood are much lower this year with a pattern favoring drier weather so that is certainly some good news. Just ask Mary Anne and her friends up in Remington or Mark in the Monticello area. As long as we do not flood they will be happy. So let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. Ice storms could be more of a threat than last year and a lot of folks are still worried about ice since they witnessed first hand what it can do in 1991 in the mother of all ice storms. So I will try to keep the ice away but for now it is all about Terrific Teri. Bring it on! We may even have some thunder by late today and tonight and snow all within a 12 to 18 hour time period. We will be in touch! I will update this snow map by later today. Here is what I have for now.


The weather blog song of the day has been replaced by a weather poem I quickly put together.

Twas the Night Before Teri

Twas the night before Teri, when all through Lafayette
Everybody was huddled by their computer and television set.
The bloggers were watching Live Doppler 18 with extra care,
In hopes that Teri soon would be there.

Justin and Brow were pacing their hallways,
While visions of thunder and snow put them in a daze.
Kandy in Chalmers enjoyed an unusually orange moonrise
Making sure she had all her winter supplies.

When Mike got home there arose such a clatter,
He sprang from his bed hearing rain drops making a pitter-patter.
Away to dreamland he went
Smiling about the storm that would bring him an early Christmas present.

The forecast of flurries quickly changed to drifts of snow
and his producer gave him the entire news show.
He exclaimed a "Happy Winter Wonderland to all, and to all a good night."