Happy New Year! We Remember the Blizzard of 1999!

Greg Brown sends us our first weather picture of 2009 and it is a very nice one! We did start out with sunshine before the high cirrus clouds took over. These high-level clouds are telling us we have a very dry atmosphere and with the main storm track remaining well to our north it means we can get ready for some more mild weather and it will stay calm at least for the next couple of days! I took a shot at our altocumuls clouds that signify that a weak front is on the way.


It is great to check in with you. I am doing all the weather shifts through Friday so I will have to make this quick. Don't worry about me, I love this stuff, just like I do blogging with the greatest bloggers on earth! I wanted to make sure our morning meteorologist Stefanie Davis could go cheer her brother on in the Orange Bowl today. He plays for the University of Cincinnati football team. I am very happy for her and her family. Go Bearcats! Stefanie should be enjoying those 70s that is for sure and she will be back on Monday and says hi to everybody.

I am amazed at our weather pattern. This is January, our snowiest and coldest month of the year and our first weathermaker of the new year will likely be in the form of rain. This speaks volumes. It looks like mainly light rain Saturday night into Sunday with less than a quarter inch expected which is great news for the rivers!

Next week this all changes as our zonal jet stream amplifies. We have a doozy of a storm that could bring snow to start and then plenty of rain but I can tell you the models are not agreeing on the storm track. If it stays all snow I can tell you we will have 6 or more inches but the European is bringing its track right up close to Tippecanoe County which tells me we could have a changeover to rain. I think the big concern is that it will be a significant storm which could cause flooding once again on the Wabash by later next week. I will start posting the different storm tracks here on the blog so you have an appreciation of what meteorologists look at to try to determine if it is going to be rain or snow. Right now based on what I am seeing this week, I am more in favor of a change-over to mainly rain with our chances of real winter and snow holding off until next weekend. I am working on your January outlook that looks bizarre! Different year and same wild Indiana weather. You can always count on it!

Lafayette's Biggest Snowstorms:

1) December 19, 1929 20.5"

2) February 13, 2007 17.0"

3) December 20, 1973 17.0"

4) January 1-2, 1999 16.0"


Now speaking of wild it is New Year's of course which is a reminder of the big blizzard that basically shut the Lafayette area down for about 3 days back in 1999. Here is where it ranked on the all-time list. I will find you some more tidbits and post them here for you this evening and tomorrow we will look at that January outlook and the big battle about to take place this month! Happy New Year! I want to thank my wife and Niccole Caan for the great brunch they put together today! The food was outstanding. I will try to share a picture and recipe!

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