Heavy snow collapses Minneapolis Metrodome roof
A raging December blizzard buried Minneapolis, Minnesota under 17 inches of snow over the weekend, triggering the collapse early this morning of the air-inflated roof of the Minneapolis Metrodome, home of the Minnesota Vikings football team. The storm roared out of Canada on Friday morning, bringing heavy snow, sustained winds of 25 – 35 mph, and blizzard conditions through Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. The heaviest snows occurred near Osceola, Wisconsin, where 23 inches fell. The storm also dumped 21" at Noisy Basin, Montana, 14" in Williston, ND, and 14" in Negaunee, MI. Officially, 17.1” of snow fell at the Minneapolis airport; 16.3” of it on Saturday. Saturday's snow amounted to 1.75” of melted precipitation, for a snow-to-water equivalent ratio of 9:1. For those of you who've ever shoveled snow know, that's a very wet, heavy snow, and its no wonder the roof of the Metrodome had trouble with such a huge weight of snow.
Figure 1. Amount of precipitation for the 24 hours ending at 1am EST Sunday, in melted snow equivalent. Up to two inches of precipitation fell (brown colors) near the Minnesota-Wisconsin border. Image credit: NOAA /NOHRSC.
In the wake of the storm, bitterly cold air from Canada will sweep southwards into the U.S., and high temperatures near 0°F are expected for Minneapolis on Monday. Lows near -30°F are expected in northern Minnesota near International Falls on Monday night. The cold will penetrate into Florida's orange groves Monday night, with lows in the mid-20s expected in Orlando.
Jeff Masters
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But wait - there's more!
Nice!
Learned something tonight... how to embed social networking pages.
Stupid Fortran era me: think OO (the embed button is on the social network site).
Google translate did a good job with doornroosje... Sleeping Beauty.
Sleep... Good night. May FL stay warm and prosper.
Hey Tboyy. Any frostbite victims tonite?
TB, glad to see ya!
I smiled.
LOL....Hey Kerry....hope things are well with you and ol Elway too!!
LOL...None yet but we rocking on toward 18 degrees so you never can tell with these back woods northwest florida rednecks!!
Luckily, I am on a narrow barrier island and surrounded by water (Gulf to the West and Estero Bay to the east) so my guess is we will bottom out somewhere between 38-40. Inland will be much colder.
Time to move south.
Hey Kori!!
How have you been?
I have been very well except for the COLD!! Last night I built three fires, two in stoves and one in open fireplace....ended up going inside...wind was just too much!!
Glad to hear you gettin better. I see why it is colder here from the direction of the blast but I would think things would historically be colder in your neck of the woods.
Never underestimate the power of warm air advection (in this case, from Lake Pontchartrain).
Enjoy it Bro!!
THere is a lake next to where I work and the only affect it really has is keeping the wind blowing all the time when it is cold. Oh yeah and the thick advection fog on warmer mornings...lol
Things will turn around once they get on the cold side of that low. Highs in the low 20s by Sat.
Haha.
Lakes generally tend to moderate the temperature of a given area (unless the surface flow is offshore), depending upon their respective size. A lake in the back yard of a person, for example, will not produce an appreciable effect on air temperature, while a much larger lake, like Lake Okeechobee or Pontchartrain, most certainly will. Again, provided the surface flow is blowing toward a particular locale(s), rather than away from it. The latter is very likely why you are colder than Kerry.
Give me mosquitos, flies, sweat, ants, HURRICANES, just bring back the HEAT!!!
Money grubber? Because there is so much money to be made in science....Not! Most scientists chose science over a much more lucrative career. Sure there is a variety personal reasons for each scientist but I don't think any scientist is stupid enough to chose it for the money - at least not the ones doing research. There is just as much money for research against Global Warming as there is for it. Maybe that sounds untrue to people who have been raised in politics and think in party ideologies rather than physical facts, but I don't think there is a Global Warming supporter alive who wouldn't be absolutely ecstatic to find evidence against global warming.
DO have any idea how easy it would be for a scientist to get rich finding proof against global warming? All they have to do is find little dew drops of counter evidence, start a blog, (drastically) lower their integrity standards, and take donations. What's Up With That?
Don't say anything when I wishcast them to you next year. ;)
As long as you don't say Panama City in your forecast I will keep my mouth shut!!
Just got out for a few minutes to have a look (21F here but I have the appropriate clothing). Saw at least 1/minute, some a lot brighter than others. Nice. Look to the north, about 45-50 degrees above the horizon.
But you said "give me hurricanes". I'll hold you to that, you know. :)
Is believing in panic of the world heating really worth it? And let me guess, once they finally find out Global Warming is false, the scientists who have a bias about this junk will also play a God complex by claiming they slowed the effects of Global Warming with proper advanced warning.
And my answer will be I would rather have a hurricane than a blizzard any day of week and TWICE on Sunday!!
WHy would I need to worry about Hurricanaders anyways??
We had our shields up last season and next season we will hit them with our photon torpedos!!
It's the heat I am worried about actually.
I am still of the unfortunate opinion that the arctic ice could be completely gone in three years. All it will take is the right set of conditions, a abnormally hot arctic summer, a slight change in the wind conditions, and the transport of arctic ice South will remove all the multiyear ice.
I just hate the skeptics that are perfectly comfortable being alarmist about fellow Americans ("they trying to take over the world, we have a sacred duty to stop this imaginary army of scientists, quick , fire up the cannons of disinformation - but remember to use the easy easy to handle ammunition, nothing hard to understand...") but when a person creates a scenario based on physical evidence, that person is called alarmist.
That's colder then my low.
My, you are on a roll! Please don't let silly things like logic or science slow you down! ;-)
Still in the upper 30s here in Naples; we avoided a freeze. More importantly, the produce-growing areas inland appear to still be staying mostly just above freezing, and the constant wind will keep frost away, so we might just get lucky here if temps can hang in there for just another hour or so.
Forecast high Thursday...68.
Friday high....72.
.........................................
Off topic...I'm sick of hearing about Brett Favre. Enough.
Sunrise in about 20 minutes.
Good Morning Ike. Favre? I guess no ESPN, Sports Talk Radio and no football games for you! Favre - Farve - Farve
That's all they have talked about. Incredible streak...but, I've heard about 10 times the streak started when Bush Sr. was President.
My low...24.8.
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