The Blizzard Of 2007 “Biggest storm in 29 years targets Lafayette”

The Blizzard Of 2007 “Biggest storm in 29 years targets Lafayette” This storm could be called the perfect storm! Not because it contained the perfect meteorological events, but because the end result seemed nearly perfect The storm was highlighted as “potentially significant” days ahead of time With days to go, the forecast showed 8”+ Two days before the blizzard, the forecast called for 8-14” The forecast the night before was for 12-16” The result was 12-18” for the entire viewing area with 17”at the station Lafayette fell in a perfect spot for the heaviest snowfall The communication within the weather team was nearly perfect Communication with all three national weather service offices was nearly perfect Also the communication was flawless throughout the station with positive attitudes on every level The storm will be one that is not forgotten easily The storm came rolling in on Monday, February 12th at about 11:45pm and ended around 2am on Valentine’s Day A cold dome of air was controlling the Midwest and then a southerly flow developed late on Saturday which opened the gulf for several days before the storm arrived On top of this, significant warm air advection was streaming right into the developing storm system A lee side low quickly developed with this warm air advection and a favorable upper air divergence This system then became a weapon as it headed towards the east Tornadoes broke out near the gulf but were not enough to block the moisture to the Midwest The quickly developing low took off down a track a few miles south of the Ohio River A high pressure was located over the Dakotas and set the stage for a tight pressure gradient over northern Indiana A jet stream to the south and an exiting jet streak to the northeast kept Indiana in a highly divergent area aloft, though not a true couplet jet, and furthered the strong rising motion Omega values easily dropped below -15 All of these ingredients came right towards the area The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for every county in the viewing area between the 4:45 and 5:45 am on the 13th of February With in the next several hours the winds peaked at 43 mph Then the snow began to fall in a hurry with snow rates exceeding one inch per hour This in combination of the high snow depth was more than enough for the visibility to drop to a quarter of a mile By evening the area was under a full blooded blizzard Snow emergencies were posted for every county in the area Purdue University called the first snow recess since 1984 The highway department pulled off the highway trucks at 6pm due to little progress with the drifting snow The roads were impassible by night A 500mb shortwave developed rapidly at this point and a very well defined deformation zone formed and moved right over the area The snowflakes switched over from needles to dendrites and became much larger At this time the heavy snow began to add up even quicker bringing a snow total to 17” at the station and a snow depth of 19.25” The snow that was already on the ground was from the previous storm which was an Alberta clipper that came through on February 6th The blizzard was worse than the blizzard of 1999 but not even close to the infamous blizzard of 1978 However there were more records to go down with this storm including the second most snow from any storm since 1896 The highest storm total remains at 20.5” in 1929 Other records were the most snow from any blizzard since 1950 (*1929 may have been a blizzard) It also was the third worst blizzard on record (since 1950), and the most snow in the month of February The highest snow depth was tied at 20.5 inches on Saturday, February 17th when another clipper brought 3.2” and brought the snow depth past 20 inches Steve Scherer, Mike Prangley, Kelly Greene, and Ross Ellet were the people that made up weather team 18 during the storm All were very important during the blizzard of 2007 The forecast was good several days in advance to give people sufficient lead time Amazingly there were no major accidents during the blizzard of 2007 On a side note, despite blizzard conditions in 1999 and a ground blizzard in 1990, this was the first time the National Weather Service in Indianapolis had issued a blizzard warning since the blizzard of 1978 for any of their counties (below is a viewer picture) ... despite blizzard conditions in 1999 and a ground blizzard in 1990, this was the first time the National Weather Service in Indianapolis had issued a blizzard warning since the blizzard of 1978... important during the blizzard of 2007 The forecast was good several days in advance to give people sufficient lead time Amazingly there were no major accidents during the blizzard of 2007 On a side...may have been a blizzard) It also was the third worst blizzard on record (since 1950), and the most snow in the month of February The highest snow depth was tied at 20.5 inches on Saturday,