Overnight, temperatures remained below freezing as the rainfall moved into the area. Ice coated just about everything making travel difficult on foot as well as by car. Slowly, the temperature began to creep upwards by a tenth of a degree every 10 minutes or so until we were above freezing at 5am. The warmer temperatures and falling rain began to melt a lot of the ice that had accumulated on the roadway, but there were still slushy patches as I made my way to work at 7:40am. The real story is the rise in temperature. At 8am, the temperature was 34 and at 9:25am the temperature was 52! The forecast says we'll hit 56 today before the cold front moves in mid afternoon and the mercury begins to drop. Overnight lows will be in the 20's.
Interesting side note... the warm temperatures that are moving in are creating dense areas of fog. I'm at work now (last day before Christmas break and my classes aren't showing up) and the fog is just rolling down off the hills and into the river valley. I wonder what it looks like at home now?
The storm was a prolific rain maker as 1.10" of rain has fallen since midnight. Further to the north, ice and snow accumulations are great too. Milwaukee, Wisconsin received over ten inches of snow (top photo) as did Grand Rapids, Michigan (bottom photo).
The rest of the afternoon should be dry, but winds will begin to increase as the front approaches.
From the NWS...
A STRONG LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL MOVE ACROSS THE REGION THISAFTERNOON...SENDING A COLD FRONT SOUTHEAST ACROSS THE AREA. WINDSWILL INCREASE FROM THE WEST BEHIND THE COLD FRONT WITH WIND GUSTSOF AROUND 45 MPH POSSIBLE THIS AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING.RESIDENTS SHOULD TAKE PRECAUTIONS AND TIE DOWN LOOSE OBJECTS THATCAN BECOME AIRBORNE BY THE STRONG WIND GUSTS.
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