Upper Midwest Storm Strongest On Record (10/26/2010)

At least in terms of barometric pressure [[955mb or 954mb thus far, may even still be strengthening) just a few miles south of the Canadian border in Minnesota. Basically it's the equivalent of a category 2 or 3 hurricane. It's also the strongest storm on record to impact the states of Wisconsin & Minnesota.

It's predecessor was the Great Blizzard of 1978 which bombed out to 958mb over Cleveland.

However, it's only the 2nd strongest in terms of severity [[behind the Fitzgerald Storm).

Of course this is all non-tropical.

This was in fact the same system that sparked the strong wind & severe weather headlines in Detroit [[and much of the Ohio/Tenessee Valley) today.

Much of the Northern Plains is under Blizzard Warnings & Winter Storm Warnings with many areas expecting 6 inches or more of snow.

I was out all day in it. It didn't seem to bad here in Detroit.

Yep. The most classic meteorological case of "Much Ado About Nothing" I've ever witnessed here in Detroit.
And that's not good. Every time the media plays up an "impending disaster" of this type and zilch actually occurs, folks like my son learn to take the warnings with even less seriousness than they deserve, which is not much to begin with.

I understand their need to sound the alarm just in case, but Ravine is right too. Funny, I don't remember any kind of warnings last month when we got all the wind that blew down the illegal hook-ups which inturn burned up more of the eastside. Wonder if yesterday's hyper cautious warnings had anything to do with that?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gnome

I understand their need to sound the alarm just in case, but Ravine is right too. Funny, I don't remember any kind of warnings last month when we got all the wind that blew down the illegal hook-ups which inturn burned up more of the eastside. Wonder if yesterday's hyper cautious warnings had anything to do with that?

---

I didn't think about that, Gnome, but now that you mention it, I'll bet that you are quite correct.

I can't remember if there was an official warning last month but any severely windy day usually gets mentioned in the forecast. [[At least on the sites I look at- Yahoo Weather or Weather Underground.)

Yeah Pam, that's true, but it just seemed as though they really played it up, yesterday. I was imagining what's left of my Dodge Spirit flying out of the driveway and in through the kitchen window.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ravine

Yeah Pam, that's true, but it just seemed as though they really played it up, yesterday. I was imagining what's left of my Dodge Spirit flying out of the driveway and in through the kitchen window.

---

There were tornadoes from that system before it got to Michigan, so that probably led to any "playing up" of coverage more so than last month's wind storm.

.... when the gales of November came early ....

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gnome

I understand their need to sound the alarm just in case, but Ravine is right too. Funny, I don't remember any kind of warnings last month when we got all the wind that blew down the illegal hook-ups which inturn burned up more of the eastside. Wonder if yesterday's hyper cautious warnings had anything to do with that?

---

Sometimes I wonder what is really up with the guys up in White Lake. After the strongest of the winds had passed through they did finally give in and issued a Red Flag Warning & Wind Advisory [[for 2 hours).

It was the same thing yesterday. They wainted until an hour before the "storms" arrived to issue any type of watch box.

Then again, I can understand why between the overly cynical people in SE Michigan [[it's a huge forecast area, people fail to realize weather can vary signficantly from one part to another) when it comes to the weather and the fact that SE Michigan is somewhat of a micro-climate [[storms will weaken right as they approach, everyone else NW of Detroit gets heavy snow but Detroit, etc.) because if they pull the trigger too soon on warnings & headlines they [[the NWS & broadcast meteorlogists) lose and if they pull the trigger too late on them they lose.

The whole thing didn't seem right to me. Those Doppler images serve a dual purpose - to accurately track precipitation patterns and to get your channel great ratings. Theres just something about seeing that mass of red/orange/yellow coming right at your neighborhood, and it really adds to the drama and even my cynical ass can't turn the channel.

Because of this coverage telling me that some gigantic hellish storm was on the way I stayed home from class and watched the whole thing happen on TV. I kept looking at the Doppler images and then looking outside and thinking "It just looks like a regular cloudy day" but the whole time expecting the sky to open up. From where I am it didn't even get that dark outside, just some blustery winds and light rain for about 10 minutes, even though where I live on the west side of Windsor was right in the bullseye of the "storm path".

Am I reading too much into the whole thing, or do meteorologists kick the drama up a notch in times like these... Also, I've lived in this area my whole life and I've never "taken cover" or "extra safety precautions" during even a tornado warning. Am I the only one who has this blase attitude? You live around here and you get used to some pretty intense weather. I remember having a cousin visiting me who lives out West a couple of summers ago and the sky got black and a tornado warning was issued on TV. She was so afraid and looked at me like I was insane when I went out to sit on the porch to watch the storm come in.

We just got kissed by it, but it was a heck of a storm elsewhere. My brother at the foot of Lake Superior said the wind was ferocious. The mariners warnings were for Lake Michigan, not Superior, though.

Brother said his sign was broken in the wind [[coffee shop), some trees were down, and there were dozens of waterspouts out on the Lake.

It looks beautiful today, but wind is still supposed to be an issue. I think the dog and I must get out for our walk pretty soon.

I found a branch that was at least 2 feet long that crashed onto my front lawn today.

Has an 'All clear' been issued yet? I'm still holed up in my basement as per Gaidica's warnings.

Quote:

---

Sometimes I wonder what is really up with the guys up in White Lake. After the strongest of the winds had passed through they did finally give in and issued a Red Flag Warning & Wind Advisory [[for 2 hours).

It was the same thing yesterday. They wainted until an hour before the "storms" arrived to issue any type of watch box.

---

Watches are issued out of Norman, OK

But you knew that, right?