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Winter storm helped with soil moisture

Snow and ice in the recent storm added up to 11.7 inches at my location.  This melted down to 1.91 inches of liquid giving a total for liquid precipitation for the month to date of  3.27.

As of late December, Cincinnati had been taken out of the drought designation.  However, last week we were still listed by the drought monitor as abnormally dry and were lagging behind for the month.  There’s nothing like moisture laden snow to replenish soil moisture!

Needless to say, local landscapes have been through two years of drought, heat in 2007, Hurricane Ike, and now another damaging ice storm.  Plants need good soil moisture but some are very stressed right now.

Ron

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Winter Storm Summary

Well, it’s all over except the clean-up, and what a clean up it will be. 

Snow and ice accumulation varied some around town.  At my location it added up to 11.7 inches, including about 1.5 inches of sleet and freezing rain build-up.   Freezing rain build-up on trees and wires here was in excess of .5 inch with limb breakage on a number of trees.  6.3 inches of snow and ice accumulated here today.

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Damaging ice, now intense snow

Overnight we saw over 1/2 inch of ice on trees with over 1.5 inches on the ground.  I woke up to the sound of breaking tree branches in my neighborhood.

It’s far from over.

The changeover to snow is rapidly approaching as of this writing.  Intense snowfall of 1 to 2 iches per hour is anticipated with morning snowfall expected of 2 to as much as 6 inches, even 10 inches is possible well to the northwest of the metro area.  This is additional snowfall!

In addition to this, temperatures will fall to near 20 F solidifying the ice.  When all is said and done 6 to 12 inches of snow and ice will cover the ground.  Standing water will freeze solid. 

Snow and ice clearing will be extremely difficult and may take many days.  I have been saying this will be a crippling and possibly historic storm.  It looks like it will be!

Ron