User:Gopher backer/sandbox
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
==The Storm==test test
[edit] Uniqueness
In terms of its characteristics, the Halloween Blizzard was a rather unique storm. It started out as many winter storms do, as a developing low pressure system in the western Gulf of Mexico. Normally when this happens the jet stream will take these systems northeast towards the central Great Lake states, or perhaps eastward towards the Southeast U.S. But in the case of the Halloween Blizzard, the low pressure system moved from near Houston, Texas on October 31 to Thunder Bay Ontario on November 2. That's approximately 1400 miles north, and just 350 miles east. Because of the prevailing westerly winds in the mid-latitudes of the northern hemphisphere, it's very unusual for a storm to travel that that far north or south without getting pushed further to the east by the westerily winds.
The reason this storm did not get pushed to the west is because the massive 1991 Halloween Nor'easter (a.k.a - The Perfect Storm) was sitting off the northeast U.S. coast essentially blocking weather systems and preventing anything from moving to the east. So instead of the Halloween Blizzard low pressure moving towards the northeast as a Gulf Low normally would have, it had nowhere to go but almost straight north, in turn affecting the Upper Midwest. The Halloween Blizzard was one of just a handful of known Gulf Low storms systems to have affected Minnesota and Iowa. With the exception of Nor 'easters, Gulf Lows are considered the most potent snowfall producers in the eastern U.S. Because Minnesota rarely experiences Gulf Lows, it's not a surprise that this particular storm system set snowfall records all accross the eastern part of the state.testtest
[edit] Impact
The area of Low Pressure responsible for the Halloween blizzard originiated in the Pacific Ocean, moving inland over the state of Oregon on October 25, 1991. By October 30 the storm had reached the Gulf of Mexico, and on October 31 it began its journey northward. The snow began to fall across Minnesota near sunset on October 31 and it accumulated rapidly. By midnight, Minneapolis had already recorded 8.2 inches of snow, which set a record for the most amount of snow on October 31, as well as the most snow ever recorded during the month of October.
Within 24 hours many areas of the state had already received over a foot and a half snow, but to weather forecasters surprise the snow kept falling. Over the next two days additional accumulations of one to two feet were recorded in parts of the state. By the time it was done the storm had dropped 28.4 inches of snow on the Twin Cities, setting a single storm record for the metropolitan area. Duluth received 36.9 inches, the largest single storm total in Minnesota history at that time. At least a foot of snow fell in a swath approximately 100 miles wide from south central Minnesota, northeastward into northwestern Wisconsin and into the Minnesota Arrowhead. A more narrow band of 2+ feet of snow fell from the Twin Cities through Duluth and northward. Highway snow removal was hindered by record cold temperatures that followed the storm and transportation was hampered for many days. [1]
Areas of southern Minnesota and Iowa along and south of the I-90 cooridor did not see as much snow, but instead saw a major ice storm with ice accumulations of 2 - 3 inches. The ice storm alone caused almost $82 million in damages and 11 counties in southern Minnesota were declared federal disaster areas. Many rural areas were without power for up to a week due to power lines that snapped under the weight of the ice. [2] Between the blizzard and the ice storm 20 people were killed and over 100 were injured.
