It took a while but we finally have snow on the ground in Wisconsin. Most of the state has between 2- 8” of snow on the ground. In southeast Wisconsin, we picked up most of the snow that’s on the ground currently from two significant snow events. The first big snow event was on Dec. 29-30 when our area picked up between 2-8” of snow. Milwaukee had accumulations of over 5”, Elkhorn 8”, and around 7” of snow was reported in Waukesha. Here’s a photo that I took at TMJ4 studios around the middle of the event. At the time of this picture, the parking lot had about 4” of wet snow.
Our second significant snow event was on the first of the New Year when Milwaukee picked up another 2.6” of snow. Other locations like Brookfield and West Bend saw over 3 inches. Since the snow, we have recently had 2 nights of freezing fog. On the night of Jan. 3 all of southeast Wisconsin was under a Dense Fog Advisory. During the overnight hours into the morning of Jan. 4, the fog was so dense that it produced layers and layers of rime ice on all the trees and vegetation. This rime ice forms during freezing fog events when the water droplets in the fog, freeze on surfaces that are below freezing. Here’s a photo that I took on the morning of Jan. 4. Everything was coated in white and there was still some fog in the distance.
We don’t have any significant snow events on the horizon over the next seven days and with temperatures climbing above freezing during the day for the remainder of the week, some melting will occur. There will still be enough snow around for snowmobiling and hitting the ski hills. To see the latest updates on the current snow depths across the state of Wisconsin you can click on the following link National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing (NOHRSC). Have fun and stay safe as you enjoy the outdoors this winter!