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La Crosse Snowfall

05 Apr 2024 05:30 AM
The featured infographic is courtesy of NWS La Crosse, WI. We, who live in the Midwest, generally do not think much about elevation effects when it comes to winter precipitation as "flat as a pancake" accurately describes our topography. Those is more mountainous terrain certainly understand that elevation makes a big difference with precipitation type and even the weather. For those of you unaware, temperatures generally decrease with increasing elevation so precipitation that falls as rain at lower elevations will fall as snow as you go up the mountain and temperatures cool below freezing. Hence why you can get big snow storms at the top of the mountains in Hawaii. Anyway, so it is interesting to see an elevation effect show up just to our north and east in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The most recent snow storm produced a remarkable difference in snow totals between the airport (1.1") located along the Mississippi River and the NWS forecast office (16.6") located at the top of a nearby bluff just five miles away, but 600 some feet higher up. While the elevation difference did play a role in this event, there was also a persistent band of snow that impacted the forecast office location and the airport is helped by warmth from the nearby river. The top right panel shows that the forecast office gets more snow, on average, than the airport.

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Tags:   elevation