January 2026 winter storm

[1995hoo]

I got up at 7:45, went outside, and there was already sleet coming down. Less snow than the forecast would have led me to expect, but I'd rather have snow than sleet. I'm not sure how much snow there is. A few inches, but doesn't look like six. I ran my new battery-powered mini snowblower. Cleared my driveway, my next-door neighbor's driveway (she was quite pleasantly surprised when she came out—the thing is so quiet she didn't hear it running), the area in front of our driveways, the sidewalk, and my stoop. Then the battery ran out. By the time I got out of the shower, everything had a fresh coating again—but it'll be less to deal with later. I may or may not get a second battery. We live in a townhouse with a one-car garage, so the battery lasted for just about the right amount of time, but it might be nice to have an extra if I ever want to stay out there to clear some more. Worked out well today, though. I came back in, showered, had breakfast, and spent an hour starting a Belgian beef stew in the slow cooker. Sleet is still coming down at 1:20 (I can see it bouncing, which is how I know it's sleet), so I'm not all that eager to go back outside and clear the driveway again.

[GaryV]

Our family is staying home from church today

We went. Not that much snow in SE Mich as of 9:00, less than 2". Although we did have more people putting on the service (pastor, choir, organist, AV booth) than were in the pews.

Another inch or so when we got out, roads were slushy/slick because the salt doesn't work as well in the colder temps.

Two cars had to be dug/pushed out. One lady didn't see the side of the driveway and sideswiped the driver's side of the car into the snowbank the plow had put up last week; a little bit of shoveling around her wheels allowed her to back out. Another guy who was coming to pick up his wife saw her and thought to go around her toward the right - he plowed right into the snowbank and bottomed out the front end of his car so he had no traction on his front wheel drive. After much prodding and digging to release the car, we finally pushed him out too.

[Bruce]

0 inches in the Seattle area, just some frost on this cold and sunny day (as it has been for the past week). Mountains don't have enough snow for December levels, let alone January, so we're in for a rough summer.

[1995hoo]

Some dumbass in our neighborhood posted a complaint at 8:30 this morning that his street hadn't been plowed. If I were at the HOA and I saw that, I'd ask the plow drivers to leave that street until last. (Plow came down our block around 2:30 this afternoon. Not that I'm going to drive anywhere. Our street connects to a VDOT street that has not been cleared, so who knows whether I'd make it up the hill further down the road.)

Our family is staying home from church today

Our bishop gave everyone a dispensation. We could have gone last night, but we didn't. I assume it was extremely crowded to the point of SRO.

[vdeane]

The morning forecast revised our totals up to 18-24 inches.  Not more moisture, just the cold making the snow fluffier.  They're saying that we could end up with the second or third highest snowfall on record in January with this storm.  It's reminding me of the MLK weekend storm in 2019, although thankfully it won't be as cold tomorrow as it was after that storm.

Our family is staying home from church today, but only because a few of us are still sick from a recent mild COVID-like something-or-other that four of the five came down with last week

A lot of churches around here cancelled services or went online-only.  Not all of them, though.  I think the viability of church attendance depended on when services were.  Things were fine early morning (the snow developed between 9 and 10), but by noon, conditions got bad.

[Max Rockatansky]

0 inches in the Seattle area, just some frost on this cold and sunny day (as it has been for the past week). Mountains don't have enough snow for December levels, let alone January, so we're in for a rough summer.

Take some of my several weeks long downpours and post-storm Tule Fog.  It was 52F in Fresno yesterday, the drizzly demise of the fog kept the temperatures down. 

[Bobby5280]

Now that all the snowfall has moved out, the digging-out process has begun. I shoveled off the front and back porches and swept off most of the snow and ice off of my truck's windows, hood and roof. Gotta do another defrost to melt the rest of the ice to get the wipers un-stuck. Then my vehicle will be ready for the Monday morning commute. The roads are still terrible though. Our temps in Lawton haven't been above the mid teens Sunday afternoon and look to fall back into the single digits this evening. Probably going to have to get up earlier than usual to have more time to make it to work.

[1995hoo]

VDOT with a nice tweet.

[Rothman]

Church for me was cancelled today; spent some time on the treadmill watching old, terrible episodes of The Blacklist.  About half-a-foot on the roof, just eyeballing it.  Snow still going strong and will through the night, if the forecast holds.

[ModernDayWarrior]

Ended up with 8 inches here, which was on the low end of the forecast.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

So far we have 10 1/2 inches of snow at our house on the northern side of Central Ohio.

78 of Ohio's 88 counties have some kind of snow emergency today. I expect those other 10 counties to chime in after sunset.
Giant Eagle closed all their stores in Columbus & Cleveland at 4 PM (they announced it by noon)
Krogers will be closing all their stores in Columbus, Dayton, & Cincy by 6 PM (they announced it by 2 PM)

And for Ohio, this is all on the 48th anniversary of the Blizzard of '78.

[Rothman]

So far we have 10 1/2 inches of snow at our house on the northern side of Central Ohio.

78 of Ohio's 88 counties have some kind of snow emergency today. I expect those other 10 counties to chime in after sunset.
Giant Eagle closed all their stores in Columbus & Cleveland at 4 PM (they announced it by noon)
Krogers will be closing all their stores in Columbus, Dayton, & Cincy by 6 PM (they announced it by 2 PM)

And for Ohio, this is all on the 48th anniversary of the Blizzard of '78.

My parents and old Hoosier friends are all barking about the Blizzard of '78 being worse.

[vtk]

I'm not sure Franklin County has gone level 3 in my lifetime

[kalvado]

Just completed second driveway cleanup. Need to keep up with the snow as my blower struggles with 4" and refuses to do 6" layer.
Local counties ban nonessential travel, both commercial and private. I assume legally they can do that under the state of emergency?

[kphoger]

swept off most of the snow and ice off of my truck's windows, hood and roof. Gotta do another defrost to melt the rest of the ice to get the wipers un-stuck. Then my vehicle will be ready for the Monday morning commute.

Our snow was so dry and powdery that, even though I forgot to put the wipers up last night, they weren't stuck to the windshield at all this morning.

[1995hoo]

It's turned to freezing rain here. I was going to go tackle the driveway again, but I changed my mind when I realized what was coming down. Plus I want to see the end of the AFC game.

[NWI_Irish96]

It's turned to freezing rain here. I was going to go tackle the driveway again, but I changed my mind when I realized what was coming down. Plus I want to see the end of the AFC game.

Nobody is going to see the end of the game except the 22 guys on the field.

[GaryV]

Just completed second driveway cleanup. Need to keep up with the snow as my blower struggles with 4" and refuses to do 6" layer.
Local counties ban nonessential travel, both commercial and private. I assume legally they can do that under the state of emergency?

Depends on the law/ordinances, I'd presume.

When I was in college ("Blizzard of '78") the city of Holland closed down on Wed night / Thursday morning. I woke up, looked out the dorm window, and immediately knew my visiting prof wasn't going to make it for my first class and went back to bed. My (now)wife was a good doobie and trekked down to the other end of campus 1st hour (yeah, 3 whole blocks) only to find they were posting the notice that the campus was closed and classes were cancelled. The city was closed until Sunday morning. If you were caught driving and you weren't a doctor on the way to the hospital, you would be arrested and your car impounded. They really didn't want to lift the emergency yet on Sunday, but figured everyone in Holland would be going to church anyway and they didn't want to make all those good churchgoers into criminals.

I was working at Chrysler in 1982 and woke up one morning to hear "Red Alert Snow Emergency" declared in Detroit. Well, I guess I wasn't going to work that day. Sometime around 10:30 I looked out and decided it didn't look that bad, so I decided to "risk" it going in. I later found out that "Red Alert Snow Emergency" meant you couldn't park on the street until it had been plowed.
 

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

And for Ohio, this is all on the 48th anniversary of the Blizzard of '78.

My parents and old Hoosier friends are all barking about the Blizzard of '78 being worse.

That's easy.
Yes, '78 was waaaaay worse (for Ohio).
'78 had half as much snow than today, but triple the wind speed.

[kalvado]

Just completed second driveway cleanup. Need to keep up with the snow as my blower struggles with 4" and refuses to do 6" layer.
Local counties ban nonessential travel, both commercial and private. I assume legally they can do that under the state of emergency?

Depends on the law/ordinances, I'd presume.

When I was in college ("Blizzard of '78") the city of Holland closed down on Wed night / Thursday morning. I woke up, looked out the dorm window, and immediately knew my visiting prof wasn't going to make it for my first class and went back to bed. My (now)wife was a good doobie and trekked down to the other end of campus 1st hour (yeah, 3 whole blocks) only to find they were posting the notice that the campus was closed and classes were cancelled. The city was closed until Sunday morning. If you were caught driving and you weren't a doctor on the way to the hospital, you would be arrested and your car impounded. They really didn't want to lift the emergency yet on Sunday, but figured everyone in Holland would be going to church anyway and they didn't want to make all those good churchgoers into criminals.

I was working at Chrysler in 1982 and woke up one morning to hear "Red Alert Snow Emergency" declared in Detroit. Well, I guess I wasn't going to work that day. Sometime around 10:30 I looked out and decided it didn't look that bad, so I decided to "risk" it going in. I later found out that "Red Alert Snow Emergency" meant you couldn't park on the street until it had been plowed.
 

An interesting question is being asked -  are commercial snow plows essential or not? Somehow I would say they should be allowed, but who knows?

[akt85]

In northern Alabama, black ice is a huge concern as many areas got over two inches of rain this morning and early afternoon and temps are forecast to drop down to the teens tonight.

[ZLoth]

From my perspective of living in North Dallas since 2019.... this storm was more inconvenient than anything else. The roads were extremely slippery on Saturday from the rain on Friday freezing up, and were undrivable on Sunday from snow and sleet. They may be drivable Monday afternoon, but will freeze over and be undrivable again until Tuesday mid-day.

The worst is still 2021.

[CoreySamson]

We got 8-10ish inches of snow in Tulsa in the past several days, which is the most I've ever physically seen. I had the time of my life earlier today sledding down the massive hill behind my dorm building (I was out there for 2 1/2 hours, lol). Definitely a core memory that I did not get as a kid living in the flattest parts of the South. Hand warmers stuffed inside my gloves really helped a lot and helped me withstand the 18 degree temps.

[GaryV]

An interesting question is being asked -  are commercial snow plows essential or not? Somehow I would say they should be allowed, but who knows?

OK, only doctors on the way to the hospital was an exaggeration. But it was that kind of emergency only drivers that were allowed.

[kalvado]

An interesting question is being asked -  are commercial snow plows essential or not? Somehow I would say they should be allowed, but who knows?

OK, only doctors on the way to the hospital was an exaggeration. But it was that kind of emergency only drivers that were allowed.

It's not a historic question - the practical aspect is if the guy plowing neighbor's driveway right now is in violation of our local county order, and would county sheriff do anything to stop him? Likely not - but if I were plowing, I would be curious...