A Rare Early Fall Snowstorm
October 8-9, 1970
Brief Overview
On October 8-9
1970, a storm system dumped heavy snow from Northeast New Mexico
and southeast Colorado, northeastward
into Kansas,
Nebraska and western Iowa. Snowfall maps for southwest Kansas and adjacent areas and Nebraska/Iowa were
made from
cooperative observer reports.
Snow totals from the Dodge
City forecast area ranged from 6 to 11 inches along and just south of a
line from Hugoton to Montezuma
to Larned. Dodge City
barely missed out on the heavy snow. Parts of the northern and
northeast Texas panhandle received 6 to 10 inches
of snow. Parts
of eastern Nebraska and western Iowa received 5 to 9 inches of snow.
Synoptic Sequence of
events
An upper level
low pressure center dropped sse from near Boise(00 UTC October 7) to northern AZ(12 UTC October 7), then moved
east to near
Tucumcari(00 UTC October 8) to northwest or western Oklahoma by 12 UTC October 8 and finally to northeast Kansas
by 00 UTC October 9. The corresponding 850mb, 700mb and 250mb charts can be found below:
850mb maps
00 UTC Oct 7 850mb
12 UTC Oct 7 850mb
00 UTC Oct 8 850mb
12 UTC Oct 8 850mb
00 UTC Oct 9 850mb
700mb charts
00 UTC Oct 7 700mb
12 UTC Oct 7 700mb
00 UTC Oct 8 700mb
12 UTC Oct 8 700mb
00 UTC Oct 9 700mb
250mb charts
12 UTC Oct 7 250mb
00 UTC Oct 8 250mb
12 UTC Oct 8 250mb
00 UTC Oct 9 250mb
I have heard
people talk about how warm ground temperatures preclude snow
accumulation. This case serves as an excellent
example of how
heavy snow will accumulate even when temperatures have recently been
warm. The high temperatures in October 1-8,
1970 for Dodge City, KS and Follette, TX were:
Dodge City:
85,84,74,85,85,88,67,34(snow) 1" snow
Follett, TX:
81,86,88,77,82,83,61,34(snow) 8" snow