Blizzard Bluster

Talk of an impending blizzard with possible 10-15 inches of snow, 50 mph wind gusts and sub-zero temperatures in the days leading up to its arrival in Eastern Iowa had residents on edge. As weather conditions would play out in the days ahead, the blizzard was indeed potent, but not to the degree of some of the dire forecasts out there. The Radarscope image above shows the storm's progress at 3:41 pm CST, Wednesday, December 21, 2022, and again at 5:54 pm (below). The yellows and greens in Central Iowa show the more intense areas. The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a Blizzard Warning for Eastern Iowa on Wednesday evening, an upgrade from the previous issuance of a Winter Storm Warning.

8:23 pm. The image above looks west from Boyson Road at the Boyson Park trailhead parking lot during the early phase of the blizzard warning. The colorful streaks along the road at right are long exposure headlights and taillights. 10 second exposure at f/20, ISO 100, 24mm focal length. Air temperature was 21 degrees F.

Weather conditions for 8:36 pm.

9:00 pm. Looking northeast at Christmas lights on Timber Creek Drive, as seen from Boyson Road during the initial phase of the blizzard. 2 second exposure at f/9, ISO 100, 18mm focal length.

 

9:01 pm. Similar image. 2.5 second exposure at f/7.1, ISO 100, 30mm focal length.

Radarscope image for 8:03 am CST, Thursday, December 22, 2022. I had headed north of town to capture rural blizzard images. The image above shows that at this point most of the intense areas of snow (yellows and greens) had already passed east of my location (target icon).

8:04 am. Eastbound on County Home Road (E34), just west of North Marion Road/North Tenth Street, north of Marion, Iowa.

8:06 am. Looking south from North Marion Road, just north of County Home Road.

Weather conditions for 8:06 am.

8:08 am. Looking south from North Marion Road, just north of County Home Road, with snowplow in the distance.

8:09 am. Looking southwest from North Marion Road, just north of County Home Road, with farm house at right.

8:11 am. Southbound on North Tenth Street, just south of County Home Road.

8:11 am. Southbound on North Tenth Street, just south of County Home Road.

8:12 am. Southbound on North Tenth Street, just south of County Home Road.

8:15 am. Looking north from the parking lot at Lowe Park in Marion, Iowa.

3:24 pm CST, Thursday, December 22, 2022. The skies had sufficiently cleared enough to allow this vivid sun dog to appear in the western skies. This image was captured from Alburnett Road in the Bowman Meadows housing development. Air temperature was -8 degrees F, with wind chills near -30 degrees F. My bare fingers instantly froze upon air exposure capturing this shot.

9:02 am CST, Friday, December 23, 2022. High winds and fast moving clouds did not prevent a morning sun dog from showing through. This image looks southeast over the Brentwood Drive NE neighborhood of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, as seen from Bowman Woods Park. Air temperature was -8 degrees F, with some wind gusts creating -40 degree wind chills. The snowfall in Cedar Rapids from the start of this storm on Wednesday was about 5 inches.

 

Nightfall in Cedar Rapids on December 23. Blizzard conditions continue with blowing snow. This image looks south from Brentwood Drive NE at 5:13 pm and is a (StarStax2) 5-image stack, with each image an 8 second exposure at f/11, ISO 100 and 18mm focal length. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.

Sidenote: While standing outside to capture the Friday morning sun dog, I observed how high winds impacted the rear of houses along the eastern border of Bowman Woods Park. Snow carried along during high speed winds gusts visually showed how wind in open areas of the park (background and right) slammed unhindered into the back of houses, while houses downwind from where I was standing (foreground) were largely protected by the large hill (toward the left in this image). This provided a visual confirmation to the notion that houses protected by the hill survived the derecho winds of August 10, 2020 without much damage while those in open areas did not.