Fierce, photo by farroutdude

Meteorologist Paul Gross of WDIV has a nice forecast for Michigan & Metro Detroit (although the weather maps were a little confusing to me). In Winter Storm Draco ends record snowless streaks across Midwest, Dr. Jeff Masters of the Weather Underground adds that:

Winter Storm Draco is powering up over the Upper Midwest, and is poised to bring a resounding end to the record-length snowless streaks a number of U.S. cities have notched this year. Blizzard warnings are posted over portions of Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, and snowfall amounts of up to a foot are expected in some of the affected regions. While the heavy snow will create dangerous travel conditions, the .5″ – 1.5″ of melted water equivalent from the the storm will provide welcome moisture for drought-parched areas of the Midwest.

…Average water levels on Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are near their lowest December levels ever recorded, preliminary data from NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory indicate. The U.S. has had its warmest and 12th driest year on record, according to NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center. It should be no surprise, then, that a number of major cities have set records for their longest period without snow. Most of these streaks have come to and end (or will do so in the next day or two) because of Winter Storm Draco.

Draco? You might be wondering when & why we started naming winter storms. The answer is actually due to social media:

A new naming system put in place by The Weather Channel has its roots in social media to make it easier for people to communicate and share information about winter storms. The network is the first to name them, similar to how tropical storms and hurricanes have been referenced for years.

“In addition to providing information about significant winter storms by referring to them by name, the name itself will make communication and information sharing in the constantly expanding world of social media much easier,” The Weather Channel meterologist Tom Niziol wrote on the site. “As an example, hash tagging a storm based on its name will provide a one-stop shop to exchange all of the latest information on the impending high-impact weather system.”

Mind your dragons folks and enjoy the last day of the 13th b’ak’tun cause the next time doesn’t roll around for 394.25 years!

See the dragon in faroutdude’s photo? View it on black and see more in his Marquette slideshow.

More Michigan blizzards on Michigan in Pictures.