Storm to dump snow on half a million square miles of north-central US
A massive late-March storm will trigger not only severe weather over the central United States, but also a huge swath of accumulating snow that includes blizzard conditions early this week.
The same storm that is poised to spark severe weather through Wednesday over part of the central United States will continue to unload snow from Montana to parts of Wyoming, Colorado, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Minnesota and Wisconsin early this week, AccuWeather meteorologists warn. Blizzard conditions may evolve in some areas along with dangerous travel.
A storm capable of triggering both severe weather and wind-driven heavy snow simultaneously is not uncommon during March. However, this will be a rare storm for the past cold weather season over portions of the North Central states, where snowfall has been lean.
This will not be the biggest storm of the winter for the Rocky Mountain states, but it could be for parts of the northern Plains and the Upper Midwest, Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said. A storm around the middle of the month dropped 3-5 feet of snow just west of Denver.
This radar composite image of the massive storm was captured at midday on Sunday, Mar. 24, 2024. Beneath the snow (blue) and mixed precipitation (pink and purple) in parts of Iowa, thunder and lightning were occurring in some locations. (AccuWeather)
The storm follows a clipper storm that brought a couple of inches to a foot of snow from Alberta, Canada, to Michigan to end last week and into part of New England earlier this past weekend.
Considering the large area in the path of the storm, the overall coverage where at least a couple of inches of snow may fall is likely to exceed 500,000 square miles of the North Central states.
Heavy snow continued to pile up on the roads of Ann Arbor, Michigan, as plows tried to keep up to help drivers stay safe.
"This new storm could end up being the biggest single snowfall in the wintertime for parts of the Dakotas and Minnesota," Buckingham said. Before the storm from Thursday to Friday in Minneapolis, only 14.3 inches of snow fell the entire winter season, compared to a historical average of 46 inches. The storm from Thursday to Friday brought 3-6 inches of snow to the Twin Cities metro area, and the new storm may unload even more snow early this week.
AccuWeather's team of meteorologists is projecting that 12-18 inches of snow will fall from much of central South Dakota to northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin, with a StormMax™ of 24 inches.
"A large areal coverage of blizzard conditions is likely into Monday morning, where the visibility dips below 1/4 of a mile and wind gusts frequent 35 mph or greater," Buckingham said. "Within the heaviest snow zone, rates of 1-3 inches per hour are possible, which can overwhelm road crews and leave motorists stranded out in the open."
Denver will pick up another significant snowfall through Monday morning. From 3 to 6 inches will fall in the metro area, with higher amounts toward the foothills, but still, at least a couple of inches around the airport, which is located to the northeast of the city. Enough snow will fall to create slow travel for the Monday morning commute.
In parts of the High Plains, where temperatures are significantly below freezing, the snow will be dry and powdery and will tend to blow off trees.
From portions of eastern Nebraska to northern Iowa, southeastern South Dakota, central and southeastern Minnesota, central and northwestern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the snow will be wet and clinging. The combination of heavy wet snow and strong winds can cause trees to fall and large limbs to snap, which can result in extensive power outages.
The snow may become mixed with rain or change to all rain in part of this zone on Monday, including around the Minneapolis area.
The storm from this past week and the new storm will add a significant amount of moisture to the soil and eventually boost spring runoff into area streams and rivers.
A lean winter in terms of large, moist storms resulted in a wide range of conditions ranging from abnormally dry to extreme drought, according to the United States Drought Monitor report from March 19.
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