Snow to sweep across Plains states early this week
A major winter storm has left quite the mess across parts of the country.
A storm moving through the southern Plains and Mississippi Valley early this week may produce a narrow swath of travel-disrupting snow, according to AccuWeather meteorologists. On the southern side of the storm, drenching rain and thunderstorms are expected for the Gulf Coast states.
Experts warn that even just a small accumulation of snow can cause big problems. It will also be a preview of a much colder, more wintry pattern coming to much of the eastern two-thirds of the country later in the week.
There will be several ingredients playing pivotal roles in the development of this storm. The necessary atmospheric energy component will move through the Southwest on Sunday with little fanfare, perhaps a few showers in Arizona and New Mexico. Needed moisture will then drift into the U.S. from the Gulf of Mexico as that energy arrives in the southern Plains on Sunday night and Monday. Finally, the third ingredient for a wintry mess, the cold air, will already be in place.
Forecasters say there is increasing concern that parts of the Plains and Mississippi Valley will wake up Monday morning to a covering of snow that could cause substantial travel delays.
"It seems like the big question at this point will be how far north and east moisture will be able to get," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Adam Douty.
As of midday Saturday, AccuWeather meteorologists were growing increasingly confident that a narrow corridor of accumulating snow would set up from portions of eastern Kansas to northwestern Missouri and southern Iowa spanning late Sunday night to Monday night.
A general 1-3 inches of snow can fall in these areas, though a narrow, intense band of snow that leads to 3-6 inches of accumulation cannot be ruled out. The AccuWeather Local StormMax™ for the event is 8 inches.
Any threat of snow in this part of the country is noteworthy because much of this area averages only a few inches of snow for an entire winter. "Even a thin coating [of snow] can lead to significant travel disruptions," added Douty.
Later Monday into Tuesday, this first wave of snow will meet up with another piece of energy moving across the Canada-United States border. The result will be an enhancement in snowfall totals across portions of the upper Mississippi Valley and upper Great Lakes. Much of this region experienced days of windswept snow earlier this month.
Temperatures will be slow to rebound in the hours and days following the possible wintry precipitation, so icy spots could linger or redevelop, especially during the nighttime and morning hours.
This potential bout of wintry weather would end up being a preview of a much colder pattern that will follow later in the week and through Christmas weekend for much of the eastern two-thirds of the nation. The cold blast will lead to a major storm with snow and a freeze-up for the nation's midsection and East in the run-up to Christmas.
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