Upcoming Winter Storms!!

A multitude of storm systems will impact the central and northern Plains states within the next week, providing ample snowfall to areas as far north of the Dakotas and as far south as northern Oklahoma and Arkansas. The first system will result from a trough in the southwest moving onto the Plains state tomorrow, and will be reinforced by a shortwave during the day on Friday. This is likely going to lead to a widespread swath of 2-5" of snow across much of the central Plains including Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and even points further north. This system will be able to cause widespread snowfall due to its' extensive moisture plume that is available just ahead of the system. You can already see this ample moisture with the warm-air advection precipitation sheild that is moving northward over much of the southern Plains. This will continue to move northward, perhaps causing a mix of rain/snow for some areas of the central Plains tomorrow morning. Otherwise we'll see a change to all snow for most areas by tomorrow afternoon, and accumulating snow continuing through the day on Thursday and into Friday for some of the eastern portions of the Central Plains. For more specific details regarding snowfall totals be sure to check with the latest NWS information. The next update will likely come as this system is ongoing, thus will provide just a brief update on the ongoing storm and expected accumulations.

The second storm system has become much more organized with the latest model runs, indicating the potential for another significant winter storm over areas of the central and southern Plains. The heaviest band of snow does once again appear to be centered over the KS/OK and MO/AR borders. With snowfall accumulations rivaling that of the prevoius system which brought widespread 5-8" with isolated higher amounts. The timing of this system would bring the snowfall through these areas beginning late Sunday and continuing through the day on Monday. Other areas of northern Kansas/Missouri and even adjacent areas just north into NE/IA will also see snowfall with this system, however amounts should remain below 6" given current model indications. More details regarding this second system will be available in later updates...