Friday, February 3, 2012

Update on Winter Storm...

Snow continues to fall across much of central and eastern Colorado at this hour, after dumping as much as 6-12 inches in some areas overnight.


Snow will continue across the region today, while spreading East/Northeastward into adjacent portions of northwest Kansas, western and central Nebraska and eventually increasing across much of southern and central Iowa by Saturday morning.

The following winter weather advisories, watches and warnings are currently in effect across the region:


The most dangerous weather today will be within the Blizzard (orange) and Winter Storm Warning (pink) areas.  Widespread snow, heavy at times, along with strong and gusty winds which will create blowing and drifting and very hazardous travel conditions.  Similar conditions will spread East into the Winter Storm Watch areas later tonight and into Saturday.

The latest computer model runs continue to indicate an additional snowfall of 6-12 inches across much of this region today.  The image below is from the NAM computer model, and is valid at 6pm CST (5pm MST) this evening:


Here is a zoom-in of the same forecast model centered on the Denver area:


It is important to remember that this is additional snowfall beginning at 6am CST (5am MST) today.

By tonight and into Saturday, the heavy snow threat will spread further East across Nebraska and Iowa, with as much as 15-20 inches possible across portions of southcentral and/or southeast Nebraska by 6pm CST Saturday:


Here is a zoom-in of the same model on the Omaha and Des Moines areas, respectively:



Strong and gusty winds will create widespread blowing and drifting across these areas as well, with travel highly discouraged tonight and into Saturday.


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1 comment:

Anthill_Goddess said...

Rob,

Thanks for your reply on the other post! I appreciate your answer on the icing concern! I'll take a good snow storm but ice can cause many more problems!

I'm really frustrated with our local coverage right now. As I'm posting links to this blog I have friends saying "Well, channel such-n-such says we're in the clear". I know the model runs have varied but telling your viewing audience that 2-3 inch totals will be common with "locally higher totals" seems like a cop-out and somewhat dangerous for folks who might get caught in a much larger system than they're expecting.