Winter Storm Update...

As expected, precipitation has changed entirely to snow over most of Iowa as of 8am CST, and is falling heavily in some areas. Meanwhile, snow continues to fall across portions of central and eastern Nebraska as well.

Below are zoom-ins on the Omaha and Des Moines area radars, respectively.  Moderate to heavy snow is indicated by the progressively darker blue shadings on the images:

As expected yesterday, a band of locally heavier snow has set-up from near Omaha to the immediate South through Southwest of Des Moines (so far).  Recent spotter reports indicate 2 inches of snow at Lorimor and 5.4 inches at Cumberland.  It is still snowing, moderate to heavily, in these areas.

Meanwhile, back over the Omaha area 4-6 inches seems to be the "on ground" average through 8am CST, but it is still snowing in that region as well, and will for quite some time into the day today.

The latest run of the HRRR computer forecast model is calling for snow accumulation of 6-8 inches in the brightest yellow shaded areas during the period 6am to 12 Noon CST (click on the image to enlarge):

Using the scale (in inches) at the bottom of the image, you can see that a large swath of 3-6 inch snows are forecast through Noon from southeast Nebraska into southcentral Iowa.

Snow will continue falling into the afternoon hours as well.  The latest run of the model shown above is not out past 12 Noon yet, but we can jump back to the previous run and take a look at the projection valid at 6pm CST this evening, which looks like this: 

Needless to say, travel is highly discouraged across southcentral and southeast Nebraska into the southern half of Iowa today.  

A Winter Storm Warning continues for much of the region as indicated by the areas shaded in pink on the image below (which includes both Omaha and Des Moines).  A Winter Weather Advisory is in effect for the surrounding darker tan shaded areas:

The snow will end from Northwest to Southeast across the region this evening.  This will likely begin in southeast Nebraska around 6pm CST, and spread across Iowa through the 10pm to Midnight time frame.

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