Latest Winter Storm Sliding East Across the Central Plains / Midwest...

My apologies for not posting about "current" weather for the last few days.  Unfortunately, other commitments have prevented me from doing so.

Late last week I posted about the storm system that is currently affecting the central Plains and Midwest.  This system obviously came out further to the North than it looked like 5 days ago, with the current wintry precipitation swath extending nearly West to East from Kansas into the Midwest and Ohio Valley:

Most of the snow is light to moderate in intensity, with some heavier patches over northcentral and northeastern Kansas.  The airports in Emporia, Topeka, Manhattan and Concordia (all in Kansas) are all reporting 1/2 mile visibility in moderate to heavy snow at this hour, and this heavier snow band is gradually shifting Eastward toward the Kansas City area.

Winter Weather Advisories are currently in effect from the Texas panhandle across most of Kansas, Missouri and into Indiana and southern and central Illinois, as shown in purple on the image below:

The pink shaded area indicates a Winter Storm Warning over portions of western Kansas where stronger winds and heavier snowfall are creating very hazardous conditions.

This system will continue East into the Midwest and Ohio Valley tonight into the first day of 2013, but for the most part, widespread heavy snow is not expected.  This will mainly produce enough snow in the affected areas to cause travel problems and just about keep the kids happy if they haven't seen enough snow so far this season (1-3 inches in most cases within the Winter Weather Advisory areas).

A narrow corridor of freezing rain may cause some light icing from southeast Kansas across southern Missouri and extreme southern Illinois later tonight and early New Year's Day, as indicated by the green and blue shaded areas on the image below:

This could cause locally very hazardous driving conditions in and near this region, so please use extreme caution if you must travel around the area.  I don't believe there will be enough icing to cause major power outages the way it looks right now, but certainly some locations, especially in rural areas, could experience some disruptions in service tonight or early tomorrow.

Please use extreme caution if you're going to be ringing in the new year across the Winter Weather Advisory or Winter Storm Warning areas this evening.  If you live in these areas, it might be a good year just to stay home and celebrate in front of a nice fire!

Whatever you're doing this evening, stay safe, and all the best to you and yours in the new year!

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