Good evening. That cold blast we spoke about a few days ago is really intensifying in the north west of the U.S. with temperature plummeting. As moisture attempts to interact with the warm air on Thursday / Friday, a major snow event is possible for central areas, but nothing is certain as of yet. Some areas could see close to 10-12 inches of snowfall, with strong winds and power outages a possibility, of course potentially producing some tricky traveling conditions.
Main risks from this storm
– Heavy wet snow (producing a risk of power outages) and poor visibility.
Main areas at risk & timings
Our preliminary Winter Storm Watch map above, highlights the main areas at risk. This system is likely to start producing snowfall on high ground in the west as early as Wednesday before pushing further east on Thursday and Friday.
There’s a significant amount of uncertainty with regards to the timing, exact locations and intensity of this system, therefore you should keep a close eye on weather forecasts. There’s a lot of cold air digging south at the moment, so there’s definitely enough cold air in place. This storm could have quite significant travel impacts later this week, especially as it is likely to affect many areas on Halloween.
There’s also the potential for strong winds and blizzard like conditions and consequently white out conditions in places. That would produce a significant amount of disruption and some dangerous conditions on the roads. As mentioned, nothing is certain, however places in a line from the far north of Oaklahoma, through Kansas, Illinois and the lakes should pay very close attention to forecasts in the next few days.