WeatherFanatics: Cross-Country Snowstorm to Whip Rockies, Drop Rare Early Season Snow in Central Plains

Friday, November 14, 2014

Cross-Country Snowstorm to Whip Rockies, Drop Rare Early Season Snow in Central Plains

By Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meteorologist

November 15,2014; 2:20AM,EST

A January-like storm that hit the Northwest Thursday into Friday will aim at part of the Rockies and Central states this weekend and may result in disruptions to travel and daily activities.
A broad area of snow will impact cities from Denver to Chicago and Detroit this weekend. Enough snow could fall at area airports to cause deicing delays at the very least. Some locations within this swath will receive enough snow to shovel and plow.
The expanse of the arctic air will continue to bring much lower temperatures when compared to average, and it will also bring precipitation more common during December and January, as opposed to November.

After producing a zone of heavy snow and ice in portions of interior Oregon and Idaho into Friday, a storm that originated over the Pacific Ocean will blast areas from Wyoming and Colorado to the central High Plains with snow, wind and cold.
According to AccuWeather Meteorologist Rob Miller, "Blizzard conditions are possible for a time in the mountains of southern Wyoming to central Colorado during the first part of the weekend."

Motorists traveling along through the mountains in this zone should expect slippery and dangerous travel, including on interstates 70, 80 and 25. Cities from Cheyenne, Wyoming, to Denver, Colorado Springs and Pueblo, Colorado, will receive a few inches from the storm.
A six- to 12-hour period of heavy snow and gusty winds could bring whiteout conditions and cause some of the passes to close temporarily.
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Part of the storm will push southward into New Mexico and the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles later this weekend. Locally heavy snow is possible on some of the ski resorts in New Mexico. Just enough snow could fall to make for slippery travel along I-27 and I-40 in the region, including at Amarillo, Texas, and Oklahoma City.
As part of the storm heads south Saturday into Sunday, another part will reorganize farther east this weekend over the Plains and Midwest as a reinforcing surge of cold begins to advance.

However, for much of the Central states, the storm will not be as potent as that of the Rockies or the Northwest.
Light to moderate snow will fall over the central Plains Saturday. Enough could fall to make roads slippery around Omaha, Nebraska; Kansas City, Missouri; Des Moines, Iowa, and Wichita, Kansas. Locally in this swath, a few inches of snow can accumulate.

The snow will extend farther east Saturday night into Sunday, reaching Chicago, Detroit and Cincinnati. A general coating to an inch of snow can fall, which is still enough to cause slippery roads and sidewalks.
During Sunday night and Monday, the storm will once again reorganize as a new surge of moisture enters from the Gulf of Mexico.
The re-energized storm will bring areas of snow, rain or rain changing to snow in from the middle Mississippi Valley to the Northeast that can be followed by a freeze-up and slippery travel in many areas for the first part of next week.
The air moving in during early next week will be colder than that of this past week from eastern areas of the Plains to parts of the East.

As the waves of cold air continue, bands of lake-effect snow will continue from the Upper Midwest to the central Appalachians this weekend and into next week. However, these bands of snow will tend to shift around from one location to the next as the flow of cold air changes direction from time to time.

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