We remember well the wild storm of last week with major snows, blizzard conditions, severe weather, heat and a massive temperature contrast along with 50-60 degree 24-hour temperature drop through the Rockies and Plains. At one point, temperatures were some 40-50 below normal in the West while in the East, they were 30 above normal in places. Thankfully the weather has settled down this weekend. It was a super Saturday across the West with highs ranging from 5-10 degrees above normal with Denver warming to a pleasant 69 degrees, that’s 8 above normal. As for the East, it was cooler than of late, though either slightly below average through the interior Mid-Atlantic with yesterday’s perfect 65 degrees and sunshine at Charleston, WV which was 2 below normal to Washington’s 70, 4 above.. Way cooler than the 91 degree high set in Washington early last week.[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)]

New Week, New Storm, More Wild Weather!

Another wild drop off in temperature is coming back to the Rockies in coming days while the East returns to mid-summer again as another major storm system sweeps across the Rockies and into the heart of the nation Monday through Wednesday. This will tap that unseasonably cold air that remains over the Canadian Prairies and will drive it south into the West and central United States while east of the low, the heat pump will crank as ridging pumps 20-30 above normal air back across the Eastern two thirds.

Major snowfall is expected once again, starting in the Northern Rockies and focusing over North Dakota into Minnesota through the next 36 hours beginning tonight.

Here’s the GFS snow chart for the North Plains through 36 hours.

Much of northern South Dakota and across North Dakota may pick up 8-14 inches with local amounts topping 2 feet! Strong winds will also produce blizzard conditions with significant blowing and drifting which is sure to shut down much of I-94.

After a rain/snow mix in Denver today with highs some 15 degrees down on yesterday, the snow gets cranking late Monday into Tuesday and perhaps into Wednesday when the surface feature slides just south of the Metro and east winds drive Gulf moisture up against the Front Range. The high Tuesday should hold in the mid to low 30s with heavy snow and wind.

Here’s the GFS snow chart through 48 hours over the West.

It’s actually going to be a close call for Denver as the low may track as close as the south suburbs and so depending upon exact track, Denver could be hit by as much as 8 inches or barely anything. Cheyenne, WY may get 4-8 inches, maybe more from this. They got 9 inches from last week’s storm.

Note if the above chart shows even deeper snow on the ground across the Northern Plains by late Tuesday. This would suggest some parts of SD, ND receive OVER 2 FEET, perhaps local amounts near 28-30 inches? This would be understandable if the snow was focused over the Black Hills which is can get buried by 2-3 feet but over ND, this would certainly be one for the history books if these amounts actually fell. There will be somewhere which picks up at least 24 inches though which would be amazing even during mid-winter but in mid-April?

How Cold May It Get In The Wake Of The Storm?

As the snows come down over Billings, Cheyenne and down as far as Denver, temperatures will continue falling like we saw with last week’s storm. So, highs Tuesday will be in the 20s in Cheyenne, 30s in Denver but overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, lows plunge towards the 0s in Cheyenne while it gets towards 10, maybe dipping into the 0s in Denver, setting the stage for a very cold Wednesday with highs struggling to get out of the 10s in Cheyenne and mid-20s in Denver.

Following a hot Monday across Texas extending up into Oklahoma with 90s (100s in Texas), the front pushes through, temps will dive 20-40 degrees over a 24 hour period and once again, snow is likely to fall over parts of Oklahoma including OKC after highs near 90, perhaps even into North Texas during Wednesday or Thursday.

By midweek once the low heads up towards the Great Lakes, the model shows possibly more snow for Minneapolis also as well as a significant push of cold late season arctic air down the Plains, this could hold temperatures by day some 30 below normal all the way to Oklahoma and North Texas with unusual 10s by night over Kansas and even into Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle.

Significant Push Of Late Season Cold Into The Plains

Here’s the GFS 850mb chart through 114 hours.

72 hrs

90 hrs

114 hrs

Severe Weather Threat?

The warm sector which tends to be the area southeast of the main low, east of the cold front, south of the warm front which is always the target area of not only heavy thunderstorms and flooding rain, but severe weather also with air masses colliding along with surface convergence and upper level divergence with a jet stream ripping overhead.

Here is the target areas according to the Storm Prediction Center.

Tomorrow

Tue

 

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Tags: April cold, Denver snow, North Dakota April blizzard, Rockies snowstorm, US April snowstorm