Massive Winter Storm Leaving, Getting Drier

In the Midwest, a massive winter storm moved into the region over the weekend, producing incredibly heavy snow across the north and widespread strong-to-severe thunderstorms across the south. The system is still in the region on Monday with heavy snow in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan while the line of storms has moved eastward. Though the primary snow band will be over on Monday, lake-effect snow will continue on Tuesday. Another band of rain and snow will move through the region Tuesday and Wednesday on the edge of some warmer air that will melt the heavy snow later this week.

In the Northern Plains, bands of heavy snow moved through over the weekend and were followed by very cold air. Warm air will return on Tuesday, with a band of snow forming on the edge of it. Fronts and systems will continue in Canada the rest of the week and are unlikely to bring much precipitation down into the region until the weekend.

In the Central and Southern Plains, a major winter storm sent a front through the region over the weekend. It produced some limited precipitation, but very few areas got anything measurable. Drier conditions are forecast through this week and into next, which will cause some areas in the west to see expanding drought that haven’t seen much precipitation in the recent active weather pattern.

In the Delta, a strong cold front moved through with a line of strong-to-severe storms on Sunday. That adds to the good rainfall of the last two weeks to help ease drought conditions in the region. However, rainfall deficits have been very large and will continue to be in place as the region gets drier this week.

In the Southeast, scattered showers and thunderstorms moved through over the weekend and were fairly widespread. That continues on Monday as a cold front moves through. Some drought relief is coming to the region, but deficits are extremely large in some areas. Dryness for the rest of the week is not favorable for reducing the drought.

In the Western U.S., showers moved across northern areas, particularly in the mountains over the weekend. That will help the snowpack in some areas, but dryness and drought are growing in the region this week with very limited precipitation only for northern areas. Southern areas are going to see extreme heat this week, setting records. Doing so will start to melt off the wintertime snowpack very early. While that will improve stream flows in the short term, it could produce significant impacts during summer.

John Baranick can be reached at john.baranick@dtn.com