‘Impossible travel conditions’ as spring storm delivers historic snow and severe storms

‘Impossible travel conditions’ as spring storm delivers historic snow and severe storms

by

This storm system begins with its first threat over the Rockies, as intense avalanches will pour foot powder over Colorado and Wyoming.

Dangerous travel conditions will exist over parts of the 25, 70 and 80 motorways – so drivers are urged to be extremely careful.

“Very difficult to impossible travel conditions are expected throughout southeastern Wyoming and the Nebraska backcountry,” the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Cheyenne, Wyoming, said Thursday. “Expect long periods of eclipse conditions, low visibility and possible power outages.”

This slow-moving system could deliver the largest snowfall in decades in the Eastern Rockies and Western Plains.

But that’s just one side of the system. The south and east sides of the system – which will draw in warm, humid air from the Gulf of Mexico – will inflate a few days of severe storms, with the possibility of tornadoes.

Nearly 20 million people will be threatened by severe storms in a half-dozen states at some point Friday to Sunday with damaging winds, heavy hail and tornadoes.

In addition, the cold front will eventually stagnate over the southern plains, which will lead to heavy rain over many of the same region over the next few days, leading to flooding.

Here’s what to expect and when.

Friday

Friday morning the snow starts to pick up. During the day, snowfalls will occur frequently in Colorado and Wyoming, and travel conditions will continue to deteriorate.

While there are still uncertainties, the general message from the NWS office in Boulder, Colorado, is for a large amount of snow for a large portion of their forecast area.

Colorado is not the only state that expects intense snowfall hopes. East Wyoming, western Nebraska and even parts of South Dakota are likely to see snow over a foot this past weekend.

A serious threat is also expected to develop in parts of western Texas and western Oklahoma on Friday.

“A group of strong to severe storms with built-in supercells are predicted to move northeast from the Lubbock area in the southeast Texas Panhandle during the early to midnight hours,” the Storm Prediction Center said. “In addition to large hail, wind damage will also be a possibility with the stronger cells within this group.
This is why the US has more tornadoes than any other country

The severe and snowy sides of this system will intensify further over the weekend.

Saturday

By Saturday, it will snow intensely along the Front Range of the Rockies and move to the western plains.

This area is no stranger to March’s snowfall. In fact, March is the snowiest month of the year in parts of Colorado and Wyoming. In Denver, each of their top 10 snowstorms is more than a foot of snow. This year can be added to the list as historical totals are not out of the question.

“The snowfall numbers currently being predicted are absolutely historic,” the NWS office in Cheyenne said.

Traveling will also be very difficult on Saturday. Burnout conditions will lead to very low visibility and cause poor driving conditions. People are asked to stay home if they can.

“Snowfalls of nearly 3 inches per hour on the foothills in the predicted Saturday night, meaning travel would be impossible,” the NWS said in Boulder. “Boulder and Fort Collins can see avalanches of about 2 inches per hour.”

The serious storm threat is also starting to increase today. The areas with the greatest threat to severe weather Saturday will be Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Abilene, Texas and Wichita, Kansas.

Know the difference between a tornado clock, a tornado warning and a tornado emergency

The threats remain the same as Friday – winds, heavy hail and isolated tornadoes damaged. The difference is the location and intensity of the storms. The system is moving – slowly – to the east.

The timeline for the best serious chances looks like the afternoon and early evening. Although some of the severe storm threats subside overnight, they will not completely diminish. Power outages are possible.

There is still some uncertainty as to whether all the necessary ingredients will be present for strong weather, especially in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas on Saturday and Sunday.

Sunday

By Sunday, the storm system is basically quieting in southeastern Colorado and western Kansas. This will weaken the impact of the system on snowfall, which is expected to start to decrease significantly during the day. However, drivers are still urged to be careful as the roads are still expected to be very dangerous.

Although the snow may start to subside, the serious threat is definitely not – it just changes location.

On Sunday, severe storms hit eastern Arkansas, Missouri and Louisiana.

One thing that can limit the serious potential is cloud cover. However, any solar flares can allow an increase in instability.

See if your environment can see heavy weather.

The other growing concern for Sunday is the threat of flooding, especially in parts of Missouri, Kansas and Illinois – where flood guards already exist.

Other states – such as Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Indiana – can also be flooded, especially if storms start to strike over the same places.

The total rainfall is expected to be within the 2-4 inch range through Sunday, but some insulated patches could exceed the total of 6 centimeters.

.Source