Blizzard Brewing from Kansas to Nebraska, Severe Storm Outbreak: Dallas to Hattiesburg

Locally blinding, heavy snow will fall over the passes of the Rockies. Snow broke out over portions of Kansas and as far south as central Oklahoma Wednesday morning. Winds were increasing over western and central Kansas with the snow.

The area of snow will expand Wednesday night reaching from Denver, Colo. to Grand Island, Neb. and Kansas City, Mo.

Snow will continue to expand to the north and east during Thursday reaching Iowa, a large part of South Dakota, part of North Dakota, southern Minnesota, northern Illinois and central and southern Wisconsin.

The strongest winds will be on the front side of the storm and its snow, creating low visibility and extensive drifting. Several hours of blizzard conditions are possible as far north as Omaha

Farther southeast a mixture of rain, ice and snow is forecast Thursday from Arkansas through southeastern Missouri to southern Illinois. Significant icing could potentially take down tree limbs and lead to scattered power outages.

It started snowing here this morning when I was taking my little ones to school and it has really started piling up out there. I am really starting to doubt my decision to take them in today. Some schools are talking about closing early and students who can drive are already leaving. I just wanted to give a heads up to folks who are in the path of this storm.

For our neighbors down south in Texas and La, there is a chance of a tornadic weather outbreak tonight and into tomorrow..

The primary threats from this first round of severe thunderstorms will come in the form of large hail and damaging gusts of wind, which could bring down trees and power poles. Hail could reach the size of quarters or even tennis balls across this region, which is big enough to cause damage to vehicles, windshields and windows. Be sure to heed any watches or warnings that may be issued. Remember: If a warning is issued, this means a dangerous thunderstorm is imminent, and you should take shelter immediately.

As Thursday progresses, the thunderstorms will enter an area of very unstable, warm and moist air across far eastern Texas and Louisiana. Powerful westerly winds behind the thunderstorms will be met with strong southerly winds ahead of them, resulting in a twisting motion of the lower atmosphere.

The second round of thunderstorms will take on rotating supercell characteristics in the late morning into the early evening hours from near Lufkin, Texas eastward to near Hattiesburg, Miss and New Orleans. This is the window of opportunity for the worst of the thunderstorm outbreak to take place.

Blizzard Brewing

Severe Storm Outbreak

Ya'll stay safe out there!

OkieDokie

Thanks for posting this - I just finished breakfast and am getting ready to go 'stock up' - and run errands. Have to bring in some firewood, too....

I meant to check the forecast, and you reminded me I better do it NOW!
Stay safe yourself!

Missouri here, we are expecting ice 1/2 inch or more, and power outages. I have charged all of my gizmos, and have food enough. All of my appliances are on surge protectors, after I lost them all to the ice storm in 2007. The thing I hate the most about ice storms is what it does to the trees. So painful to watch them struggle under the weight and then lose limbs.

reply to post by Iamschist


I remember that ice storm! We were living in central Oklahoma in 07 and got hit with that one hard as well. My son was only a couple months old and our power went out leaving us in the freezing cold till morning(Our car had a good heater though!) Our large tree in the front yard split in two and fell across the main road and it took the fire department 2 hours to get it cleared off. All night we could hear trees cracking and snapping under the weight of all that ice. It was our first wedding anniversary and quite a memorable one!

Right now I would say there is about 5-6 inches of snow here in eastern ok that has fallen in the last couple hours. No sleeting at the moment, but that is supposed to be headed this way as well.

~OkieDokie

reply to post by OkieDokie


Oh my, that is some snow for your neck of the woods. Yeah that ice storm was like being in hell. I was out of my house for 10 days because of no heat. I lost 5 trees and my yard took weeks to clean up, looked like a bomb had gone off. The storm lasted 3 days here, tree limbs so heavy they shook the house when they hit the ground, fell. It was not safe to go outside for fear you be impaled or get a head injury.

Hunker down, I hope you keep your power and stay safe. It should all be gone by Friday with warmer temperatures forecast.

Lincoln Nebraska here. They began discussing school closings on Monday so obviously they are expecting something big. There is talk of a foot or more already and it hasn't even begun snowing yet. If it gets impressive I will take some pics.

Stay safe guys!
I am far enough up in Mid North Dakota that we probably won't get much more then snow flurries. But both east and west have been hit pretty hard this year. This new weather alert system hasn't been working well out here. With storms being named and new action words being used, people seem to be not listening to well or not taking the storms as seriously as maybe they should be. I've noticed that the interstates (29 and 94) are shut down quickly.

S

reply to post by Agarta


Please do post pics! I always love seeing the beautiful snow covered landscapes! We don't usually get much out this way which doesn't bother me a bit, as driving in the stuff freaks me out, but it is quite beautiful to look at.

Our internet has been down since my last post. Just came back up, so if I am not posting on here, that is why, but I did want to check in real quick in case it goes down again.

The school bus pulled up and dropped the kiddos off about an hour ago. I guess they decided to go ahead and close down school and get the kids home before it got any worse. Good to have them home safe!

~OkieDokie

reply to post by starskipper


I didn't realize there was a new alert system. My hubby had commented the other day about them naming storms now, kind of in a joking way. They normally give big snow storms out here dorky names like the Snowpocolypse 2010, or The Big Chill was one a few years ago. It gets ridiculous and you never really know when to take them seriously. It's one of the reasons I just shrugged this one off until it started hitting today.

~OkieDokie

In the KC area here, I'm hoping the power doesn't go out. I brought some firewood in just incase though. Stay safe, everyone!

Well the storm is passed and we only got 4 inches which is really no big deal. The did close the schools yesterday in anticipation and we didn't get but 2 inches throughout the whole school day then we got 2 more last night and they canceled today too. I know they will regret it and realized they could have just cancelled morning classes to give the plows time to clean it up but the kids are enjoying it. Oh well Maybe next year.