National Weather at 150pm January 3 2005

[Jeb]

Plenty of wintry weather tomorrow

1:51 P.M. ET 1/3/2005

 

Senior Meteorologist, The Weather Channel

 

 

Midwest

Very cold air plunging southward into the Plains and Midwest will collide with moisture streaming northward from the Gulf of Mexico tomorrow. The result will be another round of dangerous icing in much of Kansas and northern Missouri, including the Kansas City area. Icy conditions may eventually spread into west-central Illinois, too. Farther north, sleet and snow will pile up in Nebraska and southern South Dakota while lighter amounts edge into southern Iowa. Meanwhile, heavy downpours may trigger localized flooding from central and southern Missouri into southern Illinois and western Kentucky. High temperatures will show a remarkable range: from below zero in northeastern Montana, northern North Dakota and northwest Minnesota to near 60 in far southern Missouri and southern Kentucky.

 

West

Snow and snow showers will be widespread over the Interior West tomorrow, extending from the Great Basin to the Rocky Mountains, as a large, cold storm aloft spins into the region. The heaviest snowfall will coat the higher elevations, but significant amounts are also likely along the east slopes of the Rockies and adjacent plains of Wyoming and Colorado as an arctic air mass slides southward from Montana. Up to 9 or 10 inches of snow are possible on the plains; Denver is expected to see 2 to 4 inches. Farther west, the rain in Southern California will be lighter and more scattered tomorrow, but it won’t be completely over. Meanwhile, the heaviest downpours are expected to drench the lower elevations of Arizona. Showers will dampen New Mexico, too. In contrast, Washington, Oregon, northern California, the northern two-thirds of Idaho and most of Montana should be largely dry. High temperatures will be near to below seasonal means in the region with Montana being the coldest: 20 to 25 degrees below early January averages.

 

South

The Southeast will remain unseasonably warm and dry tomorrow, while farther west, cloudbursts and thunderstorms will spread themselves from northern Texas and Oklahoma eastward across Arkansas (mainly northern Arkansas) and Tennessee. Oklahoma, host to a stalled front, will see the heaviest downpours, locally 2 or 3 inches, as Gulf of Mexico moisture rides northward over the front. Temperatures will continue to be unseasonably mild in the region with highs generally in the 60s and 70s (the low 80s in far south Texas).

 

Northeast

Only widely scattered, very light precipitation—if any at all—will bother the Northeast tomorrow with cloudiness being the dominant weather feature thanks to a front stalled near the Mason-Dixon Line. The most likely location to see a few showers will be West Virginia. Temperatures, meanwhile, will span a broad spectrum, with highs ranging from near 20 in northern Maine to the low 70s in south-central Virginia.