Sunday, December 09, 2007

Central States Weather: Up Next- Ice Storm Of The Century

Bear in mind- this century is only 7 years old- and yes Virginia- there's the 2002 ice storm here in the Metro that caused many millions of dollars in damages and lost productivity.

This Sunday evening however- a major ice storm continues generally along and parallel to I-44 from southwestern into central and eastern Missouri.

More precipitation continues to move northeastward out of Oklahoma (see radar image) into these same areas that were hit hard earlier today.
Yet the BIG story in this ice weather is yet to come- later Monday into Tuesday. See the next image- this is a map of cumulative precipitation through this coming Saturday.

Notice virtually the entire MetroRegion is in the 2-inch precip area- with a band of 3-inch amounts to our southwest in east central Kansas.

Folks- we're in trouble if this forecast pans out- and models have been pretty steady on this over the last few model runs.

Temperatures struggle to move the past 18 hours now- staying around 20 degrees. With the ice & snow cover- morning temperatures could plummet to the single digits if skies even become partly cloudy overnight.

Cloud cover will move in Monday in advance of The Main Show- limiting any solar heating- as low as the sun angle is right before Winter Solstice (Dec. 22).

Temperatures will be below freezing when the precipitation begins- at this time forecasted to start Monday evening- and now appear to remain below freezing during the duration of the precipitation.

The only saving grace would be if at least some of the precip would fall as sleet- limiting ice accumulations on trees & power lines. But upper air profiles continue to show a classic freezing rain setup.

If these forecasted temperature profiles and precip amounts continue to verify- much of the Kansas City MetroRegion could experience a devastating ice storm.

More as I get it- good luck folks....

_______________

No comments:

Tornado Strikes Monroe LA With Confirmed Injuries

The tornado struck around noon on Easter Sunday. There is considerable damage repo rted in that northeastern Louisiana city of around 5000...