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Intense end of year blizzard targeting Corn Belt

A high impact blizzard is expected to bring white-out snow, intense wind and negative temperatures to the corn belt this week.

“This could be one for the record books considering its scope, intensity and wind profile.”

Brownfield Meteorologist Greg Soulje says snowfall will begin Wednesday into Thursday with anywhere from 2 to 20 inches accumulating by Christmas.  

“We anticipate several inches, maybe some spots pick up as much as half a foot into parts of the northern and eastern plains. The western Corn Belt could be in the 5-10 inch category. There may be some sections of southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois and northwest Indiana that pick up 15-20 inches of moisture coming off Lake Michigan. And there will be lesser snow amounts into southern Indiana, across much of Ohio and southeast in Michigan.”

But Soulje says this type of powdery, low moisture snow will limit visibility regardless of the amount, especially with winds reaching 50-60 miles per hour.

“Winds will not drop down under 40 mph over the northern and eastern Corn Belt locales until sometime on Christmas morning.”

Soulje says the intense wind and bitter cold will create major challenges for livestock producers. Property damage and travel delays are also expected along the storm’s path in the next two or three days.

Matt Makens with CattleFax says livestock producers could be the hardest hit.

“This is a major, major impact. I don’t want to downplay it, but I don’t want to hype it either, but extreme, extreme dangerous cold is coming to almost all of our production areas.”

He tells Brownfield most areas will experience some form of precipitation followed by an extreme drop in temperatures leading to wet cattle. 

“Any cattle producers throughout Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri down into Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, far Northeastern New Mexico – you have the chance of getting rainfall with icing and now you’ve got the wet element.”

And, Makens says, many producers should have extra feed supplies on hand. 

Brownfield’s Kellan Heavican contributed to this story.