Weather

“Rare” winter storminess winds its way across much of the eastern through southern Corn Belt

Across the Corn Belt, a band of wet snow stretching from Missouri to Ohio and southern Michigan is causing local travel disruptions.  From the Ohio River southward, rain is falling.  Meanwhile, mostly dry but windy weather covers the upper Midwest.  Wednesday morning’s low temperatures fell to near 0°F in the Red River Valley of the North.

On the Plains, cool, breezy, mostly dry weather prevails.  Across portions of the southern Plains, winter grains are benefiting from a fresh blanket of snow; Lubbock, Texas, received 7.2 inches on January 24, while totals reached 2.8 inches in Amarillo, Texas, and 2.1 inches in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.   Elsewhere, recent wind events have eroded or eliminated winter wheat’s protective snow across the northern High Plains, including much of Montana.

In the South, the threat of severe thunderstorms continues to shift eastward toward the southern Atlantic Coast.  Tuesday’s severe-weather outbreak featured several tornadoes in southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana.  Elsewhere, snow is blanketing the Ozark Plateau, while rain showers are spreading from the Tennessee Valley into the southern Appalachians and Atlantic Coast States.

In the West, cold, mostly dry weather remains in place.  Repair and recovery efforts continue in California’s hardest-hit areas, which endured flooding and debris flows during a 3-week storm rampage from late December to mid-January.  Elsewhere, current weather concerns include air stagnation in parts of the Northwest and windy conditions in southern California.