Across the Corn Belt, sub-zero cold has returned to the upper Midwest, accompanied by gusty winds and dangerously low wind chill temperatures. Monday morning’s temperatures fell below -20° in parts of Minnesota and the eastern Dakotas, maintaining stress on winter-weary livestock.
On the Plains, sub-zero temperatures have returned to the Dakotas, eastern Montana, and parts of Nebraska. The Plains’ winter wheat is largely devoid of snow cover, leaving the crop exposed to the latest cold wave. Cold air is just starting to arrive across the southern Plains, accompanied by gusty northerly winds.
In the South, isolated rain showers dot the central and eastern Gulf Coast States in advance of a strong cold front. Meanwhile, sharply cold weather prevails across the Mid-South in the front’s wake.
In the West, unfavorable dryness persists, although a cold front is approaching the Pacific Northwest. In addition to the dry conditions, unusual warmth prevails in California, Arizona, and the Great Basin.
For the remainder of Monday, an Arctic cold front will cross the South and East. In the front’s wake, a major winter weather event will unfold tomorrow and Wednesday across the Deep South, featuring snow, sleet, and freezing rain from southeastern Texas to the southern Mid-Atlantic coastal plain. Snow can be expected as far south as the central Gulf Coast region, including northwestern Florida. Farther north, bitterly cold conditions will be short-lived on the central High Plains, where warmer-than-normal weather will return by Wednesday. Cold weather will persist, however, across the upper Midwest, with a reinforcing surge of frigid air arriving on Thursday. Elsewhere, beneficial precipitation will overspread the northern half of the West, but unfavorable dryness will persist from southern California to the southern Plains.
Looking ahead, the 6- to 10-day outlook calls for below-normal temperatures across most of the northern half of the U.S., while warmer-than-normal weather will prevail from Arizona into the Southeast. Meanwhile, above-normal precipitation across the majority of the U.S. will contrast with drier-than-normal conditions in the Pacific Northwest, far upper Midwest, and from California into the Desert Southwest.
Source - http://www.news-gazette.com/
