It's that time of year, the time when just about everyone wouldn't mind to see the white stuff falling from the sky. Well, Mother Nature may come through with accumulating snows in the days leading up to the holiday. Models have been showing a favorable pattern for days, and are becoming more clear with a couple storm systems ejecting from the Rocky Mountains December 20th-22nd. With a substantial trough in place, the cold air supply with be sufficient to support snow through much of the Midwest.
Our first peice of energy will slide out of Montana December 20th and bring warmer air north towards North Dakota and Minnesota. As this warm air is bought over the top of stubborn cold air at the surface, precipitation will emerge once it reaches saturation. Widespread light snow should develop across much of the northern Plains with a few inches of snow likely across much of the region, and isolated locations of more snow eare possible. The main surface low will weaken and transfer towards eastern Colorado the coming days.
When this energy digs south into the Central Plains by the 21st, a developing surface low pressure system will strengthen as it pushes northeast towards the Upper Great Lakes. As the low deepens, upward motion will be induced on the northwest side of the cyclone, and with cold air in place a large area of snow should develop Dec 21st-22nd. The long duration event and effective dynamics in play, heavy snow is possible somewhere from Iowa to Wisconsin and into Michigan. Being still ~5 days out, some details are uncertain, but looks like a good shot for a solid White Christmas across much of the Midwest. We won't touch on exact amounts quite yet, just being too early at this point, but there is a chance of an area picking up 6"+ as we head into Christmas. Be sure to keep it here to Midwest Weather for details and snow forecasts as we get closer to the event. You can always follow on
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5pm Monday:
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