Next winter storm already on horizon
If you remember last year, the February ice storm was only one in a series of winter storms. The rest of the storms were relatively minor at Cape Girardeau, but they did bring large snow and ice totals elsewhere. Van Buren had a foot of snow from another system, while a third system brought huge snowfall totals to parts of western Kentucky.
Since Feburary hasn't even arrived yet, it's entirely possible this could happen again. Indeed, another weather-maker, possibly Winter Storm "Grampa", is already poised to enter the area Sunday night. Temperatures should rise above freezing during the day on Sunday, but will probably drop below freezing Sunday night, creating another opportunity for snow/sleet/ice/thundersleet/rain/whatver.
Realistically, "Grampa" doesn't look very impressive, but the latest discussion from the National Weather Service in Paducah does sound the alarm:
MEDIUM RANGE MODELS ARE SUGGESTING THE POTENTIAL OF WINTRY WEATHER DEVELOPING SUNDAY NIGHT INTO MONDAY. THE UPPER PATTERN IS PROGGED TO AMPLIFY AS A POWERFUL JET STREAM STEAKS SOUTHWARD INTO TH CENTRAL U.S. THIS WILL CARVE OUT A DEEPENING TROUGH FROM THE GREAT LAKES INTO THE OHIO RIVER VALLEY EARLY NEXT WEEK. THE RESULTING DEVELOPMENT AND TRACK OF A SURFACE LOW AND REMAINS IN QUESTION. WHILE THERE IS A HIGH DEGREE OF UNCERTAINTY ON PRECIPITATION TYPE AND AMOUNTS...THERE IS THE POTENTIAL FOR WINTRY PRECIPITATION SUNDAY NIGHT INTO MONDAY. GUSTY WINDS AND FALLING TEMPERATURES MAY ALSO ACCOMPANY THIS SYSTEM.
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AND ALL THOSE INVOLVED IN RECOVERY EFFORTS SHOULD CLOSELY MONITOR LATER FORECASTS FROM THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE.
The early projections -- which, as we've seen, perform only slightly better than a wild guess -- suggest that precipitation will be fairly light, in the one-tenth to one-quarter range of liquid equivalent. That could translate to a couple inches of snow accumulation, assuming that it only drops snow and nothing else (yeah right).
So here's the first version of the Dartboard:
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