"Epic" winter storm, but not here
While a White Christmas would be nice, it's probably better that this next system is going to bring all rain here. Portions of Iowa and Minnesota could see 15-20 inches of snow, followed by strong winds producing blizzard conditions. The Sioux Falls, South Dakota, forecast office says that "an epic winter weather event is looking more and more probable."
The discussion from Springfield, Missouri, is ominous as well. Southwest Missouri could see severe thunderstorms (with large hail), flash flooding, heavy snow, and blizzard conditions, all in the next two days.
St. Louis could get hit, too. Some of the computer models are suggesting that the storm could track more east and south, delivering heavy rain followed by accumulating snow (and high winds) to St. Louis and points north and west.
Meanwhile, for us, all mentions of snow or flurries have been removed from the forecast. The incoming storm system keeps getting stronger than expected, and we could easily see 3-4 inches of rain tonight and tomorrow.
The wet ground combined with 45 mph wind gusts could lead to uprooted trees, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a Wind Advisory for Thursday.
For weather geeks, this is shaping up to be a fascinating storm. The track of the main center of low pressure, which usually moves west to east, is instead projected to move due north out of Arkansas before making a slight northwest jog into Iowa.
The Kansas City discussion mentions that conditions could come together in western Missouri to produce "mesoscale banding enhancement" -- in other words, thundersnow. Fun, fun!
I hesitate to even mention this, but there is a tiny, tiny, vanishingly small chance that we could see a repeat of the Blizzard of '79, where torrential rainfall turned to heavy snow after a surge of cold air arrived seemingly out of nowhere. If this storm were to track well to the south and east (instead of turning north), then things could get ugly in a hurry. It would be epic indeed, but I'm not too worried.
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