Epic disappointment
I was hoping that Winter Storm "Hendrix" would at least have the decency to bring something to Cape Girardeau this evening, even a dusting of snow, but that isn't going to happen. The back edge of the precipitation -- all liquid rain -- is already arriving.
For such an "epic" and "historic" storm, it really didn't bring that much precipitation here of any kind. The Cape airport reports roughly three-quarters of an inch of rain, well below the projections of most of the computer models. As a result, we're still well below average for precipitation in 2011.
St. Louis, which appeared to be in the bullseye of the heavy snow and freezing rain, seems to be escaping with mostly heavy sleet. Everybody hoping for a big snowfall in St. Louis is going to be disappointed.
"Hendrix" is dropping massive snowfalls for central and southwest Missouri, as predicted. MoDOT has closed a long stretch of Interstate 70 because of whiteout conditions.
As I write this, the largest snowfall report I've seen is 16 inches in Polk County, Missouri, with more on the way.
Meanwhile, back in Southeast Missouri, a Wind Advisory is in effect through tomorrow afternoon for gusty winds up to 35 mph. It's going to be cold tomorrow night (low 9°F), but it would be much worse if we had snow on the ground. The weather for the weekend (partly sunny and upper 30s/lower 40s) looks pretty decent for this time of year.
Our next potential system, Winter Storm "Iron Maiden", is poised to deliver a chance of snow Monday and Tuesday. This doesn't look like that big of a deal, especially given our track record this season. On the other hand, past experience suggests that the storms that aren't hyped are the ones we should worry about.
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