The recent storm reports depict nicely the two weather extremes taking place right now across the center of the country. Flooding rains have plagued an already saturated ground from Texas north through Illinois while blizzard conditions were reported in parts of Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas.
A nearly stationary, heavy rain band set up overnight along the Mississippi River Valley and dumped close to 4″ of rain in some areas. High water rescues have been ongoing today in Little Rock, AR in addition to the severe weather that ripped through Arkansas yesterday. Two tornadoes were spotted in Arkansas and three twisters were reported in northwest LA leaving one man dead near Shreveport.
Heavy snow continued this morning in CO, NE and KS with the addition of 30-40 mph winds. Blowing snow reduced visibility down to 1 block in northeastern Colorado this morning…certainly blizzard conditions!
The blizzard has ended in the high plains but now the cold takes hold. Above are the temperatures from this afternoon and temperatures have been in the 30’s in the central and high plains behind the strong storm currently moving through the Upper Midwest. Warm, moist air surging northward ahead of the storm has given way to temperatures in the 60’s and 70’s this afternoon.
This sluggish rainstorm eventually moves into the Northeast tomorrow. The East Coast won’t get the soaking that parts of the south did today, but it could be a wet night for trick-or-treating tomorrow.
The coldest October outbreak to hit Arizona since the 1970’s will start to wane this weekend. Yesterday, Tucson, AZ, only reached a high of 59 degrees which broke the record for the coldest maximum temperature. The cold air gets shoved east as a large high pressure ridge settles into the area. Temperatures will be at or slightly above seasonal average by the end of the weekend for some in the Southwest.
Wet and windy will be the weather story in the Pacific Northwest this weekend. A fast moving jet stream (that thin ribbon a fast flowing air at about 35,000 ft.) will move over the Northern Rockies and produce wind gusts exceeding 50 mph. Already, a 70 mph wind gust was reported near Deep Creek in western Montana. Hurricane force winds are 74 mph!
Moist air embedded within this strong flow will produce showers over the higher terrain. Rain can also be expected for Seattle and Portland as a front approaches tomorrow.
Have a great Halloween everyone,
Kristin Clark
WeatherNation Meteorologist