A major winter storm is underway today from the Southern Plains to the Ohio Valley. Winter storm warnings were issued from Kansas and Oklahoma to New Jersey, and wind chill warnings were issued across the Northern Plains as another arctic air mass comes in:
The arctic air undercut warm, moist air in the Southern Plains today, resulting in temperature inversions over 20C in the 900-800 mb layer as seen in the Norman, Oklahoma sounding this morning:
This strong temperature inversion has allowed heavy freezing rain to fall in very cold temperatures. For example, Mountain Home, AR is now (9 PM CST) reporting freezing rain with a temperature of 14.
This same storm hit California (now suffering an exceptional drought) with 4 feet of high elevation snow (Volcanic Knob), 12.44" of rain at Greenfield, 4.09" of rain at Los Angeles - USC, a 91 mph wind gust at Mount Wilson, and a 102 mph wind gust at Big Bear Lake.
This has been an extremely cold winter with repeated arctic outbreaks for the eastern two-thirds of the US. Temperatures have been as much as 9 degrees below normal in the Upper Mississippi Valley during meteorological winter (Dec thru Feb), and 12 degrees below normal for February:
Chicago has had the
third coldest and third snowiest meteorological winter on record. The Great Lakes are now almost completely ice covered:
