SEVERE STORMS TO SNOW
Severe thunderstorms swept through the Midwest with a large squall line that stretched for over 500 miles. Wind, hail and tornadoes all reported from Oklahoma to Minnesota!
Minnesota actually did have a tornado in the state, near the city of Orrock. That will now go down in history as the earliest tornado recorded in the state of Minnesota. The earliest prior to that was March 18 (beat by a full two weeks!).
Now where the front has cleared, temperatures have dropped. It was 72° in Sioux Falls Monday afternoon and as of 11pm... it's snowing!
Speaking of snow.... a pattern change is coming, my friends. Winter has not forgotten about us in the Midwest. Both the GFS and European are showing the EPO going negative (which has been the only telecconection working in our favor for cold/snow this winter).
Good news is... they both don't show it negative for long and once the EPO goes positive later in March then it's likely back to Spring. Things do get interesting though in terms of some snow in parts of the Midwest that haven't seen a substantial amount in MONTHS!
The pattern flips on Friday.. temperatures will be below normal (in the 30s) and it will stay cold through this coming weekend. The Midwest will experience an active and colder pattern. Here's the next week on the GFS in the upper levels of the atmosphere:
Being on the edge of the ridge and trough... that will lead to some temperature swings and several storms coming through the Midwest. The first of which arrives this Saturday. The models are disagreeing on the exact track, but here's Saturday afternoon on the European:
Which has most of the snow in Iowa and northern Missouri. And the same time on the GFS:
The GFS has started to trend further south in the last 12 hours, leading to higher snowfall totals in parts of Missouri. Wherever this storm does track, it is evident there will be some decent totals on the board. No doubt things are going to be changing, but winter is coming back.
Couldn't ask for a better week of weather!
RK
