WINTER KICKS SOME BOOTY....

The last 7 days have been a beauty for fans of winter with plenty of cold and an abundance of snow. Probably the best week for that combination since 2014. 7 day precipitation (largely snow) amounted to this. Water equivalent greater than an inch in spots.

At my place 3 systems Monday, Thursday, and Friday night deposited 9 inches of snow. Some spots had 14 to 15 inches around Sigourney, Iowa. Here's the snow depths reported Saturday morning. More is expected in parts of this area again Saturday night/Sunday morning.

These are the advisories in effect as of Saturday night.

The GFS had this for a snowfall forecast Saturday evening. Use with caution...the GFS has not been fairing well lately.

Here's the 500mb jet stream pattern that's caused all the active weather the past week. A ridge in the east and a trough in the west. There's a fight going on in the central Midwest where the warmth and cold converge. That's where the action's been concentrated. You can see the temperature departures of the past week below.

The 500mb pattern that's driving the overall temperature pattern and resulting storminess.

Going forward the pattern looks to undergo de-amplification after the weekend allowing several days of warmer and drier weather. Temperatures could even go above freezing by midweek by a few degrees. However, the deep snow cover will keep the majority of the warming aloft. The resulting inversion is likely to eventually create low clouds and fog further hindering a really big warm-up despite temperatures at 5,000 feet way above freezing. Any way you slice it, the coming week looks far more tolerable with a more moderate brand of cold and little additional snowfall. We'll see if the pattern comes back in future posts. There are signs the next month will continue to have plenty of wintry potential. Roll weather...TS