Remnants of one storm, and another on the horizon

Punxatawney Phil saw his shadow during the Groundhog Day festivities in Pennsylvania yesterday (groundhog.org), indicating that there would be six more weeks of winter. Given the current forecast, I'm not one to argue much with him, at least for the first week of that six week period! We've left behind a month with two winter storms and threats of others that did not materialize (see the satellite image above taken mid-day today showing the snow cover that is still remnants of last Friday's storm and notice how well it lines up with the snow map in my previous post).

As to the forecast, we'll have two systems affect the Mid-South in the next six days that are definitely winter-time storms, with the second one having the early makings of another snow event. The first comes tomorrow and Friday as mainly rain in the metro area. Low pressure will move by to our south, similar to last week's storm, only this time the colder air will be displaced farther north. Some areas of northeast AR and northwest TN that got a dumping of snow last Friday could get a little more with this system. As for the metro area, I expect rain Thursday and Thursday night, a break Friday morning, then showers possible again Friday afternoon and evening with a possible mix of light snow Friday night. No accumulations are expected. The weekend will see more clouds than sun and cool temperatures.

Another system will take a similar track through the Lower MS Valley early next week. This one also appears to have plenty of moisture and dynamics associated with it. The mid-range models are still having some difficulties with the eventual evolution, strength, and degree of cold air associated with this one, but it definitely has a shot at bringing at least part of the area our next good chance for winter precipitation. We'll continue to monitor. In the meantime, be thankful for some rain on Thursday and Friday to finish the snow melting job and wash the roads and our cars of all the sand/salt/ash from last week's storm!

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