Another October snowstorm is battering Colorado and bearing down on northwest Kansas.
The National Weather Service in Goodland has issued a winter weather advisory until 7 a.m. Friday for portions of Kansas, Colorado and Nebraska.
Snow and blowing snow is expected, with snowfall amounts ranging from 2 to 4 inches. North winds of 20 to 30 miles an hour will cause blowing and drifting snow, with reduced visibilities.
Kansas counties included in the advisory are Cheyenne, Sherman and Rawlins. Among the cities included are Goodland, Atwood and St. Francis.
The storm system had dumped nearly 44 inches of snow in the foothills of the Rockies northwest of Denver, from 15 to 25 inches on the urban corridor along the front range and 8 to 15 inches in eastern Colorado.
I-70 is currently closed between Burlington and Denver.
The winter storm that brought snow to northwest Kansas earlier this week didn’t pack quite as much punch as forecasters feared.
More than 5 inches of snow fell northwest of Atwood, and 4 fell near St. Francis. Only the far corner of the state accumulated snow from the storm, but there are whispers of more snow coming to Kansas late next week.
Stay tuned.
Snow is already falling in Goodland this morning, and as much as 9 inches of snow is forecast in parts of western Kansas as a strong winter storm strikes the High Plains.
A winter storm watch has been issued for eight counties in northwest Kansas from 4 p.m. today until 6 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time Thursday. Among the cities affected by the watch are Colby, Goodland, Oakley, Oberlin and St. Francis.
Much of the northwest corner of the state can expect at least 3 inches of snow from this storm, forecasters say. North winds of 15 to 25 miles an hour, with gusts still higher, may significantly reduce visibility.
Believe it or not, Wichita averages a tenth-of-an-inch of snow in October each year. Of course, that probably means it snowed a few inches one year and then nothing happened for several years after that.
But even if it snowed this week in Wichita, that wouldn’t come near the record for earliest measurable snowfall in the city. That distinction goes to Sept. 26, 1942, when a trace fell.
Leave it to Wichita to laugh at the concept of “average.” Two years after setting a record for earliest snowfall, the city set a new record for latest freeze: late November.
After seeing what the Farmers Almanac projected for winter, I thought I’d see whether AccuWeather agrees with the predictions for a cold, nasty winter for Kansas and the Midwest.
The answer is “no.”
In fact, AccuWeather predicts that the Eastern Seaboard will be hit particularly hard this winter – a distinct contrast from the Farmers Almanac’s projection that a “cold sandwich” will dominate the season, with the coasts being spared the harsher conditions between the Rockies and the Appalachians.
Interesting. We’ll find out who’s right soon enough….
That’s what the Farmers’ Almanac is predicting for Kansas and most of the Heartland.
The venerable publication’s 2010 edition, which went on sale Tuesday, predicts numbing cold for the country’s midsection, from the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians. Here’s a map of the winter forecast, which I pulled from the Farmer’s Almanac Web site.
“We feel the middle part of the country’s really going to be cold — very, very cold, very, very frigid, with a lot of snow,” Managing Editor Sandi Duncan told the Associated Press. “On the East and West coasts, it’s going to be a little milder. Not to say it’s going to be a mild short winter, but it’ll be milder compared to the middle of the country.”
The almanac, which has been published since 1818, issues annual forecasts using a formula based on sunspots, planetary positions and the effects of the moon.
This winter will be cool and snowy in the Northeast, bitterly cold and dry in the Great Lakes states, and cold and snowy across the North Central states. The almanac predicts the Northwest will be cool with average precipitation, the Southwest will be mild and dry, the South Central states will be cold and wet, and the Southeast will be mild and dry.
How have past predictions by the almanac borne out? Judge for yourself.
Mike Phelps, a veteran storm chaser who has been filming episodes of a new series called “Drivers Who Dare” with Wichita weather photographer and storm chaser Jim Reed, is live-streaming his chase today – and his target is 30 miles west-southwest of Wichita.
Reed had to have the transmission on his Ford Explorer replaced after he got stuck in the mud in Pawnee County, Neb., and is scrambling south toward Wichita early this afternoon.
Photographer Robin Lorenson sent me a photo of the heavy snow that fell in Mulvane on Saturday. The 6.8 inches of snow and ice pellets recorded by the Wichita office of the National Weather Service more than doubled the snowfall total for the season.
More wintry images can be found at Robin’s Web site, www.robinlorensonphoto.com
And that’s no April Fool’s Joke.
The National Weather Service is expecting as much as 5 inches of snow in portions of western Kansas – from Lakin northwest past Hays – and 2 to 4 inches are being forecast from the southwest corner up through Larned.
Measurable snow is forecast as far east as Medicine Lodge, Pratt and the Reno/Stafford County line. Flurries could visit the Wichita area Thursday morning, though no accumulation is expected.
The Dodge City branch of the National Weather Service has put together a list and map of snowfall totals from the major snow storm that struck late last week.
While longtime residents of the region are saying it’s the worst snow storm in recent memory, weather service officials say what happened last week is hardly unusual. Blizzards in southwest Kansas actually happen most often in March – even late March.