REGIONAL FORECAST
Easter Weekend Cold to Plunge Through Rockies, Plains, Upper Midwest, Wringing Out Snow for Some
10:00pm / April 11,2020
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At a Glance* A strong cold front will dive southward through the Rockies and Plains this weekend.
* Snow will slide down the Rockies and High Plains from Montana to Colorado.
* A storm system will intensify by Easter Sunday, intercepting the cold air.
* This should produce accumulating snow in parts of the Plains and upper Midwest Sunday into Monday.
* This cold air may hang stubbornly in place for over a week for some.
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A potent blast of cold air will plunge into the United States Easter weekend, accompanied by spring snow in parts of the Rockies, Plains and upper Midwest.
A strong cold front diving southward out of Canada had made it to Wyoming and Nebraska on Saturday afternoon and will continue plunging through the Plains over the weekend.
While this is happening, low pressure is forecast to intensify in the nation's midsection by Easter Sunday, and then accelerate into the Great Lakes and southern Canada by Monday. This low will wrap moisture into the cold air and help pull this cold front through most of the rest of the South and East early next week.
This low pressure system is named Winter Storm Ruth. The extent of the expected snowfall met both population and area criteria used by The Weather Channel for naming winter storms.
Snow ForecastSnow will continue to fall in much of Montana Saturday and will spread into parts of Wyoming and the Dakotas through Saturday afternoon.
About 5 inches of snow has been measured near Helena, Montana, with around 8 inches reported in Avon, Montana, as of Saturday morning.
The National Weather Service has Issued
Winter Storm Warnings and Winter Weather Advisories along a broad arc extending from
Parts of Montana into Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota, Nebraska, Northwestern Iowa, Southern Minnesota, Northern Wisconsin and Northwest Michigan. Moderate to heavy snow is possible this weekend across these areas.
The most hazardous conditions are expected in areas where a winter storm warning has been issued.
Snow will spread into Nebraska and Colorado Saturday night, with some light snow possible farther east into parts of southern Minnesota, northwestern Iowa and northwestern Kansas.
Snow should taper off in the Rockies by later Sunday, but will pick up in parts of the upper Midwest, likely continuing into Monday in portions of the Great Lakes.
The heaviest snow accumulations are expected in the Rockies and close to Lake Superior. Some spots in northern Wisconsin or the Upper Peninsula of Michigan could see a foot of snow. More than 6 inches of snow may pile up in parts of southeastern Minnesota, northern Iowa, northern Nebraska and southern South Dakota.
Most other areas should see lighter snowfall amounts, including the lower elevations of the Denver metro area and possibly the Twin Cities.
Some snow may also develop from northern New Mexico and Colorado into the Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma and southwestern Kansas Monday into Tuesday.
Cold ForecastHow Cold is this Weekend Plunge?
Forecast high and low temperatures are expected to be 15 to 30 degrees colder than average for mid-April.
By Easter Sunday, this means daytime high temperatures may not get out of the 20s or lower 30s in the northern Rockies and Northern Plains, including Denver. By Monday, highs should be stuck in the 30s and 40s in the upper Midwest, with 40s as far south as the Texas Panhandle.
Lows Sunday and Monday mornings may be in the single digits and teens in the Rockies and High Plains. By Tuesday morning, lows in the 20s and 30s will spread into Oklahoma and northwestern Texas.Daily record cold temperatures are possible for both highs and lows. On Sunday, daily record lows are possible in Montana, including Great Falls and Missoula and daily record cold highs may be broken from Billings, Montana to Denver and eastward into Rapid City, South Dakota, and Grand Island, Nebraska.
Breezy conditions will also add to the chill in the air in the Rockies and Plains this weekend.
It may take until Wednesday or Thursday for some colder air to reach the East and Southeast.
And this cold isn't going anywhere for awhile.
Due to a northward bulge of the jet stream into Alaska, this colder-than-average regime appears likely to lock in place in the Rockies, Plains and Midwest through much of next week.
Some long-range outlooks from NOAA and The Weather Company, an IBM Business, suggest this chillier air may linger in at least some of these areas into the following week as well.
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The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news,
the environment and the importance of science to our lives.
This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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