A highly impactful winter storm is looking increasingly likely for the Weather First area Sunday afternoon through Sunday night, leading to heavily disruptive and potentially hazardous travel conditions. Due to Sunday being a high travel volume day due to Christmas, and the hazardous travel conditions possible, Sunday is an ALERT DAY.
A *Winter Storm Watch* is in effect for ALL of the Weather First area from Sunday morning (6:00 – 9:00 AM until Monday morning (6:00 AM for I-35 corridor) or early Monday afternoon (12:00 PM east of I-35 corridor).
An area of upper-level low pressure will advance southeast, and arrive into the Midwest on Sunday. A surface low pressure will also develop ahead of this trough and track roughly from Eastern Kansas, into Northern Missouri and Central Illinois. This will put our area on the colder side of the system, however temperatures initially may still be above freezing (32F°) on Sunday morning, which would result in rain.
Rain will not last long as cold air will come rushing in, resulting in plummeting temperatures into the 20F’s by Sunday afternoon, and any rain changing to snow which will last through through the evening and well into the overnight hours. It’s possible it may linger into Monday morning depending on the surface low’s track, and how much moisture is left. These rapidly dropping temperatures are likely to lead to a flash freeze across the area mid-day Sunday, and ice accumulation on roads will be possible as well…