Snow: More Waiting and Seeing

This is not a weather blog, but the weather is one of the big topics of the day. If you harbor any latent weather geekiness, this will bring it out. So, here we go. This is the most recent regional radar loop. Note KC in a dry slot. The snow is streaming up from the south with the line pretty stationary or moving just a smige west. Temperatures are sitting right around the freezing mark. Here in the south part of town it has been drizzling and the wind has picked up to about 10 mph.

Oklahoma City is just getting hammered. Snow, at one time at the rate of five inches an hour, winds 30 mph with gusts, and limited visibility making travel around Oklahoma City very tough. I-40 is closed at last report. Note the white and pink radar returns--very heavy snow. Some believe this may head our way eventually with the majority of snow falling late evening and overnight. This type of snow storm is quite common in places like the Dakotas, but the wind and snow combo with cold temps is relatively rare down here, and quite uncommon in Oklahoma City. Lots of watchful waiting around here!

This temperature gradient map, for temps taken at 1400 our time (2 p.m.) shows the marked range of temps that is part of this weather pattern. Winds are howling west of the Kansas-Missouri state line extended. This almost looks like a temp pattern from spring or fall, when nasty thunderstorms are generated. Moisture is coming straight out of the Gulf of Mexico and headed right along the temperature front. There's a cold front just west of the state line, moving this way, and this is both a possible path and a storm trigger.

With this weather set up, it's not a question of if someone's going to get a meterological smack in the mouth, it's a question of who gets smacked and how hard the smack is.