Strong Clipper Moving Through on Friday

In the Midwest, a little system brought through some light snow on Sunday, which continues on Monday across the Great Lakes. A little system across the south could bring some light snow to southern areas on Tuesday as well. But overall, this week will be quieter until a big clipper moves through the Great Lakes on Friday. It will get some enhancement from the Great Lakes, leading to some heavy lake-enhanced snow in some of the prone areas.

In the Northern Plains, a small system moved through over the weekend with some mixed precipitation including some light snow. Patchy mixed precipitation is forecast for early this week as well, but snow cover and soil moisture are lacking in a lot of areas. The momentum for building drought has started. Very little precipitation this week will only encourage drought development.

In the Central and Southern Plains, it was fairly quiet over the weekend, though some areas in Nebraska saw a little snow. Some spotty showers may work through on Tuesday and Wednesday, but there will not be much precipitation falling this week. Despite a couple of bigger storms lately, soil moisture is not very high in the region and the momentum continues toward drought development.

In the Delta, despite a bigger storm recently, drought continues throughout the region. A system will move through with some scattered showers on Tuesday, but not very much precipitation. Water levels on the Mississippi River are higher than last week, but still fairly low. Melting snow will help that to some degree this week, however.

In the Southeast, a big storm went through over the weekend, resulting in heavy snow in and around the Carolinas. Cold air will cause that to stick around this week. A system will move through on Tuesday and Wednesday with scattered showers, mostly as rain, but drought continues to be a big factor in the region. Even the recent storm will not be able to help much in that regard.

In the Western U.S., some light showers moved through the Pacific Northwest over the weekend, but most areas stayed dry. Though some showers continue there on Monday, most areas will be dry this week. However, a small low-pressure system could bring showers to California on Friday and Saturday, and the weather pattern will get more active next week. Drought has been growing in the region recently, but some bigger storms may move through in February yet.

John Baranick can be reached at john.baranick@dtn.com