Winter Starting Up With More Snow, Areas of Rain This Week

In the Midwest, scattered showers moved through late last week, mostly across the south. That improved soil moisture some. A system will move through Monday and Tuesday with scattered rain as well. That will be quickly followed by a clipper system for Tuesday and Wednesday, bringing some heavy snow across the north and producing strong winds that could lead to blizzard conditions and huge amounts of lake-effect snow for Wednesday and Thanksgiving. Another strong storm is forecast for Friday through the weekend, which has the ingredients to produce widespread impacts including heavy rain and thunderstorms across the south and heavy snow across the north.

In the Northern Plains, it was dry over the weekend, but a system is moving into Montana on Monday and will continue eastward through Tuesday. Acting like a clipper, it will produce a band of moderate to heavy snow across the northern half of the region. Strong winds may produce blizzard conditions for a time as well. Another system is forecast to move through on Friday and Saturday. More heavy snow will be possible across the region.

In the Central and Southern Plains, a system left on Friday after producing some areas of heavy rain. Another system moved in on Sunday with more. Heavy rain and flooding across Texas and southeast Oklahoma have been the result, which continues on Monday. That may help with the ongoing drought in some areas. After a few dry days, another system should develop on Friday and Saturday with more widespread precipitation. That may include some heavy rain and thunderstorms again across the south and snow across the north. Additional systems may move through early next week as well.

In the Delta, scattered showers moved through late last week and another system is moving through on Monday and Tuesday with scattered showers as well. That should help to improve soil moisture and boost water levels on the Mississippi River for transportation. Another big system is forecast for the weekend that may produce more widespread heavy precipitation, likely all as rain.

In the Southeast, scattered showers moved through late last week. Amounts were spotty, improving soil moisture in some areas while leaving others dry. A system will move through on Tuesday and Wednesday with more scattered showers and likely some more winners and losers. We are likely to see another system this weekend do the same. While some areas will see improvements to the ongoing drought, others will not be as lucky.

In the Western U.S., a system continued showers across the south over the weekend, which produced some heavy amounts in southern California and Arizona. A system also went across the north with showers on Sunday that continues on Monday. Yet another system will do something similar on Tuesday with yet another later this week. The late-week system may spread more widespread precipitation throughout the region over the weekend that could help to reduce drought that is still widespread.

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