Winter Storm Outlook This Weekend

[CaptinCrunch]

Winter Storm Outlook
Noon EST, January 29, 2004

Lake effect snow and a Pacific storm
traversing the country will be the main
winter weather factors through the
weekend.

It has been a blockbuster winter for many
locations in the lake effect snowbelts
south and east of the Great Lakes and the
upcoming few days will only add to the
powder in place. The focus will be east of
Lakes Erie and Ontario where snow
squalls will persist into early Saturday leaving well over a foot in some areas.

Further west across Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, drier air associated with
arctic high pressure will keep lake effect snows much lighter. Meanwhile a
weak upper level disturbance will spread a small area of light snow from parts
of the Ohio Valley toward the central Appalachians Thursday into Thursday
night.

The other major focus will be on a storm approaching the Pacific northwest
early Thursday. This storm has copious moisture, which will be deposited in the
form of heavy mountain snows over the Cascades and Bitterroots on Thursday.
Snow levels will drop over the northwest by Friday as moisture also spreads
into the northern and central Rockies.

Over the weekend the storm is expected to slow down and dive southeast
across the southern Plains and lower Mississippi Valley as it runs into a brick
wall - a blocking high pressure across the Great Lakes and central Canada.

Lighter snows are likely to spread into the Plains and western Great Lakes over
the weekend but there is the potential for more significant wintry precipitation
further south where low-level cold air could remain stubborn. This includes
areas from Texas and Oklahoma panhandles into the central Plains and parts
of the mid Mississippi and Ohio Valleys.
Low-level cold air entrenched east of the Appalachians across the southeast
will also have to be watched as moisture from a system in the Gulf advances
north over the weekend. Freezing rain is a possibility.

Another storm is expected to hit the west coast over the weekend and is likely
to take a more southerly course. This could spread snows toward the Sierra
Nevada and Wasatch Mountains by Sunday.