A taste of winter is likely for late next week
By Meteorologist Jared Shelton
As fall 2024 continues rolling forward across the Northern Hemisphere, parts of the United States have already had a taste of winter.
While the Mid-Missouri River Valley was mostly sunny and mild last week, heavy snow resulted in low visibility and road closures from far western Kansas through much of Colorado. Interstate 70 was shut down for a number of days west of Goodland, Kansas, and a large swath of eastern and central Colorado measured snow in feet. Flakes ceased to fly in the hardest hit areas nearly a week ago, yet a blanket of deep snowpack still remains through the Colorado plains. A testament to the significance of last week’s November blizzard to our west, somewhat overshadowed by the presidential election.
Cold has been hard to come by so far this season in Northwest Missouri and Northeast Kansas. In fact, temperatures have dipped below freezing only once at Rosecrans Memorial Airport here in St. Joseph since fall began, when the first and only killing freeze of this season brought temperatures into the upper 20s for just a few hours in mid-October. Aside from a handful of mornings that managed to cool into the mid 30s, frost has been limited at best since the initial cold spell took place over a month ago.
Conditions will remain mild across the Central Plains this weekend, but a stark change is in the cards for next week, as temperatures are forecast to dive by 15 to 25 degrees. Unlike the fleeting bouts of chilly weather in recent months, the next push of cold air is likely to stick around in some capacity through Thanksgiving. Before all is said and done, a few flakes of snow could also be in the cards for St. Joseph.
The big change ahead is still subject to considerable uncertainty in terms of its magnitude and impacts. As of now, the culprit for approaching cold and potential snowfall looks to be a deep trough of low pressure anticipated to rapidly develop and slowly track across the plains before stalling somewhere in the Upper Midwest late next week. The coldest air of the season will be pulled southward from Canada, complete with brisk northerly winds, chilly rain and in some cases accumulating snowfall depending on the exact track of the system.
As most understand, snowfall events can be tough to forecast 24 to 48 hours before they take place, let alone 5 to 7 days, so no one should be placing bets on next week’s winter system. However, below average temperatures are likely through much of mid to late November west of the Mississippi River, so the winter coats will soon be put to good use.
