Weather Aware Day – Another round of winter weather Monday
***WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR BENTON, BOONE, CALLAWAY, CAMDEN, COLE, COOPER, GASCONADE, HOWARD, MARIES, MILLER, MONITEAU, MONTGOMERY, MORGAN, OSAGE, PETTIS, PHELPS, PULASKI, AND SALINE COUNTIES UNTIL 9 PM.***
For the second time in less than a week, Mid-Missouri is gearing up for another round of winter weather. Advisories are in effect until 9 PM this evening for all counties along and south of I-70, as the greatest impacts will be felt in those regions.
AM COMMUTE:
Little impacts will be felt for the morning commute, as temperatures will be hovering near freezing, with just flurries to light snow expected. It’ll take some time to see impacts on the roadways, as ground temperatures are still fairly warm. However, with significantly cold temperatures expected to arrive through the day slick spots will begin to develop.
As moisture continues to stream into Mid-Missouri, we’ll see a band of moderate snow build into the region. It’s during this time when we’ll begin to see the start of our greatest impacts in Mid-Missouri, especially with temperatures quickly falling into the 20s. Right now the timing of the onset for the heaviest snow looks to occur between the hours of 9-10 AM across most of Mid-Missouri. This snow combined with gusty winds up to 20 mph could limit visibility in many spots through the afternoon hours.
The window for snow has narrowed a bit due to the drier air that limited snowfall potential through Sunday night into Monday morning, but accumulation is still expected. Initially accumulation may be hard to come by due to the warm ground temperatures, but once the heavier bands move through the region we’ll see the snow begin to add up. Right now the heaviest snow looks to be along and south of I-70 where 1-2 inches of snow is possible. Isolated heavier amounts look likely in southwestern parts of the region, where heavier bands could dump up to 3 inches. If you live north of I-70, a dusting to near half an inch of snow looks possible. Any snow that we see today will bring a new snowfall record for Columbia. The current record is 0.1″ set back in 1983, and with 1-2 inches expected a new record is imminent.
PM COMMUTE:
With snow coming to an end by 3-4 PM across Mid-Missouri, visibility won’t be a problem as the evening commute approaches. However, with temperatures expected to continue to fall through the day slick spots will gradually begin to develop on untreated roadways. Although ground temperatures are still on the warm side, and roads will be treated, you’ll want to remain cautious on any roads. The greatest concern for black ice to develop will occur late into the day and overnight, as temperatures will bottom out in the teens. This will bring the greatest concern for slick spots by the Tuesday AM commute for all of Mid-Missouri. Current impact tracker shows that into Tuesday, the impacts will be a notch below moderate.
An additional 1-3 inches of snow today will bring our seasonal snowfall totals to nearly 5 inches already, and November has barely started. It’s this early taste of winter that we are seeing that doesn’t look to give up anytime soon, as another round of wintry mix looks possible as we head into Thursday.
We’ll continue to update this blog to bring you the latest information as new data comes in this evening.
Make sure to check back on air and online as the ABC 17 StormTrack weather team keeps you ahead of the storm.
