No White Christmas, But Remaining Cold

Well we won’t have a white Christmas this year, but the good news is that the weather will cooperate for anyone traveling for the Christmas weekend. However, if your will be traveling northward or southward, and especially eastward tonight or tomorrow, be prepared to run into some snow and ice.

A disturbance passing over the Dakotas is causing snow on the order of sever inches over the Dakotas, and this snow will spread into Minnesota and Iowa tonight and tomorrow. At the same time, a developing system over the Oklahoma/Texas Panhandles will drop southward into the heart of Texas Friday, reaching the Gulf Coast Friday night. This system is already spreading some snow and ice over central and especially eastern Kansas, with rain into Oklahoma and Texas. It is also producing some showers near Denver, which will move eastward tonight.

We are sandwiched between the two systems, and although there is lots of moisture around in the form of clouds, fog and mist, we have seen very little in the way of snow since the dynamics necessary to produce it are too far to our north and south. However, along with some fog and mist, we could see a flurry or two tonight as lows drop into the teens with cloudy skies. Watch for some slippery spots, especially on bridges and overpasses where some of the mist could freeze.

After any morning fog and mist, Friday should become partly sunny during the afternoon with highs in the 20’s Sandhills to the 30’s south.

Tomorrow night will be partly cloudy with lows falling into the single digits in many areas.

Then Christmas Day will be mainly sunny but continued cold with highs mostly in the 30’s.

Sunday into next week should be mostly sunny, and it will become a bit milder each day with highs in the 30’s Sunday and Monday, but getting into the 40’s Tuesday and Wednesday.

There are indications that a major winter storm could develop later next week over the Central Plains just in time for the New Year’s weekend. While it is very early to speculate what may occur, this potential storm is something to watch since it could bring snow and wind, and very cold temperatures to Greater Nebraska during the Thursday to Sunday time period next weekend. We here at News 2 will monitor and will keep you updated if it appears the storm will materialize.

Mike