Heat Builds in the West; Severe Thunderstorms and Heavy Rain in the Upper Midwest and Mid-Mississippi Valley; Extremely Critical Fire Weather in the Northwest on Saturday

A heat wave over the Southwest will intensify this week, peaking and expanding into the Intermountain West and northern High Plains this weekend. Severe thunderstorms and heavy rainfall are expected over parts of the Upper Midwest to mid-Mississippi Valley today. Critical to extremely critical fire weather conditions from the Northwest and the northern Great Basin on Saturday and Sunday. Read More >

Heavy Snow Event

March 6, 2008

On 6 March 2008, a convective precipitation band formed across North Texas and quickly transitioned from rain to snow in a 60 km wide zone extending from west of the Dallas / Fort Worth metroplex northeast into extreme North Texas near the Red River. The snow persisted for over three hours with accumulations averaging 7 cm and isolated reports up to 30 cm near the heaviest convective precipitation. Frontogenesis and the resulting ageostrophic circulation appeared to play key roles in not only providing significant forcing for ascent but also in modifying the vertical temperature profile to be supportive of a liquid-to-frozen precipitation transition. The presence of atmospheric instability led to isolated thunderstorm development, with occasional cloud-to-ground and in-cloud lightning observed in the band of heavy snow. This study reviews the complex interactions between moisture, instability, and forcing for ascent that occurred during this convective winter weather event.

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Heat Builds in the West; Severe Thunderstorms and Heavy Rain in the Upper Midwest and Mid-Mississippi Valley; Extremely Critical Fire Weather in the Northwest on Saturday

March 6, 2008 Snow