National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Rare Southern U.S. Winter Storm; Dangerous Cold Weather For Much of the Eastern U.S.; Critical Fire Weather for Southern California

A rare winter storm impacting the Southern U.S. will move offshore Wednesday morning. Behind the storm, arctic air will continue encompassing the eastern two-thirds of the Nation with only a slow return to normal temperatures expected by the end of the week. Moderate to strong Santa Ana winds and low humidity will maintain Critical fire weather conditions in southern California into Thursday. Read More >

Two Rounds of Heavy Snow Impact Northeast Kansas in One Week

Over the past week, 2 powerful winter storms pummeled Northeast Kansas. Unlike the previous heavy snowfall accompanied by thunder, this storm system brought light to moderate snow that persisted from Monday afternoon through early Wednesday morning. As the expansive upper air disturbance strengthened over northwest Oklahoma into southern Kansas, light to moderate snow bands began to develop across east central Kansas near the Lawrence and Emporia areas as early as Monday afternoon. During the event, the area of surface low pressure tracked slightly further south across Oklahoma, confining the heavier snow bands to near and south of the Kansas Turnpike. As a result a tight gradient of snowfall ranged from 2 inches in Manhattan to near 10 inches in portions of Osage County (see snowfall map below). Even across Shawnee County (Topeka), snowfall totals contrasted from 0.5" in Silver Lake (northern Shawnee county) to 5.5" just southwest of Auburn (southern portion of county).  At the Topeka Billard Airport, 3.4" of snow was measured at the end of the event. Here is the link to all snowfall reports and the first Winter Storm from February 21st.