Good Monday, everyone. Back in late January, I highlighted the period of February 7-11 for the return of harsh winter weather. That time has arrived and we have a lot of harsh winter weather settling into our region. As a matter of fact, some of the current models are taking a big walk on the wild side over the next week.

There is so much going on, I’m finding it hard to highlight any one threat. This post is likely to be all over the place, so buckle those seatbelts and let’s roll.

Our first blast of winter weather is moving through early today with a band of rain and snows. Some slush is possible in a few areas, but the main bands of snow arrive late today into the evening. Between these two, temps will briefly spike, before they crash during the evening.

Snow showers and squalls become widespread later today and last through tonight and Tuesday. Early on, some thunder is a possibility! These squalls will have blinding snows and very gusty winds.

This action continues into Wednesday as arctic cold settles in. Temps on Wednesday may not get out of the upper teens for highs with single digit wind chills. Actual thermometer readings Thursday morning may drop into the single digits for many.

This is when we get another system to zip in from the northwest. That could have another streak of light accumulating snows. The GFS continues to indicate the snows add up from late today through Thursday…

GFS 2

Between late today through Thursday, this is likely to be a widespread 2″-5″ snowfall for much of the state. Lighter amounts will be noted in the far west, with higher amounts in the southeast. Again, this is not all falling at once and comes over the next 4 days.

A MAJOR blast of arctic air then arrives late Friday into the weekend. The GFS and Canadian Models show another round of snow with this…

GFS

GFS

Canadian…

Canadian

The European Model decided it wants to make turn that system into a full blown arctic wave snowstorm…

Euro 2Holy cow! Given the arctic air in place, that would REALLY fluff up and blow around. The European continues to bring, what amounts to, the polar vortex close to our region…

Euro 4The actual Valentine’s Day lows from the European Model via WeatherBELL…

Euro 3

Funny thing is, the European Model surface temps are usually biased warmer than what actually occurs.

The same model run then goes on to show another snow maker from Sunday night into early next week. It’s not as strong as the earlier run with that, but more than makes up for it with the Friday arctic snowstorm.

The Canadian Model still has a huge storm…

Canadian 2

Watch that wrap up to our northeast…

Canadian 4

For fun, here’s the what the Canadian Model shows for snowfall from today through next Monday…

Canadian 3

That’s just a snapshot in time of what a computer model thinks will happen, so keep that in mind. However, we are certainly seeing some extreme possibilities showing up on all the models over the next week. Like I said, buckle up!

I will update things later today. Until then, track winter back into the region…

Enjoy the day and take care.