The National Weather Service upgraded these to warnings because the conditions are really looking favorable for winds in excess of 30 miles an hour - sustained! Along with the falling snow - we are going to be looking at blowing snow to kick up and reduce visibilities to under a quarter mile. In addition to downright cold temperatures that will fall throughout the day, we'll see dangerous wind chill values: 10-20 degrees BELOW zero. Expect these conditions to last for longer than 3 hours - thus why a blizzard status was needed. From Knox county in Nebraska up to Cottonwood county in Minnesota, all the blue counties are under a winter weather advisory. This means the same storm system will bring NW winds sustained at 15-25 mph, chilly temps as well as lowered visibilities under a half mile. Wrap up every part of your body if you MUST, and I stress MUST, go outside.
While I think this model is overestimating things... I do think it has the 2 areas of the heaviest snow in the right place. The salmon color denotes 12-14 inches of snow, I think we'll get closer to 8-10 inches in those areas. But this particular model does seem to have a good outlook on where the heavier stuff will fall. And hey, if you check back to last Sunday's post - looks like the "model fantasy land" forecast pretty much panned out - sorry if you are in the SE and wanted all that snow . . . doesn't look like we'll see a dumping in Sioux Falls - but the blowing snow will make it seem like it's snowing all day. If I wasn't going to be keeping an eye on the storm here at work I would definitely be inside making some Christmas cookies - sugar cookies just sound so good!
Keep warm!
~KDLT Meteorologist Jesse Ritka
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Thoughts from you guys...