Winter Storm Warning Map Tracks Powerful Weather Mass After 66.5 Inches of Snow Hits the U.S.
Heavy snowfall hit parts of the U.S. on Sunday, December 28, and nowhere was that more true than Encampment, Wyoming.
Encampment is a community of about 450 people located in Carbon County, Wyoming, United States. According to the National Weather Service's snowfall chart, Encampment was leading the country in snowfall totals after being socked with 26.7 inches of snow on Sunday alone.
The cumulative snowfall since Friday, December 26, is even more jaw-dropping.
- "A monitoring site near Centennial, Wyoming, which is located West of Laramie, saw 66.5 inches of snow in 40 hours," CBS News reported, adding that Encampment "reports 49.6 inches of snow in that same time frame."
- Parts of Colorado also saw more than 20 inches of snow, according to CBS.
The National Weather Service maps are tracking the movement of a powerful storm. The NWS has maps for short and long-term forecasts. And it's not over yet, although the weather mass is shifting.
Arctic Air Remains a Concern Through Parts of the U.S.
. Image courtesy Jim Peaco/Yellowstone National Park. (Photo via Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images).
According to NWS, the forecast is predicting more bad weather through Monday, December 29.
"Arctic air descending into the Plains today (December 28) will be followed by a potent winter storm from the upper Midwest to the Great Lakes today into Monday," NWS wrote. "Record warmth across the central and southern U.S. this morning will be drastically dispelled by Arctic wind chills tonight."
Over the next 48 hours, "an intense cyclone will take the center stage with impacts from this system ranging from heavy snow and blizzard conditions across the upper Midwest to the Great Lakes, freezing rain across New England, thunderstorms through the eastern U.S. and the South, as well as widespread blustery winds to locally damaging winds to these areas," the National Weather Service wrote.
"A low pressure system is rapidly developing over the Mid-Mississippi Valley along an Arctic front as the incoming frigid air from Canada mingles with the anomalous warm airmass that has settled across the Central/Southern U.S. for many days," it adds. "As the system accelerates northeastward today, heavy snow and blizzard conditions will continue across the upper Midwest and the Great Lakes through tomorrow."
The Snowfall Is Expected to Move Across the Great Lakes
The Great Lakes will take some of the hammering from snowfalls going into the week.
"Across the central Great Lakes, wind-swept rain and embedded thunderstorms later today into tonight are forecast to turn into a blizzard by early on Monday with blowing snow," NWS wrote. "Snowfall amounts are expected to well exceed a foot across the upper Great Lakes, particularly along the south shore of Lake Superior where 2 feet of snow is possible together with whiteout conditions at the height of the storm."
The Ohio Valley might see tornadoes. What about the West? "In the West, tranquil conditions will broadly prevail as the developing big storm in the upper Midwest becomes the dominant feature across the Lower 48, with the exception being southeastern New Mexico and Southwest Texas tomorrow as blowing, accumulating snow falls near the tail end of the Arctic front," NWS wrote.
"Meanwhile, the big storm in the Great Lakes will slowly move into eastern Canada later on Monday. But the huge circulation of the system will continue to spread very strong and gusty winds into the entire eastern U.S. with snow lingering especially downwind from the lower Great Lakes. Rain showers should taper off or end as light snow across Maine by Tuesday morning behind the cold front," the site added.