Winter Storm Develops in Rockies

[CaptinCrunch]

Winter Storm Develops in Rockies
9:30 AM CST, December 8, 2003

It was so mild early Monday morning
from the Rockies into the Plains that a
major winter storm would be the last
thing to expect.

However, a taste of harsh reality is in
store as winter storm watches and
warnings are up from the central
Rockies through the central Plains and
into parts of the Midwest. See the Alerts
section of your WeatherBug for further
details.

A WeatherBug live sensor in Liberal in
southwest KS - one location that`s
under a winter storm warning -
recorded a balmy low temperature of 41
degrees on Monday morning. A midday
high in the upper 50s is expected but
temperatures will rapidly plunge after
that, reaching the upper 20s on Monday
night.

As a storm now over Colorado pushes
eastward toward the mid Mississippi
Valley by Tuesday, much cooler air will
pour into the Rockies and Plains. The
storm will pick up lots of moisture from
the Gulf of Mexico and a long band of
significant snow is expected to develop
northwest of its track.

Early Monday, snow was already piling
up from the Wasatch Mountains of Utah
into the Colorado Rockies. WeatherBug
cameras in Aspen and Mount Crested
Butte, Colorado and Park City, Utah
showed very wintry scenes.
Alta Ski Resort in Utah reported 9" of
new snow on Sunday with 40" on the
ground. Click on the "Ski Reports" link
to the right to check conditions at your
favorite ski resort.

Snow was expected to spread toward
the Denver area on Monday afternoon
and into the central Plains on Monday
night. The next target will be the upper
Midwest where snow is likely to develop
on Tuesday.

The storm is expected to become more
of a rainmaker as it chugs toward the
Great Lakes and into eastern Canada
Wednesday into Thursday and drags
up much warmer air into the east.
Flooding will be a threat in the
northeast with the rapid warmup and
the potential for heavy rain.

Along with the snow will come strong
north winds behind the storm, which will
cause blowing and drifting snow and
very poor visibility.

This is a rapidly developing storm.
Keep your WeatherBug active at all
times in your system tray to insure the
receipt of all the latest advisories and
forecasts.