Early Morning Snow

The winter weather event is unfolding this morning as expected.  Snow is now located across a large portion of northern OK with some snow as far south as McAlester.  Higher snow accumulations will be confined to the highway 412 corridor and points northward in the range of 3 to 5 inches with some locally higher amounts.  Some higher amounts may also be located across east central OK, roughly north of Muskogee, and closer to Wagoner to Tableau to Grand Lake.  

A winter storm warning remains for the Tulsa metro and points north and east.  A winter weather advisory remains across the southern third of the region.  The risk impact for power outages remains low this morning, while the impact for possible school closings will continue to move from the moderate to high category across northeastern OK and southern Kansas.  Roadway risk assessment will be in the high category for travel disruptions and slick roadways.  

This will be a relatively fast moving event and should be clearing the area by midday with the clouds also clearing later today.  

The upper level trough, in the form of an open wave, is now just west of the state and will be moving eastward soon. The surface area of low pressure is to our south and will move southeast into Texas this morning.  This pattern is favorable for a swath of moderate to heavy snowfall across northern OK.  This lines up nicely with the 412 corridor and that's why we have the higher forecasted totals in these areas across the northern tier counties of OK and southern tier counties of Southern Kansas. 

Some additional cloud cover will be likely at times tomorrow but mostly sunny conditions should expected with cold air remaining through Saturday morning.  Snowfall on the ground has a way of cycling colder air longer over an area, and this may be the case for most of northern OK through the first part of the weekend.  Some snow will begin to melt or sublimate Friday into Saturday, but I don't think this will be a significant chance to get rid of all of the snow cover.  Another storm system is likely to approach the area Sunday into Monday with GFS and EURO data supporting additional accumulating snowfall potential.  Yesterday's data supported highly significant amounts and this morning's data is also leaning toward a major snow system for Sunday into Monday.  

Please use caution traveling today and prepare for a longer commute across the northern third of the state.  Southern sections will not have the larger snow amounts, but as we all know, even small amounts of sleet or snow can cause travel issues. 

Thanks for reading our discussions.  I also post frequent updates on my face book account during winter weather events, and we may also open a web chat later this morning at The Newson6.com