‘Impossible travel conditions’ such as a spring storm causes historical snow and severe storms

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This storm system begins its first threat over the Rockies, as intense streaks of snow will dump yards of powder across Colorado and Wyoming.

Dangerous travel conditions will occur on sections of highway 25, 70 and 80, so drivers are urged to exercise extreme caution.

“Very difficult to impossible travel conditions are expected across Southeast Wyoming and the Nebraska panhandle,” the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Cheyenne, Wyoming, said Thursday. “Expect extended periods of power outages, poor visibility and potential power outages.”

This slow-moving system has the potential to produce the greatest snowfall in decades for the Eastern Rockies and Western Plains over the weekend.

But that’s only one side of the system. The south and east sides of the system – which will draw in warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico – will fuel severe storms for several days, with the possibility of tornadoes.

Nearly 20 million people will be threatened by severe storms in half a dozen states from Friday to Sunday with damaging winds, large hail and tornadoes.

In addition, the cold front will eventually sweep across the Southern Plains, resulting in heavy rain in much of the same region for the next few days, leading to flooding.

Here’s what to expect and when.

Friday

Friday morning the snow starts to set. During the day, snow tires will be more common in Colorado and Wyoming, and travel conditions will continue to deteriorate.

While there are still some uncertainties at play, the general message from the NWS office in Boulder, Colorado is for 1-3 feet of snow for much of their forecast area.

Colorado isn’t the only state to expect intense snowfall. Eastern Wyoming, western Nebraska, and even parts of southern South Dakota are likely to see more than a foot of snow all weekend.

A serious threat is also expected to develop in parts of West Texas and West Oklahoma on Friday.

“A cluster of strong to severe storms with embedded supercells is expected to move from the Lubbock area to the southeastern Texas Panhandle during the early to mid-evening,” said the Storm Prediction Center. “In addition to large hail, there is also wind damage with the stronger cells within this cluster.
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Both the heavy and snow sides of this system will intensify further over the weekend.

Saturday

On Saturday it will snow intensely along the Front Range of the Rockies and will move into the western plains.

This area is no stranger to the snowfall in March. In fact, March is the snowiest month of the year for parts of Colorado and Wyoming. In Denver, each of their top March 10 snowstorms totaled over 12 inches of snow. This year could be added to that list as historical totals are not excluded.

“The snow totals currently forecast are absolutely historic,” said the NWS office in Cheyenne.

Traveling will also be very difficult on Saturday. Whiteout conditions will lead to very poor visibility and bad driving conditions. People are urged to stay at home when they can.

Snowfall of nearly three inches per hour in the foothills predicted Saturday night, meaning travel would be impossible, the NWS said in Boulder. “Boulder and Fort Collins could see snow speeds of about 2 inches per hour during this time.”

The serious storm threat is also starting to increase today. The areas of greatest threat from severe weather on Saturday are Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Abilene, Texas and Wichita, Kansas.

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The threats themselves remain the same as Friday’s: damaging winds, large hail and isolated tornadoes. The difference is the location and intensity of the storms. The system is shifting – slowly – to the east.

The timeline for the best serious odds appears to be in the afternoon and early evening. While some of the severe storm threat is diminishing overnight, it will not abate completely. Power outages are possible.

There is still some uncertainty as to whether all the necessary ingredients will be in place for robust bad weather, particularly in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas on Saturday and Sunday.

Sunday

Sunday, the storm system will basically become stationary over far southeastern Colorado and western Kansas. This will weaken the system’s impact on snowfall rates, which are expected to begin to decline significantly during the day. However, drivers are still urged to exercise caution as roads are still expected to be very dangerous.

While the snow may start to slow down, the serious threat certainly doesn’t – it just changes location.

On Sunday, severe storms will push east to Arkansas, Missouri, and Louisiana.

One thing that could limit its serious potential is cloud cover. However, any sunshine would lead to an increase in instability.

See if your area can see severe weather.

The other growing concern for Sunday is the threat of flooding, particularly in parts of Missouri, Kansas and Illinois – where flood guards already exist.

Other states – such as Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Indiana – also have the potential for flooding, especially if storms start to train over the same locations.

The widespread rainfall totals through Sunday are expected to be in the 2 to 4 inch range, but some isolated spots can exceed the 6 inch total.

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