Weather

A brief, but intense, wind-blow cold wave races into the Heartland; some snowfall in spots

Across the Corn Belt, a brief warm spell is being replaced by colder weather.  Wednesday’s high temperatures will range from near 25°F in the Red River Valley of the North to 50°F along the Ohio River.  Colder air is arriving on northwesterly winds, while spotty showers linger early Wednesday across the eastern Corn Belt.

On the Plains, cooler air is arriving in the wake of a cold front’s passage.  Any snow is light and confined to the northern Plains.  In drought-affected areas of the northern Plains, producers are monitoring the poorly established winter wheat crop.  On the central and southern Plains, wheat has benefited from recent wet weather, which resulted in the wettest November on record in Oklahoma, topping 2015, and the second-wettest November in Kansas, behind only 1909.

In the South, rain is developing along and east of a line from southern Louisiana into the Tennessee Valley, aside from peninsular Florida.  Showers are becoming heavy in some areas, particularly the central Gulf Coast region.  The rain is halting late-season fieldwork but boosting soil moisture reserves.  Meanwhile, warmer-than-normal weather prevails throughout the region, with Wednesday’s high temperatures expected to reach 80°F or higher across Florida’s peninsula.

In the West, a potentially volatile fire-weather situation is underway across southern California’s coastal ranges, where low humidity levels and high winds could lead to explosive growth of any new blazes.  In fire-prone areas, Wednesday’s wind gusts could reach 60 to 75 mph.  Elsewhere, late-season fieldwork—including cotton harvesting—continues in the Desert Southwest, while pockets of dense fog persist in some valley locations across Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.