Weather

A mid-winter “look & feel” across much of the Heartland; southern states prep for storminess

Across the Corn Belt, rural travel conditions are slowly improving in the wake of the recent snow and ice storm, which primarily struck from Missouri into the Ohio Valley.  Early Tuesday, approximately 75,000 customers from southeastern Missouri into southern Indiana remain without electricity.  Currently, cold, dry weather prevails, except for a few snow showers in the western Corn Belt and downwind of the Great Lakes.

On the Plains, cold, dry weather prevails.  From Kansas northward, much of the winter wheat crop is insulated beneath a variable snow cover, which is also providing beneficial moisture.  At the end of December, prior to the recent snowstorm, winter wheat in Kansas was rated 47% in good to excellent condition, down from 55% on November 24.

In the South, scattered frost was noted Wednesday morning as far south as the norther tier of Florida’s citrus belt, with a widespread freeze occurring in northern Florida.  In fact, below-normal temperatures blanket the South, with readings below 20°F reported early Wednesday on the Ozark Plateau and as far south as the Carolinas.  Southern producers in the path of an impending winter storm are preparing for expected snow and ice accumulations.

In the West, southern California is enduring a spate of horrific wildfires, driven by winds locally gusting above 75 mph.  The largest active blaze is the Palisades Fire, which started Tuesday morning and has been burning in a heavily populated area of Los Angeles County between Topanga State Park and the Pacific Coast.  Southern California’s high winds are occurring between a low-pressure system developing over northwestern Mexico and a high-pressure system parked over the Intermountain West.  Snow associated with the low-pressure system is developing in parts of southern New Mexico.

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