Weather

Cold, snow cover on the northern Plains

On the Plains, snow blankets much of Montana and the Dakotas, providing beneficial moisture and insulation for winter wheat. Monday morning’s temperatures fell below -10° in parts of the eastern Dakotas. Farther south, however, cold, dry conditions are increasing stress on livestock and maintaining stress on pastures, rangeland, and winter wheat. Low temperatures dipped below 0° as far south as the central High Plains.

Across the Corn Belt, a few wind-blown snow showers linger across the upper Midwest in the wake of a departing storm. Current snow depths include 9 inches in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, and 2 inches in both Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Madison, Wisconsin. Monday morning’s temperatures fell below -10° in portions of the far upper Midwest. Meanwhile, colder air is sweeping into the eastern Corn Belt, where rain has largely ended. Overnight rainfall totaled an inch or more in parts of the Ohio Valley.

In the South, locally heavy showers and thunderstorms stretch from the Tennessee Valley to the central Gulf Coast. Colder, breezy conditions are affecting the Mid-South and the western Gulf Coast region, but warm, mostly dry weather continues to promote late-season fieldwork in the southern Atlantic States.

In the West, cold conditions and a few snow showers linger in the Rockies. In contrast, mild, dry weather prevails in the Pacific Coast States.