Weather

Very cold across parts of the Plains, upper Midwest

On the Plains, cold weather is posing a threat to already drought-stressed wheat across central areas. For the third day in a row, temperatures fell to near 0° or below as far south as northeastern Colorado and northwestern Kansas, where snow cover is patchy or non-existent. Elsewhere, snow is helping to protect the northern Plains’ wheat, while temperatures have remained mostly above 10° on the southern Plains.

Across the Corn Belt, cold, dry weather prevails, except for some snow showers downwind of the Great Lakes. The cold weather (Monday’s temperatures fell below 0° in the far upper Midwest) is increasing livestock stress.

In the South, warmth lingers in the Atlantic Coast States, but sharply colder air is overspreading the remainder of the region. A band of rain stretches from southeastern Texas to the Virginia, but precipitation is changing to snow, sleet, and freezing rain in parts of eastern Texas.

In the West, cold, dry weather prevails, except for some snow showers across the interior Northwest. Freeze Warnings were in effect again Monday morning, as they were during the weekend, from California’s Central Valley into the Southwest. Citrus and winter vegetable producers throughout the West continue to monitor and guard against freeze injury from temperatures that have fallen into the 25 to 30° range, with locally lower readings.