Weather varies greatly throughout the Heartland

Weather

Weather varies greatly throughout the Heartland

Across the Corn Belt, cold, blustery weather prevails in the wake of a cold front’s passage. Monday morning’s low temperatures fell below 0° in much of eastern North Dakota and northern Minnesota. Early Monday, a few snow showers linger in the Great Lakes States. Until the cold front’s arrival, Midwestern snow continued to erode, with solid coverage currently limited to Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, northern and eastern Iowa, and northern sections of Illinois and Indiana. During the weekend, rain and melting snow contributed to mostly minor flooding in parts of the Ohio River Valley.

On the Plains, rain showers across Oklahoma and Texas are gradually ending. Breezy, dry weather covers the remainder of the nation’s mid-section. Recent mild weather melted most of the Plains’ remaining snow cover, leaving winter wheat largely exposed to potential weather extremes. Ice-jam flooding remains a concern in some areas, particularly in eastern Nebraska along the Platte and Elkhorn Rivers.

In the South, locally heavy rain is falling from the mid-Atlantic to eastern Texas. Weekend downpours have resulted in moderate to major lowland flooding in several areas, most notably along the Kentucky River and its tributaries in central and eastern Kentucky. Minor flooding is occurring across a much broader area, stretching from the central Appalachians to eastern Texas.

In the West, dry weather prevails. Freeze Warnings were in effect early Monday in a few normally temperate areas, including northwestern California and south-central Arizona. As the western U.S. enters the last month of the snow-accumulation season and begins to prepare for spring and summer, much of the southern two-thirds of the region faces poor runoff prospects, the potential of water-supply shortages, and the likelihood of ongoing drought.

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