As of 7am Monday, the radar should look something like this with an area of snow developing in Kansas and mixed precipitation in Arkansas. The area affected by snow will grow in size during the day and it will move east.  Forecast radar for 7am Monday Below is the forecast snow accumulations. The snow should move out of the the areas west of the Mississippi River by midnight and out of the region by Tuesday morning.  Note that there will be heavy lake effect snows east and southeast of Lake Michigan.  The map below is NOAA's satellite-derived snow depth product as of midnight. The amounts in inches are depicted as the upper row of numbers on the scale.  The forecasts for this first major snow of the season were exceptionally good. Congratulations to the NWS and the meteorologists throughout the region! Given the large volume of post-Thanksgiving travel, it was important to get this one correct. 

Read this, please. I'm not aware of of "East Coast beaches" that disappeared five years ago.  It doesn't matter if it is sea level rise, snow (" a thing of the past "), this year's hurricane season for the United States, or some "tipping point," the fact that these forecasts were radically wrong never pierces their conviction that doom is just around the corner. This is most certainly not  how science works. Science works by making testable predictions that others can also reproduce and observe. 

Here's the latest regional radar as of 2:45pm. There are delays of five hours at O'Hare. Midway has a complete ground stop.  The snow gaps you see in Iowa and northeast Missouri are due to gaps in the radar network. It is snowing there, too.  Forecast radar for 7pm. Pink represents a winter storm warning. Purple is a winter weather advisory. Sand is a wind advisory. 

Here is a complete update on the brutal winter storm that will move across the Midwest this weekend. The only good aspect is much of this area needs precipitation.  Freezing Rain The orange and red areas and, too a lesser extent the yellow, will have slippery road conditions due to icy conditions. Please factor this into your travel plans. Heavy Snow Forecast It will be windy throughout the area where the heaviest shows are forecast to fall, so travel will be difficult to impossible. In addition, there will be major delays at O'Hare, Midway, and some delays in Detroit. American Airlines, Delta and jetBlue are grounding some planes due to a software update . I would check your airline's website plus the FAA's website before heading for the airport. If it were me, I would call  reservations and request to be routed around the storm -- that is, instead of changing planes at O'Hare, see if it would be possible to do so in Charlotte, Dallas, or Philadelphia. Call them now. ...

Pink = winter storm warning. Dark green = winter storm watch. Purple = winter weather advisory.  I'll have a complete update on the winter storm this afternoon. 

I hope your Thanksgiving was as nice as ours. Here is an update on the winter storm that will affect post-Thanksgiving travel. Pink = winter storm warning. Dark green = winter storm watch. Purple = winter weather advisory.  It is possible on Saturday that near blizzard conditions will occur in southeast Iowa and Illinois. This is reflected in the NWS's "impact chart." Here are snowfall amounts to 1am Monday: Below is the forecast radar for 9am Saturday. Note that O'Hare and Midway will be affected. 

So said Les Nessman during the world's most famous turkey drop . Fortunately, we've learned a lot since 1978. If you'd like to see a genuine pumpkin drop, click here . 

Here is a map of current warnings and advisories for Wednesday: Orange: blizzard warning Pink: winter storm warning Purple: winter weather advisory Gold: high wind warning Sand; wind advisory Please do not attempt to travel through the blizzard region. Wait until the storm subsides. 

Tornado watch until 6pm.  -- forecast for tornadoes until 7am Wednesday -- The area in brown has a significant chance of tornadoes after 7am CST on Tuesday. Please monitor the weather in these areas. 

Issued 11:40pm Monday Red outline is a tornado watch until 7am for eastern Louisiana and much of Mississippi.  Issued 6:45pm Monday A new tornado watch has been issued for parts of southeast Texas and western Louisiana until 1am CST Tuesday.  Tornado in the Houston Metro Monday Afternoon Note the lofted debris under the funnel cloud. At one point 27,000 homes and businesses were without power. More than 100 homes were damaged. No serious injuries have been reported.  Tornado watch continues.... Tornado watch in effect until 7pm for southeast Texas, including Houston, and a small part of northwest Louisiana. The tornado threat is forecast to evolve east across Louisiana and into Mississippi into tonight.  Please monitor the weather in these areas!

Bear with me while I provide a little background information..... In the 1960's, Dr. Stan Changnon of the Illinois State Water Survey noticed that a volunteer weather station downwind of Chicago reported far more precipitation, especially snow, than other weather stations in the area. This unusual weather condition was called the "LaPorte (Indiana) Weather Anomaly" and it lasted from the 1930's to the 1960's. He believed it was caused by air pollution from Chicago increasing the amount of precipitation downwind of the city.  Like so many discoveries in weather science, it caused a great deal of controversy even though the data was solid. Dozens of articles and commentary articles were written.  Via Grok, tiny sample of papers on this topic. To help determine whether cities could actually modify the weather near and downwind of their location, the "Metromex" project in St. Louis was established from 1971 to 1975.  Metromex clearly showed an increase in ra...

For travelers, here is the forecast snowfall from now until 6pm Wednesday evening. 

There is a risk of a tornado or two along with severe thunderstorms in southwest Texas until 10pm Sunday. 

It must be because of the climate meeting now going on in Brazil that odd climate claims are on full display this week. From Time  magazine: The fire was caused by arson  and below is the person who is being held in prison for it. Arson has nothing to do with climate change!   This morning, a meteorologist I respect wrote about the catastrophic July 4 Texas flash floods and included this unfortunate sentence : That, of course, also assumes that we are living in a stable climate — which we are not. Below is a yearly plot of earth's ocean/land temperature (HADCrut5) which is generally accepted as a valid measure of temperature by the climate community. As "climate" is defined by the UN's IPCC as a minimum 30 year period, do you see a period where the temperatures are "stable" (flat) for 30 or more years? Of course not.  The following are facts . The worst storms in history (by intensity, not loss of life) in the contiguous United States were about 100 years ag...

That wind was measured by a "dropsonde" which is an instrument dropped by Hurricane Hunter aircraft. You find the full details on this incredible measurement here . 

"COP 30" currently in progress in Brazil is the annual luxurious, private jet-dominated orgy of spending in a remote part of the world where the attendees tell us we must cut our carbon footprints. Ironically, there was considerable 'warming' today when a large fire broke out. In a bit of probably unintentional irony The Metro   reported on a "hotly disputed" topic: I'm sure those discussions were heated before Guterres said "compromise was acceptable" (see link). Fortunately, there were no fatalities from the fire. 

Please, please take the time to read this short article about the reality of solar energy installations .  You may have read last week that the Vatican became the first nation in the world to be entirely powered by solar energy. I suspect that its solar installation may suffer the same fate as Napa Valley College's. 

Of course, there are programs that combine the basics of a college education with the tech education needed for jobs (which are union) such as the ones at Ford. Wichita State Tech is one of the programs that offers them. 

Two inch hail and a couple of tornadoes possible.   ----- Thunderstorms now developing over southeast Missouri (3:45). I'm beginning coverage on Twitter/X shortly.  ----- The yellow area has a significant risk of hail 1" or larger in diameter. There is a chance of a tornado or two.  Please follow me on Twitter/X @usweatherexpert  for updates. 

Hilarious. This cover of The Guardian  features California's $2.2 billion Ivanpah Solar Energy Project which is currently in the process of being shut down because it is a financial boondoggle that never produced the amount of energy promised.

The chemtrail/HAARP/nanoparticle/et cetera "weather control" crowd has had a festive week with many  publications writing about this topic. So, let me make a few comments in the -- probably futile -- hope of providing some explanations about what people are seeing and cooling the controversy.  The photo below shows three jet condensation trails ("contrails") crossing over a location. The contrails are mostly ice and tiny bits of jet fuel that was not completely burned. Why do they cross? Most of the time, airliners fly jetliners fly "air routes." These are set "highways" in the sky (yes, there are maps that show them) that intersect over navigation devices known as VORTACS. That's why you see contrails crossing. Sample air route chart. The three edged symbols are the VORTACS. There was a comment to an article on this topic from a man born in 1963 who said,  "there weren't this many contrails when I was a kid."  Correct! The firs...