The area in brown has a significant risk of tornadoes later today. Please keep up on the latest weather information. 

8pm CST Radar  Power Outages as of 8pm These are "customers," individual homes or businesses. The total number of customers out due to the ice storm is around 126,000 =  313,000 people.  National Weather Service Winter Storm Messages, 8pm A new ice storm warning has been issued in central Texas and the winter storm warning has been extended in Maine.  Violet = ice storm warning  Pink = winter storm warning  Purple = winter weather advisory Dark blue (Maine and LA-MS border) = winter storm watch Bright blue and Very Dark Blue = cold weather warnings  I just saw a great tip posted by an electrical lineman deployed to work this storm: If your power goes out, turn on your porch light when it comes back on. That lets crews know which areas have power restored and speeds up the recovery process.  The snow in the Great Plains is, so far, less than forecast. There are two issues: the Gulf moisture is not coming into the storm as fast as originally forecas...

....this cold wave and winter storm is absolutely not "caused" by climate change!

As if there isn't enough weather to concern people, there is a risk of tornadoes in the South  Sunday. The area in brown has a significant risk of tornadoes Sunday. This forecast may be revised between now and then, so please check back Sunday morning. 

Radar Image and Commentary as of 10pm (This is the last of the hourly updates for this evening.) Radar image from 10pm. Note the explosion of pink/salmon color from southeast Oklahoma across southern Arkansas. The following (blue) was written at 9p: I am increasingly concerned about more freezing rain over the southeast half of Arkansas than is currently being forecast. If you live in southeast Arkansas, I recommend making ice storm preparations now.  Radar, plus ground truth data from Arkansas weather stations, show the icing concern is well-founded. There will be icing during the night in at least part of this area. 10:20pm Note: Some of the weather station's wind measuring instruments have already glazed over in southern Arkansas.  Thunderstorms with snow/sleet/freezing rain may occur in OK, AR, TX south of I-40. Ice Storm Warnings in Violet  Violet = ice storm warning (rare) Pink = winter storm warning  Purple = winter weather advisory  Dark Turquoise = wint...

Here are the latest National Weather Service winter weather messages: Violet = ice storm warning. Power outages expected along with fallen trees.  Pink = winter storm warning  Dark Blue = winter weather watch (extended into New England and south to Atlanta and Columbia, SC). Purple = winter weather advisory Snow Amount Forecast The output of the noon models, which has the benefit of the morning Hurricane Hunter data plus additional weather balloons launched by the NWS has generally upped the amounts of snow. I think this forecast -- which is calling for heavier amounts than the earlier version -- looks good.  Freezing Rain Forecast Below are recommendations for areas where heavy ice accumulations are forecast.  The purple on the map, in this case, equals a "4" on the Sperry-Piltz Ice Damage Index which translates to: Safety Recommendations:  Traveling any distance will be difficult to impossible. If you have a chain saw, fill it with fuel. Get prescriptions refi...