This coming weekend, parts of the Northern Plains that have had a lackluster winter so far will receive some welcome snow.
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00:00It's been a pretty slim snow season, although there are always some spots where you can find something going on if you're near the Great Lakes.
00:07So, you know, the one view I have of Houghton, Michigan, it's like a winter wonderland, 12 degrees there, but a lot of areas nearby have been struggling.
00:15So how has this been impacting recreation and the economy in these areas?
00:18Well, and this is an area you usually think would see snow this time of year, and this is year two for some folks that have not seen the snow that they would usually expect.
00:26This is a current snow depth across the upper Midwest, northern plains.
00:29You can see northern Minnesota up into the upper peninsula of Michigan where you've seen some lake effect snow.
00:33That's where you have the snow on the ground, but as you head south, it's just not enough for snowmobiling, for cross-country skiing and such.
00:39In fact, this is year number two that many places across Wisconsin have not opened up their snowmobile trails, and that is a huge economic driver for this area.
00:47And it's tough when you don't get the snow in these areas because we depend on that.
00:51These folks depend on that kind of weather, that winter weather, to enjoy not only the season, but of course to bring in income as well.
00:57And we've had no shortage of cold last month, but just so much dryness here.
01:01Omaha, a staggering one inch so far.
01:04Typically by now we'd have 17 inches.
01:06So some of these areas, even south of primary snow zones, like the snowmobile tracks may not be as popular there in Omaha, for example.
01:15But we've been struggling there, Matt.
01:18And at least there is some hope.
01:20But overall, what are we expecting over the next few days here?
01:24How could this change a little bit at least?
01:26Yeah, we're just looking for that pattern change, Jeff.
01:28And the key here is the moisture.
01:30We've had the cold now for the last month or so.
01:32We just haven't had the snow to go along with it.
01:34Now things look like they'll change going forward with at least our next storm that will roll across the region here starting up tomorrow,
01:42but as we head into tomorrow night and especially into Saturday morning.
01:46That's when the snow is expected to roll across Dakotas through Minnesota and into Wisconsin,
01:50expecting to produce a stripe of snow across this region.
01:53Maybe enough snow to, well, not cut into those deficits completely across the upper Midwest,
01:58but certainly something to help things out with regards to the winter economy.
02:02Most of this wrapping up then into the midday across Saturday in Minnesota.
02:06Still snowing, though, across Wisconsin during the day on Saturday.
02:09And then this heads east as we head into this weekend.
02:12Of course, that's going to be the East Coast storm as we head into Saturday night and Sunday, Jeff.
02:17So it's a very loaded pattern, and I know that we're going to have more to talk about in the weeks to come here.
02:22But even with this said, there are areas like Omaha that you're going to still stay probably around an inch with this one
02:26with most of the snow staying to the north.
02:28And as you mentioned there, a snowy Saturday predominantly here in the north-central U.S.,
02:32so we're looking forward to that.
02:33And, Matt, our overall snowfall forecast, do we expect this to be a dry, powdery snow
02:38or kind of a wetter snow in many of these areas?
02:41Well, with the cold temperature gradient here across the region,
02:44we're expecting this to be a more powdery snow.
02:46That means a higher snow ratios with it.
02:48So we may not see that much liquid equivalent that we would see with a typical snowfall maybe towards March, let's say.
02:55But right now, at least with those higher snowfall ratios, that equates to a little bit more snow depth when the storm is all done.
03:02You can see that stripe of heavier snowfall anywhere from 6 to 12 inches,
03:05probably more at 6 to 8 for most in this darkest blue area stretching from the Dakotas back through central Minnesota and Wisconsin.
03:12But it's going to be helpful for a lot of these folks, and hopefully we can see more of this going forward as well.
03:18Absolutely. Hopefully we can get more of those tracks opened up there, the trails for the snowmobile crowd.
03:24At least some of the ice fishing crowd has done okay in the past few weeks there,
03:28which requires a little bit less in the way of snow but just some cold.
03:31Yeah, that's right.
03:32We've got a good ice pack across a good chunk of this area,
03:34so now if you get a little bit of snow, we're not talking about a lot of slushy conditions across this region.
03:38All right. Well, we appreciate your insight.
03:40As always, AccuWeather meteorologist and north central U.S. and snow expert Matt Benz.
03:44Thanks again for joining us, Matt.
03:45Thanks.
03:46All right. Good stuff.
03:48And overall, the north central…
03:50…for the impacts here tied to this next storm.
03:53Just a brief word on the current situation with some lake effect snow that's falling in northern Michigan right now.
03:59Visibility is down a bit, and we showed you that view there from Houghton up at the Keweenaw Peninsula.
04:03In fact, some of these areas…
04:05Yesterday we talked about a little blizzard warning that was issued for the Keweenaw Peninsula
04:08because of the storm cruising through.
04:10The bulk of this was earlier.
04:12It was real windy out there.
04:13Visibility got low, but we're still facing some widespread snow for the Sault Ste. Marie area,
04:17west into Munising, Marquette, Michigan,
04:20and a lot of these areas here in the eastern part of the upper peninsula of Michigan facing some widespread snow.
04:27So we'll be tracking more of that.