DEVELOPING: 2022 High Impact Winter Storm

      Hey Everybody, how you doing!? Today it is Tuesday, February 1rst, 2022 at 11am in the morning. Since January 28th Weather Forecasters across the country have had their eyes on a Winter storm in the making. Now the Weather Forecast have flip flopped more than the president. But as of Yesterday we're starting to get some model consistency painting a more clear picture of how this stuff will play out, and I must say, it doesn't look good at all.

      So of course it was Warm across Arkansas Monday the 31rst, and will be warm through today, and most of tomorrow. With temperatures being that warm, the ground my retain most of that heat, and this will cause the frozen precipitation to not stick on most roadways with the exception of bridges and overpasses. This is my initial thoughts. But this changes after the temperatures drop down to 28° which is what these models are projecting. When the OUTSIDE AIR TEMPERATURES get down that low, everything starts to Ice over, roads, EVERYTHING, If this does happen, then we going to have problems here in Arkansas. Throughout the Night Wednesday night, and Thursday morning those temperatures will start to freefall, and this is when I expect the giant shift in activity. Rain will switch to Ice........ This will post a SIGNIFICANT Travel issue for everybody in the North 1/2 of Arkansas. So most likely Thursday will be an Inclement Weather Day for probably everybody. You can drive on snow, sleet sometimes, but there's no fighting that Ice. 

      There's Temperatures, now Accumulations...... How much!? This is the part that scares me. ANYTHING over a Quarter inch of Ice on Trees a Powerlines will start to cause Power Outages. Powerlines are built to withstand weight, but not that much, so come Thursday morning, whatever starts to accumulate on trees and Powerlines will start to cause issues, not to mention anything that accumulate before sunrise. The roads are one thing because you can just tell people to take a snow day, go virtual, and stay home.......... But When we start talking about no power, or heat, and no way to leave, that's when I get concerned. Those Accumulation projections of ICE are slowly creeping up as we get closer in time to this storm.

This is what we're looking at in terms of Ice accumulations. This map is Courtesy of The National Weather Service in North Little Rock. This is their projected Ice accumulations thru Thursday Afternoon. I think this is probably dead on the money, if anything we may see more, and this concerns me.

This is the Projected Snow Accumulations map. I honestly think, that some of these numbers will be more Sleet/Ice than Snow. I just think this is the model's way of projecting the totals as if it was snow. 

This is a Winter Storm Watch for Most of the State. I fully expect that at some point Tomorrow there will be a Winter Storm Warning issued for major parts of the state, especially if the Models continue getting more aggressive on the accumulations.

This will be the type of storm where you NEED to Stock up on Necessities, and Gasoline for your Gas Powered Generators. I do believe that at some point on Thursday, there will be heavy Ice Accumulations as the Temperatures Fall, there will probably be no melting Friday, or Little, and Lot's of Refreezing Friday night. So take the time today, and tomorrow to go ahead and take care of your business before this storm hits.. Thanks for Coming here to The Blog, Stay safe everybody.