Waiting is about over

The well advertised storm that has created a buzz from coast to coast, continues to take aim at the upper Midwest. This monstor storm is about ready show its face in Minnesota.

Moisture is encroaching on southern Minnesota at mid afternoon. Heavy snow is likely to break out along the Minnesota River Valley after dusk and reach the Twin Cities around 9pm.

One of the challenges in forecasting snow amounts is the potential for enough warm air to intrude at low levels to mix the snow with sleet and freezing rain or drizzle. Paul has been watching the vertical profile model data and has mentioned the chance of mixed precipitation mainly from St. Paul east into the Eau Claire area.

Profile for Minneapolis International Airport - click on image. The vertical profile is only sensed twice a day, at 5am and 5pm. The computer models then crunch this data and give us hourly integration of moisture, temperature, winds and pressure from the surface to about thirty thousand feet,

The Winter Storm Warning has been upgraded to a Blizzard Warning for a part of northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin.

We are watching the track of this low, that will combine with another system dropping through Alberta to create one slow moving storm that should nearly stall over Iowa.

Since the center of the inland cyclone will be relatively close to the Twin Cities, the strongest winds from the pressure gradient will be in western and northen Minnesota through Christmas Eve.

Track of the center of the lowest pressure of this large storm.

We believe that there will be around 4 to 5 inches of snow overnight in the Twin Cities, followed by a little lull on Thursday morning into the afternoon. Heavy accumulations kick in again on Christmas Eve into Christmas.

Hunker down. This one has all the makings of a show stopper. To a meteorologist this is like being in the Super Bowl.

CE