Impending winter storm...
Our focus is on the developing weather maker over the Plains states this evening. A strengthening low pressure system will come out of Wyoming and Colorado picking up plenty of moisture originating from the Gulf of Mexico. That warm moist air will be diverted vertically over a warm front to our southwest. That rising moist air will cool and generate snowfall over our area beginning Saturday morning.
The snowfall rates will reach 1 to 2 inches per hour and accumulations of 4 to 6 inches should occur before the storm system moves far enough north to allow sleet and freezing rain to take over on Saturday afternoon. That should effectively keep the snow amounts down somewhat. However, the roads will likely experience significant glazing because temperatures will remain below 32 degrees.
The storm will then pass us Saturday night and the heavier precipitation will become freezing drizzle and the system will end for Sunday afternoon, though flurries could linger.
Lastly, cold air will once again flow in to start next week, and the snow cover will keep our readings down even more so. Highs will struggle to reach 20 degrees.
Dan Breeden
News 19 Chief Meteorologist
Here we go. It has been delayed, but the first big storm is looking more menacing with each passing day. We meteorologists make forecasts based upon computer simulations and and our own experience in watching how storms evolve over time. We sometimes get conflicting computer guidance from day to day and even hour to hour, so our confidence in predicting storms can be high or we can have our doubts a few days in advance. 
It is a little past due, but there is a potential for a bigger snowstorms this weekend. In a normal year we would be tracking a snowstorm by Wisconsin's gun deer season and Thanksgiving time. It's a little late because we just hadn't had a real influx of cold air from Canada and the Arctic, but that has finally arrived with highs Tuesday afternoon only in the lower 20s. The next week or so will feature 2 or 3 intrusions of reinforcing colder airmasses. 
Score one for the anti-video game and technology crowd. As I was deciding on a topic this evening toys and Christmas gifts popped to the top of the list. After a bit of research I ran across an online article b
It is Thanksgiving day and I am working. It doesn't happen every year, but when it does it is not so bad. Yeah, I miss the family get together and all the comraderie of catching up and going over all the old stories of days gone by, but in a different way I gain a shared experience with the fellow News 19 coworkers who cover the news, weather and sports today.
Thanksgiving is here and it signals the start of the competitive holiday season. A long parade of Christmas ads and all the trappings associated with jolly old St. Nick are upon us. True, it is fun to see relatives and to get together to catch up, but it also introduces stress, and lots of it. Will we be able to get our loved ones and good friends the presents they deserve? Will our trip to our parents or grandparents be interrupted by the ill-timed snowstorm? Have I forgotten to get the paper boy or my hair stylist a little something for the holiday. So many details and so little time. 
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