Joel Wright
EF5
Looking at the potential for a very damaging/devastating icestorm later tonight and tomorrow. Still looks like the best icing will occur from the Salina KS area, northeast to near St Joseph MO, up towards Lamoni IA, to just south of the Quad Cities, and up towards NIU/Dekalb IL. Folks along this line should easily see 3/4" glaze, with additional amounts where some thunderstorms occur. With this much ice, widespread power outages and significant damage to trees and powerlines are a given. Wind will be almost non-existent with the storm, which does help somewhat. However, given the magnitude of the glazing, it's not much consolation.
Anyone who lives in these areas needs to start your preparations, as we may be losing electricity for awhile.
Warmer air will try to sneak northward, and should have at least some success. Areas like Kansas City, Quincy/Peoria IL should spike above freezing early Tuesday morning helping to alleviate the ice buildup there. The GFS and GEM both show this, and have proven with past icestorms to be pretty good at forecasting the surface freezing line in these events.
Anyone who lives in these areas needs to start your preparations, as we may be losing electricity for awhile.
Warmer air will try to sneak northward, and should have at least some success. Areas like Kansas City, Quincy/Peoria IL should spike above freezing early Tuesday morning helping to alleviate the ice buildup there. The GFS and GEM both show this, and have proven with past icestorms to be pretty good at forecasting the surface freezing line in these events.