The Superior Express -

Monday afternoon people in downtown Superior were shopping in shirtsleeves while preparing for a possible major winter storm expected to arrive on Tuesday and last for a few days.

After several days of above normal temperatures it was hard for some to believe the weather would indeed change and so emergency management professionals were urging residents and business owners to be ready for everything from snow to icy roads and possible power outages.

Many of the responses to the approaching storm were as untypical as this winter’s weather has been. Throughout the fall and into the winter this area has been locked in a drought. It has been more common for the National Weather Service to warn about an elevated fire danger than it has been to warn about winter storm possibilities.

Most everyone living in this area has friends or relatives that have been affected by the recent wild fires. Their response to the winter storm warning was pretty much “Bring it on! We will take precipitation in any form including ice and snow.”

“Preparing for an emergency before it strikes can literally save your life or property,” said Andrea Spillars, administrator of the Kansas City, Mo. office of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). “With this approaching winter storm, we urge residents and business owners to take this seriously, get ready now and stay informed.”

Officials from the National Weather Service and FEMA’s Region 7 office in Kansas City had been monitoring the development of the storm for several days. By the time this paper is distributed, we will know if their forecast hit the mark.

On Monday they were saying most of Missouri and eastern Kansas would likely see the greatest impacts. Parts of southeast Nebraska and southern Iowa may see some snowfall, but those totals were expected to be less than four inches.

On Monday the amount of snow predicted to be received here was increasing along with the probability of it snowing on both Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday morning the amount to be expected was being decreased.

Monday’s forecast models indicated the winter system would bring wide-ranging snowfall amounts up to as much as 14 inches in some areas. Residents of Central Missouri were told they could see even higher snow totals.

Ice accumulations were expected along and south of the I-44 corridor, with possible accumulations of as much as a quarter inch in southeast Missouri.

Forecasting the weather is always a challenge as unexpected developments often occur. When commenting on this week’s weather and the changing forecasts we saw a cartoon with a big oval encompassing this nation’s heartland with the notation 1 to 78 inches of snow possible.

Tuesday morning forecasters were predicting the storm would mainly go around Nebraska. Panhandle residents were told to expect 2 to 5 inches of snow and southwest Nebraska residents 1 to 4 inches. The prediction for Nuckolls County was less than an inch. For the southern two-thirds of Jewell County the prediction ranged from 1 to 2 inches. Winds were to be from the north ranging from 15 to 25 miles per hour.

Commenting on the latest forecast Margaret Balch said, “Aww man I really hope this shifts way north!”

By Monday evening at least 90 million people across 14 states were under a winter storm watch or warning as the far-reaching winter storm was expected to track over a 2,000 mile stretch of the United States. The storm was expected to stop truck movement in the Central United States and cause even more disruption to the supply chain.

The storm was caused by a fresh wave of Arctic air driving south and colliding with warm moist air surging north from the Gulf of Mexico. Some southern areas were told to expect from a quarter to a half-inch of ice. Forecasts indicated the ice and snow could reach as far south as the Big Bend of Texas.

Colder area will flow into the area but it is not expected to be nearly as cold as what was experienced last year. Low temperatures along the stateline are not expected to be below zero. By Monday the high is expected to be back in the low 50s. Most likely, the storm did little to end the current drought.