Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS! For spending time outdoors it will be nice and sunny, but defintely a cold start for Christmas morning with everyone waking up to frost, low may fall into the upper teens in NE Mississippi. Last Christmas had tornadic weather and snow, not having anything close to that this Christmas!

Severe Weather

Severe weather tomorrow will bring heavy rain, thunderstorms, strong winds, hail, and even tornadoes to the state. Much of Mississippi is under a moderate risk of severe weather by the Storm Prediction Center with the remainder of the state under a slight risk. There has already been isolated thunderstorms and showers move through and it will only be increasing as time passes.

More Freezing Rain and Sleet

Yesterday, Northwest Mississippi recieved light ice accumulations on trees and elevated surfaces, but temperatures were very marginal so there wasn't much travel issues. There is still accumulations on trees due to cloudy conditions and temperatures still below freezing, so any additional ice tonight will cause problems. Temperatures will not be borderline this go around in Northwest MS, so the freezing rain will accumulate on more objects. The precipitation is coming from the southwest and moving towards the Mid South, so it could start as early as 6 PM. The main window for frozen precip is from 9 PM to 6 AM in the western half of the advisories and from midnight to 6 AM in the eastern half the advisories. Ice accumulations could exceed 1/10" in may locations and locally up to 1/4". Keep in mind this is NEW accumulation on top of what there already is! Power outages are possible and I would also avoid traveling. It may also intially start out as sleet in most areas and sleet accumulations should stay under half an inch. STAY SAFE!

Winter Storm Update

The NWS issued a Winter Storm Watch for extreme northwest Mississippi for winter storm potential on Friday. 1/4-1/2" of freezing rain is likely in Northwest MS with light, but still impactful accumulations as far south and east as Tupelo. The changeover to freezing rain should occur in the watch area early to mid Friday, morning continuing through the afternoon where there is also potential for another changeover to sleet and/or snow, but the freezing rain will have the biggest impacts. The rain/ice line will move slowly southeast throughout the day. Whenever the watch is upgraded to a warning, advisories will likely be posted for some of the remaining areas of North MS.

This is a map of POSSIBLE ice accumulations through Friday night for MS:

 

 

And like I said before, the threat won't be over after this. Saturday night into Sunday has an even bigger chance now of additional freezing rain and sleet, and possible accumulations from Friday may not do much melting, which could also raise the risk of power outages and tree damage! It is still not certain what kind of accumulations will occur with Round 2 and it will need to be watched.

 

70s on Wednesday - Winter Storm on Friday

The entire state will be very warm for early December on Wednesday: in the 70s with mostly cloudy skies. Light Showers possible in North Mississippi though.

As much colder air moves into the state on Thursday, temperatures will quickly drop with increasing chances of precipitation. Late Friday morning it is likely that rain will switch to freezing rain with also some sleet possible later in the day and the chance of a few snowflakes on the back end, especially in Northwest Mississippi. Significant ice accumulations are possible so this will need to be watched! The farther north and west you are in the state, the better chances you have at winter weather. It won't be over after that: there is also potential for freezing rain on Saturday night and snow for next Monday, all for North Mississippi, but not going into detail with that yet.

This is 0.25" inch ice probablities from the CPC. They give a moderate chance for Desoto County and a slight chance for much of Northern Mississippi. Not too far, there is a high chance for northern suburbs of Memphis and West Tennessee and Northeast Arkansas.