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Just enough cold air pushed into the Central states to produce a swath of accumulating snow from portions of the Plains to the Great Lakes region from Sunday to Monday, but even colder air is eyeing the region and areas farther to the south and east as the week progresses.
AccuWeather Global Weather Center – March 7, 2022 – The first official day of spring is just two weeks away, but Old Man Winter is still in charge across a large portion of the United States. AccuWeather forecasters say a dramatic change is on the way this week as temperatures could plunge to levels more typical of the middle of winter.
Just enough cold air pushed into the Central states to produce a swath of accumulating snow from portions of the Plains to the Great Lakes region from Sunday to Monday, but even colder air is eyeing the region and areas farther to the south and east as the week progresses.
Arctic air is first expected to settle into the northern Plains midweek and temperatures are forecast to be as much as 20 degrees Fahrenheit below normal for mid-March by Thursday afternoon.
A high temperature of 19 is expected on Thursday in Minneapolis, where the normal high temperature is 37. Meanwhile, Fargo, North Dakota, is expected to hit 14, where the normal high temperature is 33.
Temperatures have averaged below normal in these cities so far in March.
For some other locations, this wave of cold will be a shock to the system. In Sioux Falls and Rapid City, South Dakota, temperatures soared to 20 degrees above normal at the start of March. Afternoon temperatures are forecast to swing to almost 20 degrees below normal by Thursday.
As cold, dry conditions settle into this area of the country, a storm is expected to ride along the southern extent of the cold, spreading snow from the Rockies into the Midwest.
While the highest snowfall totals are likely to occur in the elevations of the Rockies, several inches of snow may extend across South Dakota and Nebraska into Iowa, southern Minnesota and Wisconsin into Thursday. This swath of snow could make for slippery travel across portions of Interstate 80, including in Des Moines where residents are cleaning up following tornadoes that brought devastation to the community less than a week prior.
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