New Years Eve blog: arctic air and winter mix. -Doug

We are wrapping up at the end of 2021 and are about to move to 2022. So far, this winter has been a breeze! No arctic air and no snow or ice. But now we are starting to see changes. First, let’s look at Friday, not too bad, but windy.

In the evenings when you go out to party or stay at home who knows with covid showers and thunderstorms start to appear, but mostly in our southern counties.

Showers and thunderstorms increase overnight. In the morning, our northern counties will be in sleet and freezing rain.

The heavy will be in the morning hours, at noon, the heaviest will come out. The freezing rain line at this time will be around the I-44 hallway. Then we switch to mostly freezing drizzle and light sleet showers in the afternoon. So most of the metro won’t be that bad, but a few slippery spots. By far, the worst will be north of the metro.

From Joplin north to Nevada mostly freezing rain. Our northwest counties mostly sleet and a lot. South Joplin, mostly just rain.

The main elevation wave oscillates through Saturday evening and Sunday morning with some snow showers and minor accumulations. We could all see some minor accumulations with these snow showers. Temperatures also drop to single digits on Sunday morning.

Long-term forecasts are below.

-Doug

Friday and Saturday next: Stay cool with a chance of rain by the weekend.

January 9-15: Cold for the first half of the week. Chance of rain and snow Monday and Wednesday. Cold and dry for the rest of the week.

January 16-22: Mostly cold for this week. Chance of light rain on Monday and Friday.

January 23-30: Chance of rain Monday and Tuesday. It could mix with a little snow on Tuesday. Then a cold week with warmer temperatures on weekends with the risk of rain.