Arbor Day celebrations have come and gone, but winter weather is gripping the Plains and Upper Midwest. The storm that dumped snow in the Rockies a day earlier is threatening to blanket parts of the region with up to 8 inches of snow on Thursday.
The National Weather Service warns: "Significant accumulations of snow continue to be reported across portions of southeast Minnesota and northeast Iowa, with over 15 inches already in Dodge Center, (Minn.)."
AccuWeather says the lumbering storm will plow farther south and east, arriving in surprising locations: "There is even a chance of wet snowflakes being seen as far south as the Ozark Mountains in Missouri and Arkansas before the week ends. Some folks [in] northern Alabama, northern Mississippi and the southern Appalachians may spy snowflakes by early next week."
The snowstorm has already set records for May in other locales, according to the Weather Channel, citing places such as Omaha, Neb., (3 inches), Topeka, Kan. (more than an inch) and Sioux Falls, S.D. (1.5 inches). The area around Cheyenne, Wyo. was socked, with some areas reporting as much as 15 inches of snow, KGWN-TV says.
The Weather Channel is also making predictions for this weekend's Kentucky Derby as another low pressure system in the Midwest starts sucking in moisture from the Gulf of Mexico.
"Put simply, if this plume of moisture pushes as far east as Louisville, this weekend could be a soaker," says the media outlet. It adds, "according to the National Weather Service in Louisville, Ky., 46% of the 138 Derby Days have featured at least some rain during the day."
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