Weather report: Colder air seeps into the southern Plains

In the West, precipitation is beginning to spread ashore in the Pacific Northwest. Elsewhere, warm, dry weather is promoting early-season fieldwork in California and Arizona, while chilly conditions prevail in the Rockies and northern Intermountain West.

On the Plains, sharply cooler weather prevails in Texas, where Monday’s high temperatures included 93°F in Corpus Christi and 88°F in Dallas-Ft. Worth. Cold weather covers the northern and central Plains. Dry weather has returned to North Dakota in the wake of early-week snowfall, which boosted snow depths to 18 inches in Minot and 11 inches in Grand Forks.

In the Corn Belt, snow is spreading eastward from the middle and upper Mississippi Valley, while rain showers are affecting the Ohio Valley. Winter storm warnings are in effect in a broad area from Minnesota to Ohio.

In the South, mild weather is returning to the lower Southeast in advance of an approaching storm. Meanwhile, rain showers are developing across the interior Southeast.

Outlook: A storm system currently centered over the Tennessee Valley will drift eastward and rapidly intensify on Tuesday night and Wednesday near the Mid-Atlantic coast. For the remainder of today, snow will cause some travel disruptions from the upper Midwest southeastward into the eastern Corn Belt. Some of the heaviest snow can be expected across northern Illinois and neighboring areas. During the mid- to late-week period, a major, late-winter storm will unfold across the middle and northern Atlantic States, with some of the greatest snow accumulations— possibly a foot or more—expected in the western suburbs of Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston. Meanwhile, increasingly stormy weather will prevail in the West, starting later today in the Pacific Northwest. Five-day precipitation totals could reach 1 to 3 inches in northern California. Toward week’s end, precipitation will return to the central and southern Plains and linger across the Southwest. The NWS 6- to 10-day outlook for March 10-14 calls for near- to below-normal temperatures and near- to above-normal precipitation across the majority of the U.S., including the Plains, Midwest, and Mid-South. However, warmer- and drier-than-normal weather will prevail in the West. Elsewhere, warmer-than-normal weather will cover New England, while drier-than-normal conditions will affect Florida’s peninsula.