
Shreveport Braces for Possible Snow & Ice Next Week
SHREVEPORT, LA- Shreveport Officials Preparing for Possible Snow and Ice Next Week
After last week's predictions of severe winter weather for our area, some people might be saying, "Same song... second verse." But those people might be wrong. Last week the predicted winter weather did happen, it just moved further north of the Shreveport- Bossier area that originally predicted.
Weather Channel meteorologist Richard Lewelling told KEEL News on Thursday, the current system is still very fluid, with many factors possibly affecting what might happen next week.
We're going to be dealing with a little bit of a January heat-wave for the next couple of days with temperatures into the 60's... but don't get used to that. This arctic air-mass is going to be racing southward and it's going to bring some frigid temperatures with it.
Although temperatures will be in the 60's the next couple of days, that is expected to change drastically by Sunday night.
Will We See Any Snow From this System?
In fact Sunday, we're probably going to see temperatures hover in the 30's all day and the night-time lows Sunday night will be in the 20's. Now, the big question we have is whether or not we're going to get some snow out of this. And I'm more uncertain today than I was yesterday, said Lewelling.
The idea right now is that the GFS and the European (models) basically show that the heavier snow is along and south of I-20, right now the chance of that happening is about 40%. The Canadian is the most bullish of all the models, it shows a 90% chance of snow in Shreveport. And there could be significant snows for Central Louisiana if that verifies.
Although officials aren't expecting a major ice event affecting tree limbs and power lines, we could be in line for snow for much of the central to upper portions of the state.
I think that there's going to be a pretty good chance that probably the way this is going to play out is that we're going to see a northern extent of this snow field that's going to basically come up to Interstate 20. The further south you go I think the better chances are going to be south of I-20 where we see the better opportunites for snow... probably end up getting about an inch of snow out of the next system. Lewelling told KEEL News.
But then there's hints that there could be another system beyond that, Wednesday night into Thursday that could bring us another chance at seeing some winter precipitation, and then the temperatures will start to climb as the arctic air-mass starts to retreat.
After last week's predictions that didn't materialize for our area, it would be easy to ignore this latest round of predictions for winter precipitation. But I would rather prepare and be ready and it not happen, than to ignore it and get caught flat-footed and unprepared.