Weather and Eclipse Cloud Cover Update for Sunday April 8 2024

Wet snow and high winds across the northern High Plains today areexpected to gradually become less intense by tonightMixed rain and wet snow spread east across the northern Plains intotonight as showers and thunderstorms move across the Midwest, Mid-South,Great Lakes toward the central Appalachians Monday morning.Threat of heavy rain quickly emerges across the western Gulf stateslater on Monday and then expands further into the Mid-South by Tuesdaymorning.Critical to Extreme Fire Weather Risk continues over portions of thecentral/southern High Plains today with improvements on Monday.An intense low pressure system, likely reaching peak intensity early thisSunday morning, has continued to impact much of the High Plains and nearbyRockies with winds locally gusting over hurricane force.  The cold airmass behind this intense storm is supporting wet snow across the northernHigh Plains into the northern Rockies.  The combination of wet snow in themidst of the high winds has resulted in blizzard conditions locally overwestern Nebraska.  Meanwhile, plenty of warm air is wrapping around theeastern side of the storm with bands of showers and thunderstorms sweepingthrough the northern and central Plains.  The intense storm is expected togradually weaken today as it moves generally toward the upper Midwest. Mixed rain and wet snow are expected across the northern Plains by tonightas showers and embedded thunderstorms move into the Great Lakes and downthe Mississippi Valley by early on Monday.  The rain/snow over thenorthern Plains is expected to taper off by Monday night when the lowpressure system weakens further and heads toward southern Canada byTuesday morning.Meanwhile, the huge circulation associated with the weakening nor'easterhas been slow to exit New England, with some wet snow and rain stillaffecting Maine and the Cape Cod area early Sunday morning.  Theprecipitation is expected to taper off this morning as the huge stormbegins to move out into the Atlantic.  Colder air wrapping around the hugestorm will lead to below freezing temperatures as far south as thesouthern Appalachians early this morning before the April sun and thearrival warm air from the intense storm over the Plains send temperatureswell up into the 60s to near 70 by this afternoon.For the total solar eclipse that is scheduled to take place on Monday, itappears that southern Texas will wake up to considerable clouds Mondaymorning with a resurgence of warm and moist air from the Gulf of Mexico. In contrast, New England will likely wake up to clearing skies with coldtemperatures into the 20s Monday morning under a fresh snow cover from therecent nor'easter.  There will probably be some breaks in the clouds fromnorthern Arkansas to central Ohio behind a front, and mostly cloudyfarther northeast from eastern Ohio to western portions of New York.