Storm to drop heavy snow, threaten whiteout conditions across North Central states into Saturday night

By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist

November 30, 2018, 2:47:23 PM EST

Areas from Nebraska and South Dakota to parts of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan can expect a storm to bring heavy snow, gusty winds and local blizzard conditions from Saturday to Saturday night.

The wintry side of this storm will be centered farther north, when compared to the storm last weekend. While the storm may not be quite as potent in terms of wind, when compared to the storm last weekend, top-end snowfall with this storm may exceed last week's.

The worst conditions from snow and wind are likely to focus on part of the Interstate 90 and Route 20 corridors of the Plains and part of I-35 and I-94 in the upper part of the Mississippi River basin. Travel will become dangerous in this zone.

The combination of heavy snow and winds averaging 15-30 mph with gusts near 40 mph can produce whiteout conditions from time to time that border on blizzard conditions, even though the storm will begin as rain and may include a period of ice in part of the forecast heavy snow and wind area.

The storm may pack enough wind to cause sporadic power outages.

A large swath of 3-6 inches of snow will extend from eastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana to part of northern Michigan.

The zone capable of receiving a foot of snow with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 24 inches will be centered on northern Nebraska, southern South Dakota, northwestern Iowa and southern Minnesota.

Download the free AccuWeather app to see how the storm will affect your area.

At this time, it appears the heaviest snow will stay northwest of Des Moines, Iowa, and Omaha, Nebraska, and just southeast of Minneapolis. These cities can still expect enough snow to make for slippery travel with the worst conditions likely Saturday night to Sunday morning.

However, cities that are likely to be hit hard with a change to blowing and drifting snow include Valentine, Nebraska; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Sioux City, Iowa; Rochester, Minnesota; and La Crosse, Wisconsin.

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Snow is forecast to stay south of Fargo, North Dakota, but may graze Duluth, Minnesota.

All rain is forecast to fall on Chicago. A small amount of snow may dip to Topeka, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, by Sunday. While the storm is projected to bring rain to these cities, locally dense fog may cause major travel issues for a time during the first part of the storm.

The combination of rain, fog and breezy conditions may lead to substantial airline delays at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, Detroit's Metro Airport and others in the Midwest on Saturday.

The same storm will spread a swath of drenching rain and a period of locally dense fog into the Northeast this weekend as well. As a result, negative travel impacts may be far reaching, even though the heaviest snow will avoid many of the major hubs in the Central states.

Where there is still snow on the ground from last weekend's storm, enough rain may fall to cause flooding in poor drainage areas, especially where piles of snow are blocking storm drains from parts of the Midwest to the Northeast.

Meanwhile, in the Southeast states, thunderstorms may reach severe levels on Saturday, following locally dangerous storms over the lower Mississippi Valley from Friday evening.

On Sunday, the storm will slowly wind down over the Plains and Upper Midwest. However, there will still be patches of snow and ongoing blowing and drifting of the snow that has already fallen.

Temperatures are forecast to average below normal over much of the Central states for the week ahead.

So where it snows, that snow is likely to remain for a while. Warm air that works its way into the Ohio Valley and lower Great Lakes region by Sunday will dissipate early next week.

How much snow do you think will fall? Click on the image above to make your prediction now and play Forecaster Challenge.