“Whiteout conditions are expected and will make travel treacherous and potentially life-threatening” in parts of Nebraska on Tuesday into Wednesday, the NWS warned. “Travel should be restricted to emergencies only.”
Meanwhile in Colorado and much of New Mexico, a high wind warning, among other things: “Damaging winds could blow down trees and power lines. Widespread power outages are possible. Travel will be difficult.” Much of West Texas and the Oklahoma panhandle are under red flag warnings, indicating that strong winds and low humidity and dry conditions make rapidly spreading wildfires likely. Some areas, including Amarillo, Texas, are considered to be at “extreme” fire risk right now.
To the east, Kansas, Iowa, and parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin are under high wind and winter storm watches, with the storm still another day or two away. And the colors of the NWS map will soon meander even further east, as the storm produces wind and snow or rain across most of the country.
All these watches and warnings, and the for-the-moment-still-accurate predictions of snowfall totals and wind gust speeds, are why firing the country’s meteorologists and data scientists and climate modelers and so on is so self-destructively stupid. We’ve grown used to knowing what hazards are on their way; the Trump administration seems to prefer we didn’t.
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