***MAJOR WINTER STORM UPDATE NUMBER 3***

***MAJOR WINTER STORM POUNDING THE AREA***


Looking at the latest radar from Twin Cities and Duluth....Mod to heavy snow is falling across the forecast area...Looking at the Duluth radar..A rather large area of heavy snow is all of Douglas,the Northwestern 2/3s of Bay Filed County,...This band of heavy snow reaches down into Burnett County and the Northwestern part of Washburn County..What is interesting but not at all uncommon the Twin Cities radar is not showing this...However Duluth radar is picking up on it rather well...Heavy snow is falling through out Central to Eastern Barron County over in to Rusk County..Mod to heavy snow at times is falling through out the rest of my Northern forecast area.The area of snow appears to be expanding...Now lets look the Twin Cities radar....We see the heavy snow band from Burnett County runs right through the Northwestern/Western part of Polk County....Also the heavy snow band we see in Barron County reaches down into Dunn,Chippewa Counties,then reaches back over into ST.Croix,Pierce,and Pepin Counties.....

Looking at some road conditions this morning....

US 2 from Ashland to Superior is impassable.....Then US 2 from Birch Hill to Ashland is impassable....

Rest of the major roads in my forecast area are snow and ice covered....Secondary roads are snow and ice covered and drifted over...Looking at my road it is drifted shut for the most part with 3 foot snow drifts...

Travel is not is not recommended through out the forecast area, only in emergency conditions..This is the winter storm warning area,in the Blizzard warning area.....They are saying don't travel at all,only under emergency conditions..See the NWS website for more info on all the warnings..So to sum it up if you don't have to travel don't,as conditions will be getting worst over the next hour or so...With very strong winds vis have or will drop to near if no zero vis in both the winter storm warning and blizzard warning areas...Here at the Weather Center vis have drop to near zero attms.....

Looking at some of SFC OBS (wind)...We see winds are from the North/Northeast...Gusting from 20 to 39 MPH...Some of the highest wind gusts are as follows....Ashland 39 MPH....Ladysmith 30 MPH....Rice Lake...31 MPH....Osceola 31 MPH....And last but not least New Richmond 35 MPH.....

Looking at some school closings taken from WEAU's website...www.weau.com


PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Ellsworth: Closed

Elmwood: Closed

Fall Creek: Closed

Gilmanton: 2 Hour Delay

Holmen: Closed

Independence: Closed

La Crosse: Closed

Marshfield: Closed

Melrose-Mindoro: Closed

Menomonie: Closed

Necedah: Closed

Neillsville: Closed

Nekoosa: Closed

Onalaska: Closed

Osseo-Fairchild: Closed

Owen-Withee: Closed

Pepin: Closed

Pittsville: Closed; All Activities and practices are cancelled also

Port Edwards: Closed

Prairie Farm: Closed

Rib Lake: Closed

Spencer: Closed

Thorp: Closed

Turtle Lake: Closed

Whitehall: Closed

Abbotsford: Closed

Adams-Friendship: Closed

Alma: Closed

Alma Center: Closed

Arcadia: Closed

Augusta: Closed

Barron: Closed

Black River Falls: Closed

Blair-Taylor: Closed

Cochrane-F.Cty: Closed

Colby: Closed

Colfax: Closed

Eau Claire: Closed

Eleva-Strum: Closed

I'm sure more will be add to this list as we get closer to 6 Am hr.....So keep checking this site for more school closings....


Stay tuned to The Weather Center for more updates on this major winter storm.........

Forecasters.....Dirk/Paul....