textproduct: La Crosse

KEY MESSAGES

- Periodic light snow tonight. Little, if any, snow accumulations.

- Additional light snow will be possible as a cold front moves through the area on Tuesday night and Wednesday.

DISCUSSION

Issued at 154 PM CST Sat Jan 10 2026

Tonight

A shortwave trough will move southeast through the Upper Mississippi River Valley tonight. During the evening, the 900-850 mb lapse rates will be between 7-9 C/km and then they decrease below 7 C/km overnight. The combination of these steep low level lapse rates and cyclonic flow aloft will result in scattered snow showers this evening and flurries overnight. Little, if any, snow accumulations.

As typical with the NBM, both the winds and wind gusts were on the low side, so went with a 50-50 blend of the NBM and the NBM 90th percentile to increase them closer to what would be seen off the BUFKIT soundings.

Tuesday Night into Wednesday

A longwave trough will build south into the Great Lakes and Upper Mississippi River Valley on Tuesday night and Wednesday. At the same time, there will be shortwave trough moving on the western periphery of the longwave trough. This will result in a Canadian cold front moving south through the region. Initially there will be saturation issues along and ahead of this front. However, with time, there should be enough saturation for some light snow to develop along and behind this front. Little, if any, snow accumulations.

Thursday into Friday

The longwave trough will continue to deepen across the eastern CONUS late next week. This results in some uncertainty on where the storm track will set up during this time period. Due to this uncertainty stayed with NBM precipitation probabilities. Besides impacting the precipitation, it will also impact temperatures too. Like the precipitation, stayed with the NBM for temperatures too.

AVIATION /18Z TAFS THROUGH 18Z SUNDAY/

Issued at 1146 AM CST Sat Jan 10 2026

Light snow showers move into the region this afternoon and continue through at least midnight. Snow showers may linger east of the Mississippi River past midnight then diminish between 09 and 12Z. MVFR CIGS move into the region with the snow and linger into Sunday morning. Skies should begin to clear up by late morning. Northwest winds increase this afternoon with sustained winds of 10 to 20 mph and gusts of 25 to 35 mph. Winds decrease to 10 to 15mph by mid morning Sunday. The strongest winds remain mostly west of the Mississippi River. Visibility reductions with these snow showers will likely stay in the MVFR range, but if snow rates increase or the wind blows the falling snow around, lower visibilities will be possible.

ARX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

WI...None. MN...None. IA...None.