March 14-20, 2001:

The next week started with a slow moving, intense low pressure center entering Missouri from the west on March 14. The system started out with plenty of moisture and temperatures above freezing, and brought 1-2 inches of rain to northern Missouri, southeastern Iowa, and western Illinois (Figure 11). Cold air entered the back of the system, and it appeared that a large amount of precipitation would fall in the rest of the region. Unfortunately for the drier areas to the east, the storm's moisture source and upper level support both weakened as the jet stream dove to the south, leaving the low drying out as it moved very slowly across the central Midwest during March 15-17. However, this allowed the cold air to catch up with the remaining moisture in the system, bringing substantial snows to the northwest quadrant of the storm (Figure 12). Snow amounts reached 10 inches in parts of northern Missouri and the eastern two-thirds of Iowa, with lesser amounts all the way across the Midwest through Ohio. Several dry days followed, and only at the end of the period on the 20th did a strong southeastern low bring some precipitation to the extreme eastern Midwest as it moved north along the Atlantic coast. Overall, the northern part of the Midwest had a very dry week (Figure 13), and was slightly above normal in temperature (Figure 14). Only the areas receiving heavy precipitation in Iowa and Missouri were significantly below normal in temperature.