National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Snowy, Very Cold and Windy from the Northern Plains to Great Lakes; Critical Fire Weather in South Texas

Moderate to heavy lake effect snow is expected downwind of the Great Lakes, with the Chicago metro potentially receiving 6 to 12 inches of snowfall. A frigid airmass will bring very cold temperatures to the Central U.S. and Mississippi Valley today, migrating into the Eastern U.S. on Monday. Dry and windy weather will bring critical fire weather conditions to South Texas today. Read More >

 

Pictures from around western Colorado and eastern Utah
What is "Z" Time?

Since weather observations and forecasts are provided around the globe, it is important to understand when each piece of data is valid for. To overcome the problem of numerous time zones, it was internationally agreed upon that weather time stamps would be based on the Prime Meridian, or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Other names for GMT include Universal Time Coordinated (UTC) or "Z" Time.
In the Mountain Time Zone:

Z = MST + 7 hours
Z = MDT + 6 hours
or
MST = Z - 7 hours
MDT = Z - 6 hours


examples: 11 am MST = 1800Z (6:00 pm GMT)
or
1800 MDT (6:00 pm) = 0000Z (Midnight the next day GMT)

Map of World Time Zones