A procession of winter storms continued across the United States Tuesday, threatening more than 80 million from the Midwest to the East Coast with a mix of potentially severe weather.
“A winter storm will bring heavy snow and ice to the Ohio Valley into the Mid-Atlantic through Wednesday,” the National Weather Service said. “Significant ice is forecast for the Central Appalachians. Another winter storm will bring heavy snow and ice to the Central Plains today.”
Forecast maps show the paths and possible effects of two strong weather systems that are expected to cause wintry extremes this week in multiple regions.
The second winter storm of the week was traveling from the Mississippi Valley into the mid-Atlantic region early Tuesday morning, carrying with it a bout of chilling temperatures, heavy snow and significant ice to the Central Appalachians and Central Plains, according to the weather service.
Some communities in the path of one storm were bracing for another weather system to arrive on its heels, with which the National Weather Service called “significant.” CBS News meteorologist Nikki Nolan said one storm would likely track northeastward from the Great Plains, impacting places in the Midwest and the Northeast Wednesday and Thursday.
“The storm will produce heavy snow from northeast Kentucky into West Virginia through the I-95 corridor from Richmond to Philadelphia,” the weather service said in a Tuesday morning advisory. “Snowfall rates will sometimes reach 1 inch per hour, with heavy, wet snow totals of 4-8 inches expected. Isolated power outages are possible, and travel may become extremely hazardous (especially during the Tuesday evening commute).”
Snow, sleet and ice were expected on the northern side of this week’s storms, while potentially severe, heavy rain was forecast on the southern side.
Various weather warnings were set to remain in place for large sections of the eastern U.S. through Thursday, as forecasters said the next winter storm could blanket wide bands of the country with upwards of 10 inches of snow. Extreme cold warnings and cold weather advisories were issued additionally in parts of the Northern Rockies, the Great Lakes and Central Plains regions, owing to an Arctic front driving temperatures down to 25 to 35 degrees below average.
Weather services in Chicago and Hastings, Nebraska, urged people to prepare for at least 6 or 8 inches to accumulate, and parts of central Virginia and West Virginia readied for up to half an inch of ice. National forecasters warned that excessive rainfall would drive up risks of flash flooding and river flooding in parts of the Lower Mississippi and Tennessee Valleys, as well as the Southern Appalachians.
Forecasters also said they expected heavy snow to develop Wednesday from the Central Plains to the Great Lakes, which could at times see snowfall rates of around 1 inch per hour. At least 5 inches of snow would likely accumulate in those areas, according to the weather service, while a combination of sleet and freezing rain was likely over eastern Oklahoma and the Ozarks. Although less than an inch was forecast to dust the affected places farther south, the weather service noted that “any amount of freezing rain could make for hazardous travel on untreated surfaces.”
