Lots of Exciting Weather In Progress Tuesday

I'm really pressed for time this morning - a lot of exciting things are going on at AccuWeather (product-wise) so I'm very busy today but I wanted to mention briefly some of the exciting things going on in the weather, which you can look to our Headlines at right for more information.

This graphic kind of sums it up:

1. Big blizzard in the Northern Plains/Canada. Our current snow map -- subject to change, see Headlines at right -- shows a wide area (wider than the above, from Minnesota through Ontario) with more than a foot of snow, and no-joke winds and cold air will accompany this system.

2. Big area of severe weather from Arklatex through Detroit. The SPC issued this morning what I would describe as an "unusually large" Slight Risk map. This means that, while the storms today may not produce a major tornado outbreak (no Moderate risk), there will be damage from winds and hail over a wide area, including major cities such as St. Louis, Springfield, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Fort Smith, and Detroit.

But that's not all!

3. More rain will aggravate flooding in the Upper Midwest. Check out the Forecast River Stages below from AHPS - red is moderate and purple is major flooding - some of these rivers could crest near record levels this week.

Add to that a near-miss with a Cat 4 cyclone in Australia (PREMIUM | PRO), and you can get an idea just how interesting the weather is this week!