Quick freeze, gusty winds and snow showers to follow winter storm in Midwest, Northeast
As a Sheriff's Deputy was working on the scene of an accident in Dallas County, Iowa, on January 28, a car lost control, hit multiple cars and then hit the Deputy. He suffered minor injuries in the accident.
The circulation around the departing winter storm will usher in a brief shot of cold air and create gusty winds and cause snow showers for a time from the Midwest to the Northeast into Wednesday.
While the air is not nearly as cold as the blast that arrived in early January or more recently last week, it is just enough to cause some wet and slushy areas to freeze.
Prompt removal of snow and slush, then treatment by highway crews and property owners may make roads and sidewalks much safer for motorists and pedestrians.
In some cases from the Ohio Valley and lower Great Lakes to the central Appalachians, mid-Atlantic and New England, a quick coating of snow can fall which may reverse improving road conditions.
Snow showers will sweep eastward from Illinois to parts of Indiana, Ohio, southern Michigan and western Pennsylvania into early Wednesday morning. Roads that became wet may become covered with snow and ice once again.
The cold air will add to difficulties for those who had the power knocked out during the snow and ice storm.
Of concern is the strength of the wind for several hours as the storm departs.
Westerly winds can gust between 40 and 50 mph over areas where trees and power lines were weighed down with snow and ice.
In absence of snow and ice on the trees, few problems would typically occur with winds in this range. However, the shifting branches loaded with ice and snow, some to the point of breakage, can lead to additional power outages. The power may go out after the storm in areas that had few issues while the ice storm was in progress.
Areas at greatest risk for additional power outages will extend from northern Illinois to southern Michigan, northern Indiana, northern Ohio, central and eastern Pennsylvania, northern Maryland, northern Virginia, northeastern West Virginia, northern New Jersey, much of New York state and central and coastal New England.
The air will become just cold enough to allow a quick dose of flurries, heavier snow squalls and lake-effect snow into Wednesday.
Bands of heavy lake-effect snow may persist through Wednesday night off lakes Erie and Ontario from parts of northwestern Pennsylvania to western and northern New York state. Where lake-effect snow persists, an additional 4-8 inches of snow may accumulate.
A brief dose of milder air will follow as a new but weaker storm develops over the Midwest on Thursday and shifts eastward during Thursday night and Friday.
Mostly rain will fall from that next storm from the Ohio Valley to the mid-Atlantic and southern New England, but there will be a bit of snow over the Upper Midwest and the northern part of the Northeast.
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