Snow to create slippery travel in midwestern US into Friday night
Another round of snow will bring slippery travel to the midwestern United States before New Year's Eve.
While the air will remain very cold, the weak storms will temporarily shut off the flow of arctic air across the Great Lakes. Bands of lake-effect snow will shift and dwindle as the storms roll through.
However, motorists should be prepared for slippery conditions outside of the traditional lake-effect snow belts. Some airline delays are likely due to deicing activities.
One swath of snow streaked from the Upper Midwest to the eastern Great Lakes on Thursday and Thursday night.
Enough snow fell to cover the ground in Des Moines, Iowa, Minneapolis, Chicago, Cleveland and Omaha, Nebraska.
On Friday, the swath of snow from the second storm is likely to track farther south and may be centered near the Interstate 70 corridor east of the Mississippi River.
This second band of snow is forecast to race from South Dakota to Illinois on Friday, then across Indiana and Ohio during Friday night. By Saturday morning, the snow is likely to have reached the central Appalachians.
The second may grab enough Atlantic Ocean moisture at the last minute to bring a moderate snowfall to part of southern New England on Saturday evening.
Both rounds of snow are expected to pass north of St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri, and Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky.
A few communities may receive a moderate snowfall, since the snow will be so fluffy and powdery. However, because of the limited amount of moisture available to the storms and the speed at which they are moving, a light snowfall is most likely in most areas.
In some cases, temperatures will be too low for ice-melting compounds to work very well. In other cases, some of the snow will initially melt on the roads, then freeze, creating hazardous conditions for motorists.
Regardless of the amount of snow that falls with either storm, the coldest air of the season so far will empty out of Canada and into the North Central states to end 2017 and begin 2018.
Conditions will be dangerous and potentially life-threatening for those spending time outdoors and not properly dressed.
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