Another snowstorm could be on the way for the Gulf Coast, East Coast
There could be another wave of snow across parts of the South and the East during the upcoming weekend as a storm develops, threatening areas that were just hit by severe ice and heavy snow.
AccuWeather’s Bernie Rayno breaks down the winter storm risk for the East Coast this weekend.
The final week of January could bring another disruptive bout of wintry weather, including the chance for a new storm. This comes on the heels of a massive winter storm that spread ice across the South, over a foot of snow in the North and left more than 1 million people without power.
The cold will be extreme for most in the eastern half of the country. Temperatures for locations in the Ohio Valley, Northeast and Midwest are forecast to stay below freezing the entire week. Even in Texas, the Mississippi River Valley and the Southeast, temperatures are expected to dip below freezing at night.
The cold that settled in across the South and the East this week will help set the stage for the risk of wintry weather throughout the week, including another potential winter storm this weekend.
"Late this week, a storm is expected to strengthen along a stalled front near the Gulf Coast. This will bring the opportunity for rain and some wintry precipitation for the Southeast," said AccuWeather Long-Range Expert Paul Pastelok.
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As early as Friday, precipitation could begin along the Gulf Coast. Rain is most likely south of Interstate 10 from Louisiana to Florida. Depending on exactly when the storm strengthens, snow could mix with rain from Interstate 10 northward across parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia.
Some of these areas were already hit by snow or ice from the last storm, but early indications are that the most intense precipitation would largely miss the area, with widespread power outages farther north.
As the storm moves eastward late Friday through Saturday, precipitation is expected to move north also, bringing rain to Florida and potentially wintry weather to the Carolinas.
"How fast the storm strengthens will be a determining factor in the final track of the storm this weekend and whether or not it moves up the East Coast," Pastelok said.
If the storm is weaker or takes longer to strengthen, it will be more likely to ride along the Gulf Coast and move farther out over the Atlantic before moving northward.
In this scenario, some snow would be most likely in parts of the Carolinas and Georgia, and widespread heavy snow would be much less likely in the Northeast and for most areas in the Southeast. It's not out of the question that the storm would turn northward too late, keeping it dry across all of the Northeast.
Conversely, a stronger storm is more likely to turn northward sooner, increasing the risk of snow across the entire Eastern Seaboard. The rapidly strengthening storm could turn into a nor'easter and bring a risk of more widespread heavy snow from the mid-Atlantic to New England, with stronger winds than the last storm, especially along the coast.
A storm that is exceptionally quick to strengthen could track far enough west to bring significant snow to the Appalachians from Georgia and North Carolina to Pennsylvania, New York and New England.
"Even if a more moderate storm unfolds and tracks within a couple of hundred miles of the mid-Atlantic and New England coasts this weekend, increasing winds from the northeast and north will raise seas and the likelihood of coastal flooding," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said. "How intense and close the storm tracks are will determine the strength of the winds and severity of coastal flooding and beach erosion from North Carolina to Massachusetts and Maine. If a bomb cyclone were to unfold and track close in, moderate to major coastal flooding could occur."
"It is important to note, in the absence of an intense nor'easter or blizzard along the Atlantic coast, even a quick-moving, weak storm that produces a coating to a couple of inches of snow combined with the cold conditions in place in parts of Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia, could be very problematic," Sosnowski added.
A reinforced wave of cold air is likely to follow this storm, keeping temperatures locked well below the historical average for the first one to two weeks of February.
"Subfreezing temperatures will dive as far south as central Florida, bringing the potential for a damaging freeze for citrus crops in the region," said Pastelok.
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