Double trouble: dual winter storms to target central, eastern states this week
Another active week of weather is setting up across the nation this upcoming week with a pair of storms expected to bring widespread disruptions.
From destructive tornadoes in Tennessee and Kentucky to ice and snow in the Midwest and Northeast, a large storm caused major impacts from Feb. 5-7.
Another series of storms is projected to track across the eastern half of the country this week, producing travel delays and the potential for power outages as waves of rain, thunderstorms, an icy mixture and accumulating snow impact regions over the course of the week.
Early week stormy period
Early in the week, a storm emerging into the southern Plains will produce the first round of weather impacts of the week. Precipitation will begin to overspread parts of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas by later Monday, but will quickly push to reach locations along the East coast by Tuesday.
"The first storm from Monday night to Wednesday night will occur as cold air expands farther south and meets up with moisture spreading north from the Gulf. This can lead to accumulating snow that may impact millions from the Plains to the mid-Atlantic states and southern New England, with the potential for significant travel impacts across the big cities in the region from late Tuesday into Tuesday night," explained AccuWeather Meteorologist Alex Duffus.
Locations like Dallas, Little Rock and Nashville will remain warm enough to primarily observe rain and potentially thunderstorms as the first storm tracks eastward across the South. Daytime temperatures in all three cities will range in the 40s and even 50s Fahrenheit through at least Wednesday.
On Tuesday, a band of steady rainfall can set up across the Mississippi Valley and surrounding Gulf Coast states. Some areas could observe rainfall totals ranging from 1-3 inches, with the highest amounts likely to occur along the front from far eastern Texas through northern Louisiana, central Mississippi and Alabama.
To the north from Kansas through the mid-Atlantic states, temperatures will range several degrees lower, resulting in any precipitation that falls to be in the form of sleet, freezing rain and snow.
While most locations from Springfield, Missouri, to Louisville, Kentucky, may observe between 1 -3 inches, locations farther east across West Virginia and northern Virginia to the coast can pick up higher accumulations, some spots even reaching above 6 inches. The AccuWeather Local StormMax™ for the Monday night to Wednesday morning snow event is 14 inches.
In addition to the threat of accumulating snow across portions of West Virginia and Virginia, some areas that start out as wet snowflakes can quickly change over to sleet and freezing rain from Tuesday to Tuesday night.
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Portions of Interstate 81 in Virginia will be impacted during both the Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning commute times.
On Wednesday, the core of the early week storm will migrate offshore from the mid-Atlantic coast as moisture lingers to the south. Forecasters say there is a chance some locations across the East may not even notice an appreciable break in the rain or wintry precipitation before the next storm makes its debut.
Midweek storm to take more of a northerly track
"Another storm is expected to closely follow on the heels of the early week storm, impacting many of the same areas beginning on Wednesday," noted Duffus.
While locations across the Great Lakes region and upper Ohio Valley will miss out on the bulk of the moisture and winter impacts from the early week storm, that will not be the case with the second storm to follow this week.
Snow and even a period of ice can impact cities as far north as Chicago, Detroit and Buffalo later this week as the next storm traverses the nation. Forecasters warn that there is a chance that the corridor of sleet and freezing rain is more expansive with the second storm compared to previous rounds over the past week, especially across the mid-Atlantic region and New England.
Cities such as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Binghamton, New York, and Springfield, Massachusetts, may be among some spots to be within the core of the ice later this week as the storm moves through.
The center of the storm will continue to track northeastward through Thursday, producing snow, ice and rain before it exits from New England. By Friday, a zone of high pressure will quickly move in behind the storm, allowing for mainly dry weather and a much-needed break to end the workweek across the Ohio Valley and Northeast.
Looking ahead to the upcoming weekend, forecasters are highlighting the risk for another storm to develop across the Central states before trudging across the east, bringing potentially another round of impactful weather across the nation.
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