Early-week winter storm to dump snow from DC to Philly, NYC
The next storm in a long storm train from the Pacific will spread accumulating snow and major travel problems from Missouri to Massachusetts through Tuesday with dangerous ice for parts of the southern Appalachians.
From West Virginia to Delaware, heavy snow left towns and roads buried on Feb. 11.
As a February frenzy of storms continues across the United States, a storm will produce accumulating snow and trigger travel problems from the mid-Mississippi and Ohio valleys to the mid-Atlantic coast into Tuesday night, AccuWeather meteorologists advise. A pocket of dangerous ice will target the Interstate 77 and 81 corridors in the southern Appalachians and Piedmont as well.
The latest storm is one of several more winter precipitation events lining up from coast to coast for the month that will make cross-country travel difficult and barely give some property owners and clean-up crews time to rest.
The early-week winter storm will affect more than a dozen states, from Missouri to Maryland and Massachusetts. It will trigger shoveling and plowing operations and deicing activity at the airports in approximately 200,000 square miles.
The worst conditions in terms of snowfall will extend from eastern Kentucky to New Jersey and Delaware, with a general 3-6 inches of accumulation. The moderate snowfall includes the major cities of Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Charleston, West Virginia. However, a pocket of heavier snow with 6-12 inches will fall on parts of northern Virginia and eastern West Virginia with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 14 inches. That heaviest zone may extend east through Washington, D.C., and part of the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
The storm will put Washington, D.C., well ahead of the seasonal snowfall average to date. As of Feb. 10, the nation's capital has picked up 8.4 inches of snow compared to a historical average of 8.6 inches at Reagan National Airport. Philadelphia will gain ground in their average to date of nearly 14 inches, compared to about 5 inches thus far this season. New York City has fared better than Philadelphia so far this season but is still well short of its average to date of 17.8 inches.
The northern edge of the accumulating snow will be roughly near I-80 in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
The zone from New York City to southern New England will be on the northern edge of the accumulating snow, where accumulations will range from 1 to 4 inches. The greatest accumulations will be in this zone from central New Jersey to Long Island, New York. Should the storm strengthen upon reaching the Atlantic Ocean at the last minute, heavy snow may develop in part of southeastern New England.
In part of the southern edge of the winter storm, ice will create dangerous travel from southwestern Virginia to southeastern West Virginia and northwestern North Carolina.
Where freezing rain occurs instead of sleet, the glaze of ice can be substantial enough to weigh down trees and trigger sporadic to regional power outages. For a time, sleet can reach as far to the southeast as part of the Raleigh, North Carolina, metro area.
Drenching rain from this storm and the next will occur in the southeastern United States. Enough rain may fall to lead to incidents of urban and small stream flash flooding. Rounds of thunderstorms are also in store, with some severe centered on parts of the lower Mississippi Valley.
The track of each winter storm will be somewhat different, so heavy snow is likely to fall on some of the major cities in the Midwest.
The next storm, beginning midweek, is forecast to dump heavy snow on multiple Midwest metro areas, including Chicago, Detroit and Kansas City, Missouri.
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