Fast-moving, midweek storm targets northern US with snow, ice and rain
As a train of clipper storms continues along the United States and Canada border, the northern tier of the U.S. will experience travel problems from the second storm in the series from Wednesday to Thursday.
Snow and wind are coming back to the northernmost parts of the U.S. for the first weekend of March.
The second of three storms for this week will travel across the borderlands of the United States and Canada through Thursday with a collage of rain, ice and snow thanks to lingering mild air that moved in during recent days, AccuWeather meteorologists say.
Like the first storm that exited Tuesday, the second one has little cold air to work with, and what cold air there is resides along the northern tier of the U.S. into Canada. While mild air and the prospect of rain instead of snow or ice may provide some comfort for the winter-weary, they can also cause problems.
The first bit of trouble will be from areas of fog that can slow travel and create dangerous conditions on the highways. Foggy patches associated with the storm and mild, moist air can extend from near the Interstate 80 and 90 corridor in the Midwest and Northeast to the Gulf Coast states. Fog can be especially dense in areas where the ground is still cold or covered with old snow and ice.
Rain will fall on most major metro areas, including Chicago, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York City and Boston. The storm around Detroit will start with spotty ice, and rain may end as snow in the Motor City.
While most of the rain from the storm will not be excessive, enough can briefly pour down in episodes and pockets to lead to urban flooding and ponding on some highways from near the I-80 corridor to I-70. The ponding can be greatest in areas where the ground on the side of the road is still frozen, or drainage is blocked by piles of snow. In some rare cases, enough melting snow, combined with the rain, can lead to ice-jam flooding over the northern tier.
The milder air will lead to thinning and thawing of ice on area ponds and lakes, which can make it dangerous for people and animals to venture on the ice.
A wintery mix with rain and snow is in southern Michigan to Upstate New York and central New England, including the Maine coast. However, there can also be some pockets of sleet and freezing rain within.
Snow will accumulate mainly from northern Michigan and central Ontario to southern Quebec, northern New England and the northern tier of New York state from the storm. In most cases, the few inches (several centimeters) of snow will be the icing on the cake after weeks of storms throwing feet of snow (50-100 centimeters) on a heavily populated part of Canada from Ottawa to Montreal and Quebec City.
As the back edge of the midweek storm advances to the east, temperatures dropping overnight can cause untreated wet areas to freeze. Just enough cold air will slosh back in to set the stage for more wintry trouble just 24-48 hours later.
Another and more potent storm will be hot on the heels of the midweek storm. The storm will take a similar track to the midweek system and could bring a band of somewhat heavier snow to the twin tiers of the U.S. and Canada.
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