Feet of snow for some, inches for others in parts of Midwest, East into this weekend
As progressively colder Arctic air begins, snow from lake-effect and a storm will bring slippery to difficult travel from near the Great Lakes to the Ohio Valley and southern Appalachians.
AccuWeather’s Geoff Cornish takes a look at the Great Lakes’ water temperatures, the slow growth of ice and why lake-effect locations typically see a front-loaded snow season.
Bands of heavy lake-effect snow will develop in the wake of a storm straddling 2024 and 2025 from the Upper Midwest and interior Northeast. AccuWeather meteorologists say sneaky bursts of snow in the Northeast and another a stripe of accumulating snow in the Midwest and Ohio Valley will round out the week.
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Feet of snow to pile up downwind of Great Lakes
The heaviest snowfall of the next few days is forecast to continue downwind of the Great Lakes. As is typical of lake-effect snow, the cold air passing over the relatively warm and open waters of the Great Lakes can create bands of snow. These band shift can bring intense bands of snow that move and shift around with changes in the wind direction.
These persistent lake effect bands set up earlier this week and have continued to pivot across the Great Lakes region, bringing several inches of snow from Michigan to West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York. Some places in western New York and northwest Pennsylvania have already reported half a foot as of Thursday night.
As a batch of even colder air strengthens later this week, lake-effect snow bands will become heavy to intense from Friday to the weekend.
"Some of the heaviest snow totals from the lake-effect event into Sunday will occur to the east and southeast of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario," AccuWeather Storm Warning Meteorologist William Clark said, "From 12-24 inches of snow will pile up from parts of northeastern Ohio to northwestern Pennsylvania and western New York, as well as another pocket in northern New York from just east of Rochester to just south of Watertown, with Syracuse smack in the middle."
Both of these areas have an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ snowfall of 48 inches downwind of the eastern Great Lakes. There will be pockets where 12 inches and locally higher amounts of snow can pile up in northern and western Michigan.
Sneaky snow to stretch from Ohio Valley to mid-Atlantic Coast
Not all of the snow will be confined to the Great Lakes region on Friday. Gusty winds may help push some of the lake-enhanced snow over the Appalachians, and streak into parts of southern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.
One of the main concerns with this streak of snow shifting towards the East Coast on Friday afternoon is the timing.
A quick wave of heavy snow could impact locations from Philadelphia to Baltimore, coinciding with sunset. Any heavier period of snow could temporarily reduce visibility, slowing the evening commute and perhaps causing a few slick spots.
Travelers out and about into Friday evening should use caution, as untreated surfaces could quickly become slick in a burst of snow.
AccuWeather meteorologists are also tracking another batch of snow Friday.
A clipper-like storm will race from the Plains into the Ohio Valley where it can bring several inches of snow. As the storm moves along, a widespread 1 to 3 inches of snow will fall. Snow is likely to be persistent enough in the West Virginia mountains for upwards of 6 inches of snow in the highest terrain.
This storm's snow will pass south of Chicago and Detroit but can bring slippery conditions to Des Moines, Iowa; Peoria, Illinois; Cincinnati; Charleston, West Virginia; and perhaps even Knoxville, Tennessee.
The Appalachians will tend to screen out much of the snow, although some intermittent snow or flurries can fall on portions of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and northern North Carolina from Friday to Friday night. Some rain may be mixed in near the coast.
Progressively colder conditions will follow the clipper storm with major outbreaks of Arctic air. Rounds of cold air are likely to infiltrate the eastern half of the country through most of January.
Each wave of Arctic air may be accompanied by sizable and disruptive winter storms from the Midwest to the East through mid-month.
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