Snow, lake-effect and freeze-ups to accompany colder air into next week
A parade of storms from Canada will bring rounds of snow, lake-effect and reinforcing cold from the Midwest to the Northeast into early next week, with slick roads, quick freeze-ups and aircraft deicing operations.
Sharply colder air arriving in the Midwest on Jan. 14 could come with heavy lake-effect snow in northern Indiana.
A series of storms will travel from central Canada to the Midwest and Northeast into early next week. Each storm will bring areas of steady snow, while repeated surges of cold air will produce rounds of lake-effect snow and create the risk of rapid freeze-ups.
As many as three clipper storms with trailing cold fronts are expected to pivot through the region into early next week.
The first storm was producing areas of rain and thunder in the Southeast and areas of rain in the Northeast Wednesday. The storm was also producing snow from northern Illinois to Michigan, which will spread across the Ohio Valley, Appalachians and part of the coastal Northeast through Thursday morning.
"More than half a foot of snow is expected in some areas downwind of the Great Lakes in Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania and New York. A few spots could receive a foot or more of snow through Thursday night," AccuWeather Meteorologist Elizabeth Danco said. The AccuWeather Local StormMax™ snowfall is 24 inches.
While most of the snow around the Great Lakes will fall as lake-effect snow, colder air behind the storm’s cold front will bring 1–6 inches of snow as far south as the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina and as far east as the Catskills in New York and the Green and White Mountains of New England.
Closer to the Interstate 95 corridor in the mid-Atlantic and New England, rain will mix with wet snow or change to a period of wet snow through Thursday morning. Conditions will vary by location, but enough snow could fall to coat roads, especially from areas just north and west of Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia, New York City and Boston, where temperatures may drop below freezing.
The next clipper storm will waste no time rolling southeastward. Snow is forecast to spread from Duluth, Minnesota, midday Thursday, reaching Chicago and central Michigan Thursday night, then Cleveland during the midday hours Friday.
The round of steady snow from the second clipper storm will generally range from 1 to 3 inches, with higher amounts of 3-6 inches in northern Minnesota, northern and western Michigan and northwestern Wisconsin.
As this storm moves across the interior Northeast during the weekend, lake-effect snow will accumulate. Some snow will still reach as far south as the southern Appalachians and as far east as the Poconos, Catskills and Berkshires Saturday and Saturday night.
A third clipper storm will drop into the Upper Midwest over the weekend with areas of steady snow from northern Minnesota to northern Michigan.
Meanwhile, a developing storm along the Gulf Coast over the weekend could spread a zone of snow, sleet and rain from southern Georgia to southern Delaware Sunday. There is the potential that the storm could track farther inland over the Southeast and farther north into the coastal Northeast. There is also the chance the storm will remain weak and head out to sea and bypass the I-95 Northeast.
A word of caution as colder air and snow follow recent warmth
When colder weather and snow follow a period of warmth, some slushy or wet roads can still freeze quickly, creating hazardous travel conditions.
"These conditions can occur in areas that receive a thin coating as well as a foot of snow," Danco said. "Drivers should be prepared for slick spots and rapidly changing visibility.”
In many cases, recent rain has washed away salt and other snow-melting compounds from the roads. Higher temperatures in recent days have allowed road surfaces, parking lots and sidewalks to warm, which may cause snow to melt at first before refreezing. However, as temperatures quickly dip, untreated areas may be subject to a flash freeze. These conditions can occur at any time of day, just as well as at night, this time of year.
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