Snowstorm to snarl travel from Nebraska to Kentucky, Tennessee into Wednesday
A potent storm with some of the heaviest snows of the winter will bring wintry travel combined with plunging temperatures to a large part of the central United States into midweek.
More than a dozen people were killed by severe storms from Feb. 15-16 in Kentucky, Georgia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
A large storm, tapping bitterly cold air, will spread a swath of accumulating snow from the central High Plains to the southern Appalachians into the middle of the week, AccuWeather meteorologists warn. Some of the snow will blanket areas hit hard by recent deadly flooding from the storm this past weekend.
"On Monday, snow blanketed areas from western South Dakota to northern Missouri and portions of Iowa, riding along a boundary separating frigid air to the north and mild air to the south," AccuWeather Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said.
The storm brought 6 inches of snow to Omaha, Nebraska into Monday night.
"This was only due the first leg of the storm, as a second and heavier round of snow [and ice] is setting up farther to the south over the Plains with a reach into the mid-Mississippi Valley from into Wednesday," Buckingham added. "The storm will tap Gulf moisture into midweek, causing the snow area to expand and become heavier."
Motorists will encounter wintry travel along portions of Interstates 35, 40, 44, 55 and 70 over the central Plains states into Tuesday night.
A broad area where 6-12 inches of snow is forecast to fall will extend from eastern Kansas to much of central and southern Missouri to northeastern Oklahoma and northern Arkansas. An AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 20 inches is most likely over the Ozark Mountains.
A heavy and plowable snowstorm is in store for Topeka and Wichita, Kansas; St. Louis, Kansas City and Springfield, Missouri; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Fort Smith, Arkansas; which will result in substantial travel disruptions. Significant blowing and drifting snow during the storm will reduce the visibility and can create near-blizzard conditions in open areas.
Accumulating snow will also spread eastward across the I-70 corridor of the Ohio Valley. Light snow and slippery conditions will reach as far north as interstates 80 and 90.
An icy mess is in store farther south from near I-20 and I-40 in the southern Plains to the lower Mississippi Valley.
The storm will continue to move east over the mid-Mississippi Valley and will spread locally heavy snow into areas that dealt with deadly flash flooding over the weekend and ongoing secondary river flooding that will persist through much of this week.
Little Rock, Arkansas, and Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee, can expect 1-3 inches of snow. Much of Kentucky will pick up 3-6 inches of snow.
"Throughout the zone from the central and southern Plains to the Tennessee Valley, plunging temperatures will lead to a freeze-up of slush and wet areas," Buckingham said.
The cold will become so extreme in the wake of the storm that there will be the risk of pipes freezing and water main breaks. Traditional ice melt and rock salt may be ineffective for a time in the wake of the storm, given temperatures dropping into the teens, single digits and even below zero F in many cases.
The snow and plunging temperatures will add to the hardships of those who lost family members, homes and businesses in the flash floods this past weekend as well as during Hurricane Helene's storm in late September.
The storm will continue from Wednesday into Thursday. As it restrengthens along the Atlantic coast, a swath of heavy snow and ice will extend from the Carolinas to Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. How much snow falls on the mid-Atlantic and southeastern New England will depend on the track and strength of the storm.
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