Widespread Arctic air to leave Northeast, Midwest shivering

Much colder air will continue to pour into the Northeast following a dynamic storm that produced everything from heavy snow and damaging ice to flooding rain and even severe thunderstorms this past week. Not only will plummeting temperatures lead to a freeze-up in many areas, but those without power from the winter storm will face hardships due to the cold conditions, AccuWeather meteorologists say.

Early Friday morning, more than 350,000 utility customers were without power from Texas to Maine due to the storm that spanned two days in some locations. That number had dropped below 200,000 by Saturday morning.

Even though crews will gradually restore power early this week and the number of outages in the Northeast will continue to decline, tens of thousands of people may need to venture out on potentially dangerous road conditions on Sunday to stay with friends and relatives or at hotels where power is still on. Power crews may also face equipment difficulties due to the low temperatures.

The air settling across the Midwest and Northeast is not quite the coldest of the winter so far, but it is still dangerously cold. Temperatures bottomed out in the teens and lower 20s F in the Tennessee Valley and plunged into the single digits over much of the Ohio Valley, central Appalachians and northwestern New England on Saturday morning.

With the exception of the middle Mississippi and Tennessee valleys and lower part of the mid-Atlantic, temperatures will remain below freezing over the Midwest and Northeast on Sunday morning.

The very cold air will cause sleet and slush to be glued onto many streets, sidewalks and parking lots from the Appalachians to the Midwest. The conditions will cause the ice to be very difficult for road crews and property owners to remove.

In some East Coast metro areas where all or mostly rain fell from the storm in cities such Philadelphia, New York City and Boston, motorists heading home or venturing out should be prepared for changing road conditions. Surfaces that appear to be wet may become covered with a thin layer of clear ice.

Runoff has been excessive due to 1-2 inches of rain that fell on part of the Northeast, and this may continue to cause water to spill on secondary roads in hilly areas. The runoff can freeze in this situation.

After a frigid start Sunday morning, temperatures are forecast to recover to within a few degrees of average during Sunday afternoon. Normal highs for early February range from near 20 in northern Maine to near 50 in middle Tennessee. Where the sun is out, and that should be in many locations, cleanup of ice and hard-packed snow should be an easier task. High temperatures in areas affected by ice, or an ice and snow combination, will range from the mid-20s in Worcester, Massachusetts, to the mid-30s in Columbus, Ohio. Elsewhere, temperatures are forecast to approach 40 in Pittsburgh and the mid- to upper 40s in Memphis, Tennessee.

As temperatures recover during the daytime, forecasters say motorists and pedestrians should use caution and be alert for falling ice. Shifting tree limbs and steel structures can shed chunks of ice without notice.

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While much of the weekend will be free of precipitation in the wake of the massive storm last week, there will be a couple of exceptions.

An Alberta clipper will travel eastward just north of the Canada border early this week. Most of the accumulating snow associated with the storm will be confined to the northern parts of North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and New York state. However, snow showers may dip as far south as the I-80/90 corridor of the Midwest on Sunday and the eastern Great Lakes region on Monday.

Small stream flooding that occurred following heavy rain on Thursday and Friday from the South Central states to the Northeast will subside, according to AccuWeather forecasters. However, some gradual rises are likely on the secondary and major rivers over the next few days. There is the potential for minor flooding in areas that do not have levees or water mitigation measures. Ice breakups and jams in the Northeast where rain fell from the recent storm can lead to more sudden rises in a few cases.

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