Parts of Midwest to pick up more snow from out-of-season storm

Unseasonably cold air gripped much of the northern tier of the United States early this week and unfortunately this winterlike chill will not relinquish its grip on the Midwest and Northeast anytime soon.

The combination of unseasonably cold conditions and a wave of moisture ejecting out of the Rockies will likely bring accumulating snow to the region. The threat of wintry mix and accumulating snow will add yet another headache for essential workers traveling to and from work.

“An area of low pressure, or storm system, will allow for some cold Canadian air to dive down into the central Plains and into the Great Lakes through late week,” said AccuWeather Meteorologist Brett Edwards. 

A storm system continuing to bring accumulating snow to much of the Rockies has extended onto the central Plains. This storm will slowly weaken and track east, bringing a mix of rain and snow to much of the central Plains into Thursday night.

The storm will continue to push a wintry mess into the Midwest during Thursday night. Many locations from southern Iowa to northwestern Ohio, will receive accumulating snow.

Due to temperatures during the day generally remaining above freezing in the area, snow will mainly accumulate during the overnight hours when temperatures are expected to be close to freezing, according to Edwards.

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A swath of 1-3 inches of snow is expected across this area, while a few locations within a narrow corridor from southern Iowa to northern Indiana could pick up 3-6 inches. It's likely that portions of southern Iowa pick up more than 6 inches of snow where an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 12 inches anticipated.

During the day Friday, the swath of heaviest snow will track through northeastern Ohio, northern Pennsylvania and the southern tier of New York state.

This storm system will continue to push eastward late Friday through early Saturday, with many major metro areas along the Interstate-95 corridor of the upper mid-Atlantic likely avoiding accumulating snow.

However, that is not likely to be the case over part of the interior Northeast, where several inches of snow are forecast, especially over the higher terrain.

While an out-of-season storm bringing snow to portions of the Midwest and Northeast in mid-April is not a frequent occurrence, many locations across the region do typically record some small amount of snow during the month of April.

Fort Wayne, Indiana, averages 1.0 inch of snow over the entire month of April. From this storm alone, Fort Wayne may receive up to 300% of their average April snowfall as AccuWeather meteorologists expect 1-3 inches of snow to fall in the city Thursday night through Friday.

Farther east, Cleveland, Ohio, averages 3.3 inches of snow during April. However, since the start of Meteorological Spring on March 1, Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport has only reported a trace of snow as of April 14. Over the same time frame in 2019 and 2018, the airport reported 6.6 and 14.6 inches of snow respectively.

Much of the Midwest and portions of the Northeast are continuing to experience a major snow drought for the 2019-2020 season.

As of April 14, Cleveland recorded 30.1 inches of snow, which is less than half of their average seasonal snowfall by mid-April of 67.4 inches.

A similar trend can be found farther east in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where total snowfall for the 2019-2020 season stands at 21.7 inches as of April 14. The average seasonal snowfall in Pittsburgh by April 14 is 41.1 inches.

While this mid-April storm will not be a major snowmaker that sets seasonal snowfall totals back on track, it will likely make for slippery and dreary conditions at times to end the week across the Midwest and Northeast.

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