Meteorologists forecast Friday that a spreading late-season winter storm will bring mixed rainfall across much of the United States on Saturday, raising fears of hazardous driving conditions and scattered power outages.
About 70 million people from Arizona to Tennessee and up Maine have come under some kind of winter weather warning, according to the National Weather Service. The hurricane was expected to hit hardest in the inner northeast.
“It’s a pretty impressive storm system,” Matthew Clay, a meteorologist with the Met Service in Burlington, Va., said Friday morning. “For inland New England, we’re expecting a fairly wide spread of seven to 14 inches of snow.”
The weather service said light snow will fall from the Southern Plains to Wisconsin on Friday, amid a cold front traversing the central United States. This front will intensify, leading to the development of a severe winter storm in the Tennessee and Ohio valleys in the eastern part of the country this weekend.
Areas of North Texas and southern Oklahoma are expected to receive several inches of snow before Friday morning. Similar amounts of snow were expected in areas around eastern Tennessee through Saturday evening, with up to five inches of snow expected in parts of Kentucky.
Forecasters say the northeast is likely to see the most snow accumulation. Areas around Albany, New York, up to four inches of snow could be seen. Cities further north could see up to 12 inches. In Vermontseven to 14 inches was predicted for most of the state.
“We are expecting very difficult driving conditions during the day on Saturday and Saturday night,” Mr Clay said of the upper northeast. “We don’t recommend traveling unless you have to, and also be prepared for isolated power outages as some of the snow we encounter will be wet.”
Cities closer to the coast, including New York as well as Bostona combination of rain and snow was expected with much less accumulation.
This weekend’s storm follows a pattern of active winter weather over much of the south and east coasts this year.
In early January, successive storms created dangerous driving conditions in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, including one weather system that stuck hundreds of drivers on Interstate 95 in Virginia for more than 24 hours. The storm captured truckers, students, families and all commuters, including Senator Tim Kaine.
In mid-January, another storm hit south, killing at least two people and leaving thousands without power, before moving north and bringing heavy snowfall across parts of the northeast and Canada. Another January storm swept across the East Coast, causing the cancellation of thousands of flights and forcing the governors of New York and New Jersey to declare a state of emergency. This storm resulted in over 30 inches of snow in parts of Massachusetts.
In early February, another storm hit parts of Texas with snow and sleet, disrupting traffic and power. Gov. Greg Abbott called it “one of the most significant icing events we’ve had in the state of Texas in at least several decades.” Another storm followed in late February, bringing a mixture of snow, sleet and rain to the northeast.