A late winter storm, combining rivers of moisture and low temperatures, is expected to drop snow from the Deep South to the Canadian border over the weekend, and as of Friday night, more than 20 million Americans are under a winter storm warning.
Total snowfall can range from one to three inches in northern parts of Alabama and Mississippi to about 13 inches in northern Maine. In places like New York and New England, more than a foot of snow is possible.
The storm could cause travel problems and power outages across much of the eastern US from late Friday through early next week.
The storm first passes through the central US, threatening parts of the central Gulf Coast, Georgia, the Florida Panhandle and the Carolinas with severe thunderstorms Friday night through Saturday, CNN reported.
Some refer to this system as the ominous-sounding “bomb cyclone” that forms when storm pressure drops 24 millibars in less than 24 hours.
The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning from the Deep South to Northern Maine. Several school districts from Kansas to Pennsylvania have announced closures ahead of the late winter storm.
More than 500 U.S. fights have already been canceled on Friday, with 6,404 reporting potential delays, according to tracking website FlightAware. As of Saturday, 495 flights have already been cancelled.
“With this bomb cyclone, perhaps the biggest concern is how late it comes and how it travels inland,” said Judah Cohen, a winter storm expert at Atmospheric Environmental Research, a business firm outside of Boston.
About 21.4 million people are under some kind of winter storm warning, NWS reported Friday. About 56 million people are under a winter weather warning.
A late winter storm moving through the central US and heading northeast will blow snow from as far south as the Canadian border over the weekend.
The storm is threatening parts of the central Gulf Coast, Georgia, the Florida Panhandle and the Carolinas with severe thunderstorms Friday night through Saturday.
Strong winds combined with snowfall “will make travel extremely dangerous” in the mid-Atlantic and northeast on Saturday, according to the National Weather Service. Above: Ambulance crews respond to vehicles off the road in Putney, Vermont, Wednesday.
The NWS warns that much of the inner northeast is likely to receive six to 12 inches of snow.
And that’s bad news for plants that act like it’s spring.
Many crops and plants in the southeast have begun to bud due to warmer weather so far, Cohen said, and frosts – possibly record lows – expected at the back of this bomb cyclone could cause serious damage.
The National Weather Service (NWS) is reporting the possibility of “heavy rain and possible flash flooding” in North Florida and Southeast Georgia starting Friday evening and “weakening” Saturday morning.
Four to six inches of snow could fall in the Tennessee and Ohio river valleys, according to CNN.
“Farther east, rain will turn to snow in the mid-Atlantic states of southern New England early Saturday as winds turn northwest and pick up,” the NWS reported.
“Snowfall rates of one to two inches per hour are expected to be combined with wind gusts of up to 50 mph, making travel extremely dangerous given Saturday’s significant drop in visibility.”
In places like upstate New York and northern New England, more than a foot of snow is possible.
“The highest snowfall accumulations are expected over central and northern New York in northern New England, where 6 to over 12 inches is likely,” the NWS said in a statement.
“It’s a pretty impressive storm system,” Matthew Clay, a meteorologist with the Met Service in Burlington, Vermont, told The New York Times on Friday.
“In the interior of New England, we expect a fairly wide spread of seven to 14 inches of snow.”
A reporter earlier Friday showed the area affected by snow stretching from northern Alabama and Mississippi, through the Tennessee and Ohio valleys, and across the northeast.
School districts from Kansas City to Pittsburgh have already announced closures. Above: People walk down Main Street during snowfall in Brattleboro, Vermont, on Wednesday.
Several school districts in Kansas City have already announced they will be closed Thursday due to the storm, according to WDAF.
Overland Park, Kansas had the most snow in the area Friday with 5.7 inches, followed by Harrisonville, Missouri with 5.5 inches and Liberty, Missouri with five inches, a new report said. channel.
Several school districts in the Pittsburgh area have announced closures, according to the KDKA.
Snow in Pittsburgh can be as high as six inches, with the worst weather from early Saturday until noon that day, according to CNN.
A cold front is also advancing east and bringing temperatures down to 30 degrees below average from Texas to Minnesota on Friday.
Cold snaps could be felt in the Great Lakes and Northeast over the weekend in the single digits.
A bomb cyclone has nothing to do with explosions other than how explosively the storm develops. This is when the storm rapidly intensifies due to a rapid drop in pressure dropping at least 24 millibars in 24 hours.
The NWS is reporting the possibility of “heavy rain and possible flash flooding” in northern Florida and southeastern Georgia starting Friday evening and “weakening” Saturday morning. Above: A child runs through a puddle in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida on Friday.
A cold front is also advancing east and bringing temperatures down to 30 degrees below average from Texas to Minnesota on Friday. Above, a man walks past the University of Pittsburgh on Wednesday.
In this case, computer models predict that this storm will drop from about 1,006 millibars in Alabama, drop to about 976 in Boston, and into the 960s by the time it hits Canada, Cohen said.
There are usually a few bomb cyclones in the east in winter, Cohen said, but many of them are over the ocean and no one was hurt. According to him, this is at least the third winter for the East Coast.
“It’s happening a little closer to land, so it’s getting a little more attention, because if it’s a[sjustafishstormwhocares?’Cohensaid’It’snotlikeit’sthatunusual'”Cohensaid[просторыбныйштормкогоэтоволнует?»—сказалКоэн—Неточтобыэтобылотакужнеобычно[sjustafishstormwhocares?’Cohensaid’It’snotlikeit’sthatunusual’
It’s late bombing cyclone season, Cohen said, so this is probably the last one for at least the southeast, and maybe for the rest of the coast.
In the New York state capital of Albany, the St. Patrick’s Day parade scheduled for Saturday was postponed for a week due to an approaching storm.
After two years of cancellation due to the coronavirus, “the parade committee would rather wait one more week to put this blizzard behind us so we can enjoy the event safely together,” said co-chair Tim Carey.