Winter storm warnings for the weekend stretch from the mountains of West Virginia north to southern Maine, affecting more than 20 million people. Up to a foot of snow is expected inland across southern New England and around Boston.
The second storm will then begin to form Monday through Tuesday and track about 200 miles further west than its predecessor. That means the East Coast will be on the warm and humid side of the storm. At least one to two inches of rain will combine with melting snow and saturated soils from the previous wet weather to lead to flooding.
On the cold side of the storm, a blizzard — a blizzard with heavy snow, high winds and whiteout conditions — is looking increasingly likely. Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City and Indianapolis should keep a close eye on the system over the next few days as — depending on the exact track of the storm — they could face blizzard conditions.
On the south side of the storm, near the Gulf Coast, severe thunderstorms and tornadoes are possible, especially late Monday into Tuesday.
“Expect disruptions to daily life,” the National Weather Service wrote about next week's storm.
The pair of storms are part of a larger picture of weather chaos poised to leave a few parts of the Lower 48 states untouched over the next 7 to 10 days. Once these two storms pass, a strong burst of cold air and additional storm surge could sweep across much of the western and central United States heading into the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.
System 1: Mid-Atlantic and Northeast Atlantic winter storm
A winter storm — but not necessarily a blizzard — is underway along the East Coast. Near the coast, rain started mostly in Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia during the first half of Saturday, with some sleet and snow mixed in. plain from the Mid-Atlantic to the southern parts of the Northeast.
New York will walk a rain-snow tightrope. The National Weather Service predicts a sloppy mix of the two developing Saturday afternoon that will continue into Sunday.
In southern New England, some cold air is expected to filter southward for more snow closer to the coast. The Weather Service predicts 6 to 12 inches for Boston, which is under a winter storm warningstarting Saturday night and continuing through Sunday night.
Because the snow will be heavy and wet from northeastern Pennsylvania to parts of southern New England, and winds could gust up to 30 to 40 mph, the Weather Service is warning that power outages are possible.
Confidence in significant snowfall is highest in Appalachia. A general 4 to 8 inches is expected from the Virginia-West Virginia border north to the high ground of southern Vermont and New Hampshire. In parts of Worcester Hills, Massachusetts, up to a foot is not out of the question. The same is true on the eastern slopes of the Catskills toward New York's southern Hudson Valley.
Weather models also indicate that freezing rain could deposit up to a quarter of an inch of glaze west of the Blue Ridge in Virginia. This could affect Interstates 81 and 68 as far north as the Maryland Panhandle.
The storm will move quickly at first, and rain is expected to end quickly in the Mid-Atlantic Saturday afternoon and evening. However, the storm will likely slow down some of the New England coast, allowing snow to linger into Sunday night in eastern areas.
System 2: Possible flooding risk in midwest blizzard and east coast
Confidence is growing that a major and very large storm system could blast the central and eastern US next week. “Winds associated with this system will be unusually strong,” the Weather Service warns.
On the cold side, from parts of the Midwest to the Great Lakes, blizzard conditions could occur. On the warm side, severe weather and tornadoes could threaten parts of the Gulf Coast and Deep South with heavy rainfall and strong winds lashing the East Coast.
The system is forecast to materialize over southeast Oklahoma or East Texas by Monday afternoon. It will likely intensify as it moves up the Mississippi Valley, becoming a strong cyclone by the time it reaches the Midwest between Tuesday night and Wednesday. It should eventually move over Lakes Erie and Ontario and into Quebec.
Moisture flowing northwest on the cold side of the system is forecast to deposit a band of snow from Oklahoma and Missouri into Michigan and possibly Canada. Snow totals between 6 and 12 inches are possible. It will likely come in multiple waves, with a pulse of moisture Monday through Tuesday from Kansas to Minnesota and another Tuesday through Wednesday from Missouri to Michigan.
Major airport hubs could be affected. It's too early to call specific locations in line for the jackpot totals, as there are still four days left before the worst conditions begin. the projected placement of the heaviest accumulations will inevitably swing west and east until then.
Cities that could see at least a few inches of snow include Wichita, Des Moines, Minneapolis, Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Indianapolis and Detroit.
Strong winds will also likely create blizzard conditions, with gusts of 30 to 40 mph combined with snowfall west of the low pressure center. This will come as cold air is swirled into the system.
On the south side of the storm, the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center is warning that strong thunderstorms could develop late Monday into Tuesday. The threat for storms Monday will be highest along the Gulf Coast from Houston to Mobile, Ala. On Tuesday, the threat will likely shift from Florida to the eastern Carolinas.
“The environment may become favorable for significant organized development of severe storms, including supercells, with the potential to produce damaging wind gusts and some strong tornadoes,” the Storm Prediction Center warned.
The same storm is expected to swirl a tongue of mild air up the East Coast, which will melt the snow dumped by the weekend's storm. At least 1 to 2 inches of rain could also fall. Rain and melting snow, in wet conditions from multiple storms in December, will likely cause flooding.
Strong winds in the Appalachians and along the East Coast are also a concern. As these strong winds drive ocean water toward the coast, coastal flooding is another possibility. The storm could be similar to a storm in the East in the week before Christmas, which caused river and coastal flooding and widespread power outages due to strong winds.
In the wake of this storm, computer models project not only an outbreak of cold weather across the western and central United States, but also the possibility of two more winter storms sweeping from the southwest to the northeast between Thursday and the MLK holiday.
Jason Samenow contributed to this report.
