Will you see ice or snow?
Cold drizzle and ice have already started to fall in many of the warned areas. This includes parts of the Dallas area and extends to Virginia.
Track the storm
Ice storm warnings are in place for places like Little Rock, Arkansas; Memphis, Tennessee; and Lexington, Kentucky, where up to half an inch of ice or more is expected. Half-inch ice packs can put up to 500 pounds of weight on power lines and trees. Some areas have not seen ice conditions so bad in years.
“This could be one of the worst weeks for winter weather in eastern Kentucky in more than a decade,” said the National Weather Service’s office in Jackson, Kentucky.
How to survive winter in your car
The NWS also suggests that if you have to travel, keep an extra flashlight, food and water in your vehicle in case you get stuck on the roads. People in these warned areas also need to make sure they have enough food and warm blankets in case of a power outage for several days.
While this particular configuration is perfect for the occurrence of ice, determining exactly where most of the accumulation will occur remains somewhat uncertain.
“Any slight variation in temperature profiles will lead to changes in the type of precipitation that will then lead to changes in ice accumulation,” said the NWS in Louisville. This can mean the difference in one city receiving large amounts of ice and the next city receiving only rain or snow.
“This weather setting is really a book ice storm situation,” said CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller.
“You have hot, spring temperatures in the 60s and even 70s in the southeast, while the cold Arctic air descends through the central US to find warm air near the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Where these two air the masses meet , the hot air rises and the cooler air stays close to the surface, resulting in precipitation that falls as rain, but freezes on the surface. “
Snow in the middle of the Atlantic
Another round of snow is also planned for the middle of the Atlantic until Thursday, and again on Friday. Places like Washington, DC and Philadelphia are likely to see about two to three inches of snow, with larger amounts outside the city.
Much larger quantities will occur in the interior sections of Virginia and West Virginia. Parts of West Virginia, Virginia and Pennsylvania could see 10 to 15 centimeters, especially at higher altitudes.
Baby, it’s cold outside
The ice could last all weekend, with another explosion of arctic air plunging south of Canada. Sixty million people will experience temperatures below freezing next week, with 75% of the population below freezing.
It can be a perfect cozy climate for Valentine’s Day, but an intense cold like this can be dangerous, especially those without energy. “That means the possibility of power outages at extremely low temperatures for several days,” says the NWS in Memphis.
More than 6 million are under wind cooling warnings from Montana to Michigan and south in Nebraska. Temperatures will drop as cold air spreads across much of the country, with dozens of possible low records on the plains and in the south.
Below-zero temperatures will reach south to the Texas coast at the end of the weekend until the beginning of next week, with temperatures of up to 50 degrees below average.