WeatherFanatics: Snow, Ice to Disrupt Travel from St. Louis, Chicago to NYC

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Snow, Ice to Disrupt Travel from St. Louis, Chicago to NYC

By Kristina Pydynowski, Senior Meteorologist

January 11,2015; 10:22PM,EST

The wintry mess that started the weekend in Texas will expand across the lower Midwest states and the Northeast through Monday, disrupting travel along the way.
A pair of storm systems tracking through the eastern half of the United States will be responsible for a swath of snow from the lower Great Lakes to New England, rain in the South with a wintry mix in between.
While the storms will fail to combine and yield a major winter storm, enough snow and ice will still fall to turn untreated roads and sidewalks slippery and cause flight delays.
The snow and icy mix will be rather expansive Monday morning, meaning millions of people will face disruptions to their commute or school delays/cancellations.

On the cold side of the storminess, snow will break out from northern Missouri to the western lower Great Lakes as Sunday comes to end. The snow will then expand eastward to the eastern Great Lakes and northern New England Sunday night through Monday.
The greatest potential for the snow to top three inches lies from northern Ohio to western New York, including Cleveland and Buffalo. Some communities in this zone were just buried by lake-effect snow earlier in the weekend.
A general 1 to 3 inches is expected elsewhere. Motorists should not let their guard down as slick travel could still unfold in and around Chicago; Detroit; Syracuse and Binghamton, New York; and Portland, Maine.

In between the snow and the rain also moving through the South in a west-to-east fashion, ice or an icy mix is a concern from St. Louis to Indianapolis to Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio, to Pittsburgh and Scranton, Pennsylvania, to Poughkeepsie, New York.
A brief period of ice will also threaten travelers in southern New England, especially west of I-95.
"In places where it has been very cold over the last few days, the ground may still be cold enough to allow any rain that falls to freeze on contact," stated AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Steve Travis.
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Such icy conditions will develop along I-95 from New York City to Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., and in northwestern Virginia Monday morning before a changeover to rain occurs.
However, AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Brian Thompson states that motorists should still use caution as temperatures crawl above freezing.
"Even when temperatures rise above freezing to 33 or 34 F, some surfaces may still be icy given how cold it has been over the past several days," warned AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Brian Thompson.
The ice may be most prolonged along the corridor from Springfield, Illinois, to Indianapolis to Columbus, further creating significant hazards for travelers.

The storm has started as rain in St. Louis, but the arrival of colder air will cause a transition to an icy mix for the Monday morning commute.
Fresh arctic air will also pour across the Northeast Monday night as the majority of the wintry mess pushes offshore.
As temperature plunge, any wet or slushy areas could turn slick Monday night. This threat is greatest in the upper Ohio River to the Hudson Valley.
The cold air will continue to work southward through midweek, potentially setting the stage for ice to unfold in southern Virginia and North Carolina.
Later in the week is when the brutal cold in the East and Midwest should finally ease for a time.

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