Presidents Day disruptive snow, ice target Georgia to Maine

By Kristina Pydynowski, Senior Meteorologist

February 13,2016; 11:30PM,EST

 

 

The dangerous cold gripping the eastern United States will set the stage for disruptive snow and ice to unfold from Tennessee and Georgia to Maine Presidents Day into Tuesday.
The combination of two storm system converging on the East will lead to enough snow and ice to snarl travel and disrupt daily routines. Schools that were not scheduled off for Presidents Day may be forced to close.
Snow dropping down from the northern Plains will reach the Tennessee Valley and southern and central Appalachian mountains by Sunday evening.

The snow, with ice in southern areas, will then spread to northern Georgia, the Carolinas and mid-Atlantic during Sunday night.
Southern and central New England will begin to see the snow start to fall on Monday. The snow will finally reach northern New England and neighboring parts of Canada at night.
Unlike the Blizzard of 2016 and recent storms, this will not be an all-snow event for a part of the Northeast as the storm persists into Tuesday.
"The storm will spread a variety of precipitation types across the mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Monday and Tuesday," AccuWeather Meteorologist Ed Vallee said.
"By Monday night and Tuesday, warm air will likely change any wintry precipitation over to rain along the I-95 corridor."
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Before the changeover, slick travel will still result in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York City, Boston and Portland, Maine, even with minor snow accumulations and an icy mix.
Snow and/or an icy mix will also create travel hazards before a turn to rain in Richmond, Virginia; Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina; Greenville, South Carolina; Gainesville, Georgia; and Nashville, Tennessee.
Even a few hours of snow or mixed precipitation will have no trouble sticking to sidewalks and roads due to the cold from this weekend.
"Once precipitation changes over to rain, the ground is likely to remain at or below freezing for a time due to the recent cold from Valentine's Day weekend," AccuWeather Meteorologist Brett Rathbun said. "This will cause the rain to continue to freeze on untreated roadways."
Some of the rain will then be heavy enough to bring a flood threat to the region.

"How quickly the wedge of cold air breaks down east of the Appalachians will determine the amount of snow and ice versus rain in the Interstate 95 to I-81 corridors," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said.
According to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Paul Walker, "Enough cold air could remain wedged in parts of the interior South not only to make roads slippery, but also to cause a buildup of snow and ice on trees and power lines with the potential for power outages from parts of northern Georgia to Virginia and Maryland.
Asheville and Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Roanoke and Charlottesville, Virginia; and Hagerstown, Maryland, are most at risk for tree damage and power outages due to ice.
"Across the interior Northeast, there is also a risk for significant snow and ice accumulation," Vallee said.
Several inches of snow will make for slow and slippery travel and disruptions from the spine of the Appalachians to interior New England.
This includes in Charleston, West Virginia; Pittsburgh and State College, Pennsylvania; Binghamton and Syracuse, New York; Burlington, Vermont; and Montreal, Canada.

Where the storm remains all snow, "There will be a relatively narrow swath of heavy snow accumulations across the Appalachians, perhaps in a 50- to 100-mile wide area," Vallee said.
"This area [with amounts in excess of six inches] will feature highly-impactful travel disruptions via snow-covered and slippery roads."
Where a changeover to ice in the interior Northeast limits snow totals, the risk for treacherous travel will not lessen.
AccuWeather meteorologists will be monitoring the potential for the ice to last long enough to lead to localized power outages, especially in the deepest valleys from the Pocono Mountains to the interior of northern New England.
The storm will depart the Northeast on Tuesday with another system arriving from the Midwest on its heels. This system from the Midwest will have to be monitored for returning nuisance to disruptive snow to the central Appalachians and Northeast at midweek with fresh cold to follow.