Winter storm unleashes blizzards, ice, tornadoes across the US

AccuWeather

AccuWeather reports on a severe winter storm sweeping across the U.S., bringing blizzards, ice and tornadoes. Kansas reports up to 12.5 inches of snow, while the South has multiple tornado warnings.

Transcript

00:00Thanks so much for joining us here on the AccuWeather Network, I'm Jeff Cordish.

00:08And I'm Damian Lotus.

00:09Welcome back.

00:10We have a lot of weather to talk about here as we head into this evening, tracking everything

00:12from snow, blizzard conditions, an ice storm, even severe thunderstorms with tornadoes across

00:17the south.

00:18Yeah, a lot of different hazards out there with a classic winter storm here.

00:22And this could bring 6 to 10 inches, will bring 6 to 10 inches to Washington, D.C.

00:27If we see 10, it will be our first time in 6 years there in that city.

00:30Very impactful weather moving in.

00:32It's going to take you live right now to Louisville, Kentucky and you can see snow coating the

00:35ground, but Jeff, we're going to see even more snowfall here as we head into this evening

00:39and tonight.

00:40Yeah, and if you travel south down I-65 or I-75, deeper into Kentucky, you begin to enter

00:45a totally different environment here, going from snow and sleet down into freezing rain.

00:51And that's going to be a big storyline.

00:52The number of flight cancellations, we saw that increase by about 200 over the past two

00:56hours or so, now 1,427.

01:00And an updated look at snow reports here, Kansas running ahead of the pack with 12.5

01:06inches of snow reported in Manhattan, Kansas, not too far down the road.

01:09The capital city, a foot of snow in Topeka.

01:12And this is not just a quiet snowfall that is a nice little snow globe.

01:16This is coming with wind that is blowing the snow around, dropping visibility under a quarter

01:20mile so it's a true blizzard.

01:22Meanwhile, you travel a little farther east, and earlier in this event in the Overland

01:28Park area, we had some big time ice and all kinds of problems on the roads.

01:33Now it's a lot colder than that.

01:35So this footage is from yesterday when the warmer side of this storm led to an ice storm.

01:40You know, and every part of this storm is different here, depending on where you are

01:44on the map.

01:45The experience in Paducah, Kentucky is going to be very different from that in Kansas City

01:48compared to Baltimore, Maryland.

01:50But this began as an ice storm in Overland, Kansas, and now it's a blizzard here on the

01:55back side.

01:56So we had ice and then a foot of snow.

01:57So that's complicated if you're trying to clear your driveway at, you know, the base

02:00is solid ice there from the freezing rain on the front end of this.

02:04Here's the current radar view with lightning and also the severe warning superimposed on

02:09here.

02:10We've had a couple of, several tornado warnings here on the map in the southeast Arkansas

02:13moving into Mississippi.

02:14We'll hear more about them from Damien, but the blizzard rages on into Kansas and into

02:20Missouri.

02:21We're talking a lot about what's going on to the east because that's where the storyline

02:24is kind of escalating, but it's not over here.

02:27With wind and snow in progress into Kansas and Missouri.

02:32It's a steady snow into Indianapolis and farther south.

02:35Our forecast team did a great job there putting that six inch line very close to St. Louis.

02:39More than six inches north of town, a little less farther south with more ice building

02:43in.

02:44We're down to, we're up to five, I should say, in Fargo, so we gained a few degrees

02:47in Fargo, but it is cold out there, 25 degrees with snow falling in Charleston, West Virginia.

02:52The ice stripe here carries us into a quarter to half inch of ice here, this third shade

02:58from Paducah to Lexington and down into areas like Jackson, Kentucky.

03:02That's a severe ice storm and this is going to lead to long lasting power outages.

03:07Temperatures are going to get really low on the backside of this through the middle of

03:10the week and the latter part of the week.

03:11So it's a problem and anybody who relies on electricity to heat their home will be in

03:16a precarious and dangerous situation if you do lose power.

03:19The crews are going to be busy and they will not be able to restore power to everybody

03:22in just two days.

03:24Disruptive ice here for many, but a significant ice storm, half an inch of that can do extensive

03:30tree damage at eight pounds per gallon.

03:32Water is very heavy and it coats everything it lands on when you have an ice storm like

03:35this.

03:36So serious problems there, but as we move forward, 9 p.m. the snow lifts up into Garrett

03:41County, Maryland and up into places like Washington, D.C.

03:44For the second time in what, three days, we're going to have some snow into Virginia Beach

03:48or at least north of there into Chincoteague where we had thunderstorm back on Friday.

03:52But most of this is switched over to rain in Virginia Beach, to the northwest of there,

03:56Richmond, snow, then ice, Baltimore, D.C., a big time snow storm for you.

04:00So here's the 12 to 18 inch range here, north of Kansas City, north of Lawrence, Kansas,

04:06but then to the east.

04:07Here we have one to three inches in the light blue.

04:09That's the case for North Jersey, Staten Island, one to three inches of snow, maybe

04:13a little under an inch north of Manhattan, probably around two to four inches for Philadelphia.

04:17You step south of the city, you get in clearly to that three to six inch snow band in Wilmington,

04:21Delaware, into areas like Millville, New Jersey, and into say York, PA, and then you get into

04:26the six to 12 inch for Morgantown, West Virginia, eastern West Virginia there also, northern

04:32Virginia up into Round Hill, other areas like Washington and D.C.

04:36And you get down into the three to six with some ice moving in to places like Stoughton

04:40and Radford, a little less than that.

04:42So D.C., six to ten inches of snow expected for you.

04:44It's a big deal here.

04:46And again, first time we've seen six plus since 2022.

04:48Let's go to New Orleans now.

04:49The severe weather side of this is a big concern as well, Damian.

04:52That's right, Jeff.

04:53And as we look at New Orleans as of right now, we have a couple of showers in the area,

04:56but overall it's looking like it's going to stay dry.

04:58That trend is going to change here as we head throughout this evening.

05:01Here's the overall setup.

05:02And I'm tracking a line of severe thunderstorms extending from Memphis, Tennessee, all the

05:06way down towards Houston, Texas.

05:07So we're talking five hundred miles of severe thunderstorms ongoing here as we head into

05:12this evening, including multiple tornado warnings here moving through parts of Louisiana, Arkansas

05:17and into Mississippi.

05:19So overall, we're primarily going to be watching this little cluster of storms here that are

05:23centrally located between western Mississippi, southern Arkansas and northern parts of Louisiana.

05:28This is where we have those tornado warnings ongoing here across this region.

05:32Let's go and take a closer look here at these tornado warn storms.

05:35Overall, you can see we have lots of rotation here, especially on the leading edge of this

05:39line of thunderstorms.

05:40So this is what we're going to be primarily watching for as we switch over to the northern

05:45storm right there.

05:46We're going to be watching out for the primary rotation signature.

05:50I'm going to show you that right now.

05:52So what we normally look for are those reds and greens, those colors that are together.

05:55And that's what we're seeing here with some of these storms.

05:57You got the tornado warn storm here across parts of Louisiana that we're going to be

06:02watching out for.

06:03The overall rotation signature has come up some.

06:05So we are seeing strengthening and intensifying rotation on that storm right there.

06:09But we're also going to be primarily watching this storm that's out in front of the main

06:13line right there.

06:14The overall storm motion on that one is going to be up to the northeast.

06:17But whenever I look at the rotation on this storm right here, it does look like it is

06:22still maintaining a healthy amount of low level rotation, which could produce a tornado.

06:26However, I do want to point out that the overall rotation signature on this particularly tornado

06:31warn storm, this particular tornado warn storm, it's kind of broadening out, which

06:36is telling me that this is transitioning from a tornado threat to a large hail threat.

06:40But if you're in the Greenwood area right there, you still need to take your tornado

06:43precautions.

06:44Make sure you shelter in the lowest level center room with no windows here because we'll

06:48be watching out for this tornado threat here as we head into the rest of this evening.

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