Nearly nonstop winter storms to cause cross-country problems this week

AccuWeather

From flooding and landslide concerns in California to day after day of snow and ice in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast, the week of Valentine's Day is going to be a stormy messy one.

Transcript

00:00John, we are getting a welcome break, but it's always with mixed benefits here this

00:06time of the year, because we need the moisture, we just don't want too much of it too fast.

00:10Well, that's the key thing.

00:11We need the rain, so that's welcome, but the problem is when the rainfall comes too fast

00:15and too furious, that's our concern with this storm system.

00:19Later this week, AccuWeather was sounding the alarm about this concern all the way back

00:23to last week, well ahead of all other known sources, because we want people to be best

00:28prepared and to be positioned to stay safer.

00:31That's what we do here at AccuWeather.

00:33The concern is that, look at this atmospheric river, look where it's pointed, right at Southern

00:37California, right at the areas that have had these devastating wildfires, and that's a

00:42big concern, because rainfall coming at a rate of a half an inch to an inch or more

00:47per hour is enough to result in very serious flooding concerns, especially in those burn

00:53scar areas around the Los Angeles metro area.

00:56So that's a big issue here across Southern California as we head toward Wednesday night

01:01into Friday.

01:02And John, how much rain are we expecting overall?

01:04Well, with the atmospheric river pointed in this direction, think about this kind of like

01:09a fire hose of atmospheric moisture being delivered right to the California coastline,

01:15a widespread area of two to four inches of rain in the Los Angeles basin, and the higher

01:21elevations down towards San Diego, one to two in downtown San Diego, but look at the

01:25higher elevations near Los Angeles, some of those areas where those burn scars are

01:30occurring, four to eight inches of rain possible, and again, not only just the amount of rain,

01:35which is substantial, the biggest storm this winter season, this wet season across Southern

01:40California, but it's also how fast that rain's going to occur, and now all of the, there

01:46may not be much in the way of, in the burn scar areas, and that's why the concern about

01:51debris flows and mudslides is very significant, and this can escalate to a life-threatening

01:56emergency in those areas very quickly.

01:58That's why we want people to be prepared.

02:00Let me think about anybody downhill of some of the burn scars, Pasadena, specifically

02:04downhill of Altadena.

02:06So John, this storm system has traction, and it's going to cross the whole nation here

02:10into the weekend.

02:11Well, we've been talking about this February frenzy of storm after storm every few days

02:16in some parts of the central and eastern United States.

02:18Look at the future radar as we head toward Saturday.

02:21We're talking about that same storm pulling toward the Great Lakes, snow to the north

02:25in the blue.

02:26There's going to be some ice across Pennsylvania and more snow across the interior portions

02:31of the northeast.

02:32This one looks like it's going to be mainly rain, though, along the Interstate 95 corridor.

02:36Of course, we've got a couple of storms to go before we even get there, but the point

02:39is this is a cross-coast-to-coast storm.

02:42And you mentioned there are a couple of predecessors here that may not be coast-to-coast storms,

02:46but the next one up here, tomorrow into Wednesday morning, this is a storm that's still in its

02:51formative kind of infant stages here into the plains.

02:55We've got some ice in the forecast for the interior of Mid-Atlantic.

02:57Sure do.

02:58Significant icing concern right along the 81 corridor, Roanoke to Blacksburg, and further

03:03to the north, this is a big snowstorm across the Mid-Atlantic here.

03:07So Washington, D.C., over toward Baltimore, and also Philadelphia, we're going to be dealing

03:12with rapidly worsening travel conditions just in time for the evening commute and

03:18a little bit afterwards in those cities.

03:19A strip of 6 to 12 inches of snow, Washington toward just north of Richmond, Virginia, and

03:27some of that snow is going to come down 1 to 2 inches per hour.

03:29Big travel troubles on the way, and even some accumulating snow up in the New York City

03:35area where we're forecasting 2 to 4, especially the further south you go, the higher totals

03:40in the New York City metro area.

03:42So down toward Staten Island, for example.

03:43And John, the number to beat here, if we're looking for the biggest storm of the season

03:46so far for D.C., I think 6.8 inches was the one-day total from, what, January 6th or so.

03:53So this could be similar to that, maybe, do you think it exceeds it?

03:56It's going to be a real close call.

03:57I think we'll make a run at it there, but the higher snow totals can be just south of

04:02D.C., Lawdon and Falkier counties, for example, in northern Virginia.

04:06And then just briefly, John, we've got more coming behind that one.

04:08In between the two storms we highlighted, we highlighted the Tuesday, Tuesday night

04:12storm, we highlighted the weekend storm, but there's another sandwiched in between.

04:16Big storm coming up through the midsection of the country here Tuesday night into Thursday.

04:22Snow to the north.

04:23Look out.

04:24Chicago over toward Des Moines and Omaha, significant snow in that area, likely 6 inches

04:29of snow or thereabouts, maybe a little bit more, especially north of Chicago.

04:33And then we'll be dealing with some snow in the interior northeast going over to ice in

04:37those areas as well.

04:39So another big mess as this travel troubles persists.

04:42Great time to download the AccuWeather app, WinterCast, an excellent tool for you to help

04:46track every storm on the way.

04:48All right.

04:49We'll be digging into that, and I'll have more details on that storm as well.

04:52AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist John Porter.

04:54Thanks again, John.

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