Another winter storm looks poised to pack a punch similar to its predecessor that recently swept down from Canada and across a large swath of the U.S.
On the heels of a deadly winter storm, the next arctic blasts will bring more record-setting freezes across the country, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
This next round of bitter cold will spread from the central U.S. into the East, beginning Wednesday and into the weekend.
Low temperatures will only reach the 20s, perhaps teens, along the northern Gulf Coast, from eastern Texas to northern Florida Wednesday morning. Lows are expected to reach the teens in the Deep South on Wednesday morning, then again this weekend.
AFP/Getty Images
On Saturday morning, lows in the minus 20s are possible as far south as Iowa and Nebraska, according to the NWS.
According to AccuWeather, accumulating snow can be expected from Chicago, St. Louis and Nashville, Tennessee, to Washington, D.C., New York and Boston prior to the weekend.
The NWS forecasts “Heavy mountain snows for the Northwest and Rockies, along with ice storms for portions of the Pacific Northwest. Bands of heavy lake-effect snow continue for the Great Lakes as snow tapers off in the Northeast. A return to more typical winter temperatures for many on Wednesday after the brutal cold but another Arctic blast is expected late this week.”
Strong winds will also accompany the arctic air to produce dangerous wind chills, especially across the Plains, Midwest and parts of the South. The NWS said some wind chills in the Northern Plains could drop into the minus 30s, which can quickly lead to frostbite on exposed skin.
Wind chills could drop below zero across portions of the South, which could result in hypothermia or frostbite in less than a half hour.
Newsweek reached out to the NWS via email on Tuesday night for additional comment.
From a dusting to a boatload, our snow cover map is finally seeing some action! Over 50% of the Lower 48 is covered in snow as of this morning! 😍 pic.twitter.com/xEnVwnP6iB
— Heather Zons 💙 (@HeatherZWeather) January 16, 2024
A winter storm on Monday night into Tuesday snapped a two-year snow drought in the Interstate 95 to mid-Atlantic corridor.
New York City experienced its first snowfall of more than an inch in over 700 days on Monday, while Nashville received more than a year’s worth of snow.
“Nashville’s official snowfall accumulation was 7.6″. Of that total, 6.3″ occurred yesterday, breaking the daily snowfall record for January 15. Normal annual snowfall is 4.7″, so we received more than an entire winter’s worth of snow in just one event,” the NWS office in Nashville posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday.
According to the Associated Press, recent snow and strong winds have been blamed for at least seven deaths in Oregon, including two people who died due to a fallen tree; the other five were believed to have died of hypothermia in temperatures that hovered in the teens and 20s.
Since Friday, deaths related to winter storms have also been reported in Arkansas, Mississippi, New Jersey, Tennessee and Utah.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.