Worst Winter Storms So Far This Winter Hitting Large Section Of U.S.: Snow, Ice, Even Tornadoes

When the National Weather Service home page map
gets colorful, you know there's active weather. All
those pinks and blues from Montana to
Kansas and then east to the Mid-Atlantic are
winter storm warnings, watches and advisories.

With Arctic air making a belated blast into the United States, it's inevitable we'd see a big winter storm blossom out of the situation.  

Sure enough, winter storm warnings and watches, with a few ice storm warnings are flying now in a   from Montana, then down to Kansas, and then extending in a broad band to the Mid-Atlantic states.

Many of these areas have until now, not yet experienced a winter storm yet this season. So this will be a cold slap in the face. 

South of the storm, severe thunderstorms and possible tornadoes are set to break out in Louisiana, eastern Texas and Mississippi Sunday, which are unfortunately the places hit hardest by a tornado outbreak in the closing days of 2024.

The storm is expected to be rich with ice, which is bad news. Freezing rain is anticipated in a  broad streak from Kansas, across much of Missouri, southern Illinois and into Kentucky. 

By Monday, that freezing rain could extend into parts of Virginia and western North Carolina, which is probably the last place that needs more weather havoc

Parts of southern Missouri and Illinois are set to glaze up with up to three quarters of an inch of freezing rain. That's enough to snap trees and power lines, along with making driving impossible. The National Weather Service is warning of widespread and long-lasting power outages. 

North of the worst ice zone, eight to 12 inches of snow is on the menu, with more in a few spots.

Pretty cold air will follow the storm, so the snow and ice will stay around for awhile. Temperatures in Kansas are expected to get below zero Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights. 

The cold will extend to the Gulf Coast, and eventually the Southeast and even Florida in the next few days. Freezing temperatures will extend as far south as New Orleans, Mobile, Alabama and perhaps central Florida

VERMONT EFFECTS

A persistent, broad and strong northwest flow of air out of Canada will keep this storm way south of the Green Mountain State, so it won't affect us at all.

Little disturbances in the northwest flow will bring occasional light snow and flurries to the valleys for the next week, eventually whitening up the ground in those places a little. The Green Mountains should see installments of fluffy, accumulating snow almost daily for at least a week.  Each day's accumulation would only be 1 to 4 inches, but it will add up as it keeps snowing up there every day. 

It'll stay persistently cold, too, and this will be one of the longer periods of nippy weather we've seen in recent years. But those temperatures won't be all that unusual for January. Depending on the day, highs will be mostly in the teens and low 20s. Lows would be in the single digits to near 10, with a few excursions to slightly below zero on some nights if skies clear. 

PERSPECTIVE

This storm and cold snap affecting huge swaths of the U.S. will certainly be disruptive for many millions of people,  and destructive for some. But in the grand scheme of things, this is not super extreme compared to some of history's worst winter weather events. 

In this case, there should only be a smattering of record low temperatures. Snowfall amounts in some spots will be the deepest in years, but should fall well short of breaking records.

Winter storms and cold snaps can still easily happen, even in this age of climate change. But in most (but not all!) cases, this climate change has made these winter outbreaks less severe than they once were. 

At the same time, the hype machine I keep mentioning is in full force.  With this storm, I've seen some breathless weather nerds saying a blizzard rivaling the the Superstorm of 1993 will hit the Deep South (Nope, not happening!) and Florida will see snow amounts unrivaled since the extreme winter of 1977. (Double, triple nope on that idea). 

There could be some snow in the South next week but the prspects of that are iffy at best. 

Those affected by this winter storm should take it seriously and heed all the warnings. But this outbreak of nasty weather is the outcome of a phenomenon known as "January."  

Like it or not, it continues to happen every winter.