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.
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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.