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An ongoing arctic blast enveloping much of the US will set the stage for impactful snow and ice to fall in parts of the South for the first time this winter as a new storm tracks through the region.
The South storm will be the fourth in the last two weeks to threaten major impacts to areas east of the Rockies as a frenetic start to 2024 shows no signs of stopping.
Damaging ice and wind combined with deadly results in Oregon Saturday. On Sunday, serious lake-effect snow was ongoing in Buffalo, New York; blinding snow squalls were possible across the Northeast; and strong winds were still kicking up snow and affecting travel in the Midwest.
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Traffic navigates past a tractor trailer truck wrecked on the eastbound side of Interstate 80 on Sunday, January 14, near Williamsburg, Iowa.
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A person clears a sidewalk in front of condominiums in Worthington, Ohio, on Sunday.
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Snow covered vehicles sit in a rental car parking lot at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago on Sunday.
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Fans attend an NFL Wild Card game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins amid brutally cold conditions at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, on Saturday, January 13.
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Water from the Hudson River overflows from river wall at high tide as a woman jogs in Jersey City, New Jersey, on Saturday.
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Snow covers fields ahead in Melbourne, Iowa, on Saturday.
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Snow and ice dust a worker as they remove snow from a sidewalk in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday.
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Storm waves batter coastal homes as the tide rises in Winthrop, Massachusetts, on Saturday.
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A pedestrian walks through snow during a winter storm ahead of the Iowa caucus in Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday, January 12.
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Travelers check their flight status at O’Hare Airport on Friday in Chicago. More than 2,000 flights have been canceled nationwide due to a large winter storm bringing blizzard conditions.
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Vehicles slowly make their way on Northwestern Highway on Friday in Farmington Hills, Michigan.
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Workers shovel sidewalks in Ankeny, Iowa, on Friday. The vast majority of Iowa was under a blizzard warning Friday.
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Snow blows over a county road near Merrill, Iowa, on Friday.
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Rebecca Zimmerman walks beside her bicycle on her way to work in Oak Park, Illinois, on Friday.
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Snow falls as migrants continue to be housed by the city in “warming” buses in Chicago on Friday.
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A man looks over a heavily damaged oak-barrel factory in Bamberg, South Carolina, on Wednesday, a day after a tornado struck the city.
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An employee of the Storm Bros. Ice Cream begins to clean up Wednesday after the storm left more than 2 feet of water inside many businesses in downtown Annapolis, Maryland.
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Snowy weather on Tuesday caused slippery conditions along Interstate 41 in Appleton, Wisconsin.
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Kelly-Jo St. Aubin clears snow from the sidewalk outside her home in Kaukauna, Wisconsin, on Tuesday.
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Firefighters rescue a man after his car was stuck in a flooded area in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Tuesday.
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Because of the storm, nearly 2,000 migrants in Brooklyn, New York, were evacuated from tents at Floyd Bennett Field and taken to a local high school on Tuesday.
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A pedestrian navigates a snow-covered sidewalk in Iowa City, Iowa, on Tuesday.
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Linda Cox looks at her two vehicles that were damaged by a fallen tree in Myrtle Grove, Florida.
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A house is damaged in Panama City Beach, Florida, on Tuesday. Responders rescued people from structures in Florida’s Bay County, where multiple tornadoes hit the ground and caused significant damage and road closures, Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford said.
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People carry umbrellas in New York’s Times Square on Tuesday.
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Snow covers the trees around the Holy Hill Basilica and National Shrine of Mary in Hubertus, Wisconsin, on Tuesday.
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People in Des Moines help push a vehicle back onto the road after it became stuck in the snow on Tuesday.
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A man braves the rain Tuesday while taking videos of the Reedy River’s rushing water in Greenville, South Carolina.
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Workers Brian Henderson and Josko Huljev fill sandbags for residents of Totowa, New Jersey, on Tuesday. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced a state of emergency to prepare for the potentially dangerous weather.
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Tornado wreckage is seen in Bay County, Florida, on Tuesday. Twelve tornadoes were reported across Florida, Alabama and Georgia on Tuesday morning.
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Flooding is seen at an intersection in Spartanburg, South Carolina, on Tuesday.
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Snow blankets the ground in Des Moines on Tuesday.
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A person in Iowa City uses a snowblower to clear a sidewalk on Tuesday.
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A light and steady snow falls on the Iowa State Capitol on Monday.
But in the warmer South, it’s been all tornadoes and severe thunderstorms with past storms. That’s all set to change as the arctic chill settles over the region and much of the country.
More than 75% of the US population will experience temperatures below freezing over the next seven days. Just through Tuesday, more than 250 daily cold temperature records could be broken from Oregon to Mississippi. The cold will make for the coldest Iowa caucuses on record Monday, with below zero high temperatures and wind chills in the minus 30s forecast.
People in Dallas, Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee, woke up to temperatures in the teens Sunday. By Tuesday, those same temperatures arrive for Atlanta, Montgomery, Alabama and Shreveport, Louisiana.
In southern cities such as Memphis, Dallas and Nashville, temperatures are expected to remain below freezing for at least 72 consecutive hours. The prolonged cold could lead to “damage to exposed pipes and water main breaks are expected,” warned the National Weather Service office in Jackson, Mississippi.
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves has issued a state of emergency starting Sunday, according to a news release from the governor’s office.
“All Mississippians in the impacted areas are encouraged to take precautions over the next few days. Prepare your homes now for below-freezing temperatures, bring pets inside, and check in with your loved ones who are most susceptible during this frigid weather,” the release said.
The extreme cold will also test Texas’s notoriously vulnerable-to-extreme-temperatures power grid for the first time this winter. The plummeting temperatures will increase power demand on the grid enough that the state’s independent grid operator, ERCOT, issued a weather watch, warning of the impending surge in demand and a potential dip in reserves. ERCOT said there was expected to be enough power to avoid outages.
A wind chill as low as minus 71 degrees was reported in Montana Saturday. It won’t feel that cold in the South, but winds of 10 to 25 mph could cause life-threatening wind chills that could cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 30 minutes.
With the cold air in place, a new system will move out of the Rockies and into the southern Plains bringing snow, sleet and freezing rain from Texas to Virginia.
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Winter storm alerts stretch from Texas to Virginia and encompass more than 45 million people, including all of Tennessee and Arkansas.
“The prolonged nature of this event could result in moderate to major potential winter storm impacts over parts of Arkansas, northwest Mississippi, and western Tennessee,” the Weather Prediction Center said.
The warnings aren’t limited to the South: On Sunday, the National Weather Service announced a snow squall warning for the city of Philadelphia. The service warned of “intense bursts of heavy snow and gusty winds leading to blowing snow and rapidly falling visibility” and said “travel will become difficult to potentially dangerous within minutes.”
The New York City Emergency Management Department issued a Weather Alert for Sunday, warning of an arctic cold front expected to sweep through the region in the early afternoon.
In a statement late Saturday, NYC Emergency Management said snow squalls “could lead to rapid reduction in visibility, gusty winds, and briefly moderate to heavy snow, creating hazardous roadway conditions,” noting the forecast called for wind gusts up to 45 mph in the early afternoon.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said, “Our teams will be out early salting our streets, and we will continue to monitor the forecast every step of the way. We are also asking that New Yorkers take their own precautions.”
States of emergency were declared in both Arkansas and Louisiana ahead of the system to prepare for its arrival.
Ice is one of the biggest concerns. A strip of sleet and freezing rain is expected from San Angelo, Texas, to Huntsville, Alabama. Hazardous ice could build up on roadways, trees and power lines.
And because of the cold, the slick wintry precipitation won’t melt on untreated surfaces for the Monday morning commute in places like Dallas and Shreveport, Louisiana, making travel more dangerous.
Dallas is expected to see a combination of freezing rain, sleet and snow from 3 p.m. Sunday through 9 a.m. Monday. The timing will skew a few hours later in points to the east.
The storm will lay down a coating of snow between 2 and 6 inches from Oklahoma to Virginia, just north of where the heaviest ice will fall.
Memphis, which has had no measurable snow so far this year, is forecast to see between 3 and 7 inches. The threat here begins late Sunday and continues through Monday overnight.
Snow accumulations of 1 to 3 inches are also expected from Oklahoma City through Tulsa. Nearly the entire state of Arkansas is expected to see at least 3 inches, with some locations picking up as much as 6 inches total. Snowfall accumulations of 3 to 5 inches are expected for Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee.
The storm will clear the South by late Tuesday and could then track into the mid-Atlantic and Northeast, increasing snow chances there by Wednesday.
CNN Meteorologist Sara Tonks contributed to this story.
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