A disruptive winter storm will impact the Midwest into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, bringing snow, sleet, and freezing rain to a significant portion of the country.
After a quick-hitting storm to start the week, a longer-duration winter event is expected to produce accumulating snow from the Midwest into the Northeast. Snow will spread from west to east starting on Tuesday, with a broad swath of 1-3 inches expected from Kansas City, reaching the mid-Atlantic by late Thursday. Higher amounts of 3-6 inches are expected in a narrow swath from northeastern Missouri, east through central Illinois across Indiana into Ohio, as well as from northern West Virginia through much of Maryland, D.C., Delaware, New Jersey, and southern Pennsylvania.
A smaller area of 6 to 12-inch amounts are forecast from the mountains in the panhandle of West Virginia through western Maryland, southern Pennsylvania, and southern New Jersey. The AccuWeather Local StormMax™ for this storm is 24 inches.
A significant ice event is expected as this storm pushes from west to east over the nation from Tuesday through Thursday night. Any amount of ice can cause slippery travel and delays, but the area of heaviest ice is expected over northeastern Arkansas, southeastern Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia and western Virginia, where over 0.25 of an inch of ice can accumulate. This can bring power outages and disrupt travel for days.