1 week ago
4
WASHINGTON -- With galore Americans inactive recovering from aggregate blasts of snowfall and unrelenting freezing temperatures successful the nation's bluish tier, a caller tempest is acceptable to look this play that could overgarment roads, trees and powerfulness lines with devastating crystal crossed a wide expanse of the South.
The tempest arriving precocious this week and into the play is shaping up to beryllium a "widespread perchance catastrophic lawsuit from Texas to the Carolinas," said Ryan Maue, a erstwhile main idiosyncratic astatine the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"I don't cognize however radical are going to woody with it," helium said.
Forecasters connected Tuesday warned that the crystal could measurement down trees and powerfulness lines, triggering wide outages.
"If you get a fractional of an inch of crystal - oregon eden forbid an inch of crystal - that could beryllium catastrophic," said Keith Avery, CEO of the Newberry Electric Cooperative successful South Carolina.
Here's what to know:
'Great swaths' of dense snow, sleet and freezing rainfall expected
The National Weather Service warned of "great swaths of dense snow, sleet, and treacherous freezing rain" starting Friday successful overmuch of the nation's midsection and past shifting toward the East Coast done Sunday.
Temperatures volition beryllium dilatory to lukewarm successful galore areas, meaning crystal that forms connected roads and sidewalks mightiness instrumentality around, forecasters say.
The nonstop timing of the approaching tempest - and wherever it is headed - remained uncertain connected Tuesday. Forecasters accidental it tin beryllium challenging to foretell precisely which areas could spot rainfall and which ones could beryllium punished with ice.
Cold aerial clashing with rainfall to substance a 'major wintertime storm'
An highly acold arctic aerial wide is acceptable to dive southbound from Canada, mounting up a clash with the acold temperatures and rainfall that volition beryllium streaming eastward crossed the confederate U.S.
"This is extreme, adjacent for this being the highest of winter," National Weather Service meteorologist Bryan Jackson said of the acold temperatures.
When the acold aerial meets the rain, the apt effect volition beryllium "a large wintertime tempest with precise impactful weather, with each the moisture coming up from the Gulf and encountering each this peculiarly acold aerial that's spilling in," Jackson said.
An atmospheric stream could acceptable up crossed the confederate U.S.
An atmospheric stream of moisture could beryllium successful spot by the weekend, pulling precipitation crossed Texas and different states on the Gulf Coast and continuing crossed Georgia and the Carolinas, forecasters said.
"Global models are coating a concerning representation of what this play could look like, with an progressively beardown awesome for crystal tempest imaginable crossed North Georgia and portions of cardinal Georgia," according to the National Weather Service's Atlanta office.
If important accumulations of crystal onslaught metro Atlanta, it could beryllium a occupation done the play since debased temperatures aboriginal Monday are expected to beryllium astir 22 degrees (minus 5.6 Celsius) successful Atlanta. The city's precocious somesthesia connected Monday is forecast to beryllium astir 35 degrees (1.7 Celsius).
Highway and aerial question could beryllium tangled by the storm
Travel is simply a large concern, arsenic confederate states person little instrumentality to region snowfall and crystal from roads, and highly acold temperatures expected aft the tempest could forestall crystal from melting for respective days. In Michigan, much than 100 vehicles crashed into each different oregon slid disconnected an interstate southwest of Grand Rapids connected Monday.
The tempest is besides expected to interaction galore of the nation's large hub airports, including those successful Dallas; Atlanta; Memphis, Tennessee; and Charlotte, North Carolina.
Polar aerial from Canada to support bluish states successful a heavy freeze
Unusually acold temperatures are already successful spot crossed overmuch of the bluish tier of the U.S., but the blast of arctic aerial expected aboriginal this week "will beryllium the coldest yet," Jackson said.
"There's a ample sprawling vortex of debased unit centered implicit Hudson Bay," Jackson said of the oversea successful bluish Canada that's connected to the Arctic Ocean. "And this is dominating the upwind implicit each of North America."
Texas could beryllium a harbinger for different parts of the South
Some of the storm's earliest impacts could beryllium successful Texas connected Friday, arsenic the arctic aerial wide slides southbound done overmuch of the state, National Weather Service forecaster Sam Shamburger said successful a briefing connected the storm.
"At the aforesaid time, we're expecting rainfall to determination into overmuch of the state," Shamburger said.
Low temperatures could autumn into the 20s oregon adjacent the teens successful parts of Texas by Saturday, with the imaginable for a wintery premix of upwind successful the bluish portion of the state.
Forecasters cautioned that important uncertainty remains, peculiarly implicit however overmuch crystal oregon snowfall could autumn crossed northbound and cardinal Texas.
"It's going to beryllium a precise hard forecast," Shamburger said.
At an Arkansas hardware store, customers cogwheel up for storm
In Little Rock, Arkansas, a dependable watercourse of customers connected Tuesday were stocking up connected supplies astatine Fuller and Son Hardware.
"Right present parents of young children are getting sleds," said James Carter, the company's manager of operations.
People were besides getting shovels, ice-melting products and covers for extracurricular faucets to support them from freezing, since debased temperatures successful the Little Rock country are forecast to autumn into the teens, helium said.
Copyright © 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
