A reality check is in progress across the eastern half of the country after the record-breaking warmth that was observed on Tuesday across a big portion of the Plains and Midwest states.
Article continues below
The strong cold front that is heralding this change to much colder conditions will be exiting the East Coast Wednesday evening, with a corridor of showers and some thunderstorms extending from the coastal Southeast U.S.
to New England, followed by an abrupt drop in temperatures and windy conditions overnight into early Thursday.
Wind advisories and high wind warnings are currently in effect for much of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region through early Thursday.
March will be coming in like a lion for the West Coast states.
An extremely potent winter storm will be making all kinds of weather headlines for the higher terrain of Washington, Oregon, and California, particularly for the Sierra going into Friday and Saturday.
A prolonged period of upslope flow, combined with abundant moisture from the Pacific and lowering snow levels, will result in a multi-day heavy snowfall event with blizzard conditions as winds gust well over 50 mph.
The potential exists for snowfall totals on the order of 5-10 feet by Saturday evening for the higher elevations of the Sierra! This will result in a travel nightmare for the mountain passes that are affected, and will likely result in numerous road closures.
There will also be moderate to heavy snow for the higher terrain of the Northern Rockies, but not to the same magnitude as the Sierra and Cascades.
Heavy rain is expected for the coastal areas between San Francisco and the Olympic Peninsula of Washington where a few inches are likely over the next 3 days.
Elsewhere across the continental U.S., moisture will be on the increase north of a surface low across the northern Gulf on Friday, and a swath of moderate to locally heavy rain is expected from southern Louisiana to northern Georgia, with some locations possibly getting over an inch of rainfall.
Showers are also expected from southeast Arizona to western Texas Wednesday night, and higher elevation snow showers, with the cold front dropping south and an upper level shortwave passing through the region.
Dry conditions are forecast for the central/northern Plains into the Midwest states with high pressure governing the overall weather pattern. ■