Unsettled weather will continue across much of the Intermountain West and including the Four Corners region tonight and Tuesday as a storm system currently crossing California advances farther inland.
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This will bring locally heavy snowfall to the higher elevations including the Sierra Nevada, Wasatch, Mogollon Rim and especially the San Juan mountains of southwest Colorado as moist upslope flow arrives ahead of the associated wave of low pressure.
Expected locally as much as 1 to 2 feet of new snowfall for portions of southwest Colorado by Tuesday evening.
Meanwhile, beneficial rains are expected for the lower elevations of much of the Southwest.
Colder temperatures will be arriving to as the storm system advances into the Four Corners region, and most of the Great Basin and the Southwest can expect high temperatures going through the middle of the week to be as much as 10 to 15 degrees below normal.
This same storm system will be ejecting out into the Plains by Wednesday and will set the stage for a much broader area of active weather.
This will include a developing area of heavy snow north of the low center across much of north-central to northeast Colorado and extending east across much of Nebraska and far northwest Kansas.
By Wednesday evening, many of these areas are expected to be receive as much as 6 to 12 inches of snow.
A narrow swath of sleet and some freezing rain will be possible just to the southeast of the heavy snow axis.
Meanwhile, areas much farther south and east across the Lower/Middle Mississippi Valley and into Lower Ohio Valley will see a resurgence of warmer air and moisture from the Gulf of Mexico that will set the stage for rather widespread shower and thunderstorm activity.
In fact, the ingredients are expected to be in place for severe weather, and the Storm Prediction Center has depicted a Slight Risk of severe weather from east Texas through central and northern Louisiana, southern Arkansas, and western Mississippi.
Strong damaging wind gusts are expected to accompany at least some of the thunderstorm activity as it develops along and ahead of a cold front pushing east across the southern Plains.
Heavy rainfall will also be another concern, and locally as much as 1 to 3 inches of rain will be possible across portions of the Lower Mississippi Valley and the Lower Ohio Valley.
The Weather Prediction Center has highlighted portions of this region in a Slight Risk of excessive rainfall, and some localized flash flooding may occur from the developing areas of heavy rain.
Much warmer than normal temperatures will become a theme across much of the southern and eastern U.S.
by the middle of the week ahead the storm system over the Plains.
High temperatures are expected to rise to as much as 15 to 25 degrees above normal, and especially across the South where temperatures should rise well into the 70s with a few locations across south Texas seeing highs into the 80s.
Somewhat cooler temperatures by comparison will be noted over the Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic and Southeast, but still well above normal for the middle of January.
Elsewhere, there will be a new storm system arriving across the Pacific Northwest by Tuesday night and advancing inland by Wednesday.
This will bring a new surge of Pacific moisture and a round of heavy rainfall for especially the coastal ranges and the foothills of the Cascades.
However, the higher terrain of the Cascades will see heavy snowfall. ■