Forecasts for Tropical Storms and Other Hazardous Weather from the Mississippi Valley Through the weekend of December 21st through the end of the Mississippi River

An atmospheric river event, bringing ample amounts of moisture to the West this weekend, will gradually move across the country and bring hazardous weather to millions.

The risk of tornadoes, hail and damaging straight line winds is forecast from eastern Texas into northern Louisiana and southwestern Mississippi.

Most coastal communities will pick up 1 to 3 inches of rain through the weekend, and some areas of northern and central California could receive 3 to 5 inches of rain in total. Coastal erosion and flooded roadways will be the main concerns.

In California the winds are expected to be up to 40 mph in the valleys and 50 mph in the coastal areas, and could be even higher in exposed coastal headlands and mountaintops.

Wills said that they were not expecting a quick burst of snow. The snow is going to accumulate in the highest places in northern Nebraska and it is going to blow around like crazy because of the strong winds.

Travel in these areas will be difficult at times, due to the icy roads and whiteout conditions. Power outages will also be possible due to very strong winds.

“While tornadoes in December are relatively uncommon when compared to the springtime, they are often more likely across portions of the Southeast and Lower Mississippi Valley, where there is often a secondary peak in the fall and winter,” Matthew Elliott, a meteorologist at the Storm Prediction Center, told CNN.

There is a chance of flash flooding in the Mississippi Valley into the central Gulf Coast, Tennessee Valley and southern Appalachians from Tuesday to Wednesday.

“The details regarding the areas most at risk from tornadoes will become clearer as the event approaches and smaller-scale trends become more evident,” Elliott said.

The Snowfalls at Twin Bridges and Tahoe-Donner, Tahoe Peak, Palsades Tahoe Ski Base, and Tahoe, Calif., are Memories

In California, 48 inches of snow fell in Twin Bridges in a 48-hour period, 46 inches fell in Tahoe-Donner, 45 inches in Donner Peak and 44 inches at Palsades Tahoe Ski Base.

There were winter storm warnings about to go into effect for the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, where an additional foot of snow could fall before dawn.

Interstates in South Dakota could become impassable amid the blizzard conditions, resulting in roadway closures across the state, the South Dakota Department of Transportation warned Monday.

“The snowpack is about 225% of normal, so it’s more than twice what we’d be expecting this time in December,” said Mark Deutschendorf, forecaster at the National Weather Service office in Reno.

The Christmas scene out here looks a lot like it. It stuck to everything and didn’t have a lot of wind. It is similar to a picture postcard.

He noted the snow totals so far are impressive, but is cautiously optimistic about this precipitation putting a big dent in the state’s dry spell.

In a post on its website, the ski resort said they were “buried” in thick snow in Olympic Valley.

This storm will definitely be remembered. We’ve now received 7.5 feet of snow since December 1st. Plus, in just 24 hours from Saturday morning to Sunday morning, we received more than 35 inches of snow — the 6th largest snowfall total in 24 hours that we have on record,” resort operators wrote.

Multiple tornadoes in the state of Rapid City, South Dakota, which resulted in deaths of three people, have been confirmed as EF2

The office of the National Weather Service in Rapid City, South Dakota, said that travel will be almost impossible Tuesday and Wednesday, and possibly into Thursday.

A blizzard warning has been issued on Minnesota’s north shore, as some areas are expecting up to 24 inches of snow and wind gusts up to 40 mph. And in the south of the state, winds gusting up to 50 mph (80 kph) had reduced visibility.

The University of Alaska Anchorage and Alaska Pacific University were shut down on Monday due to an unprecedented amount of snow.

In the past week, these areas have received a lot of relief from their dry spell. Tennessee went from 100 percent of the state to 46 percent this week.

Meanwhile, damage was reported in the Oklahoma town of Wayne after the weather service warned of a “confirmed tornado” shortly after 5 a.m. Tuesday. There is a home in Wayne, Oklahoma that has been shown to have significant damage, which is close to Oklahoma City.

The tornado was rated EF 2, with wind speeds reaching over 200 mph. It was likely on the ground for a couple of minutes.

There were dozens of tornadoes reported across the country since Tuesday. The deadly storms claimed the lives of three people in Louisiana.

The Dallas-Fort Worth area is bracing for a big tornado. Traffic was shut, power lines and livestock tended by a tornado

“There’s no one traveling at the moment at Flying J,” said the manager of the truck stop. He got to work before the roads were closed, but wouldn’t be able to get back to his house Tuesday. I could see the first poles outside, but not the rest of the lot. I’ll probably get a motel room tonight.

The South Dakota Department of Public Safety tweeted Monday: “This is a ‘we are not kidding’ kind of storm.” People were urged to stay at home and stock up on essentials.

The National Weather Service has a meteorologist in Maryland and he said that this will be a busy week.

In northern Utah, a tour bus crashed Monday morning as snow and frigid temperatures blanketed the region. The driver of the bus lost control and the bus rolled onto its side, the Highway Patrol said in a statement. The Highway Patrol stated that 23 people were injured, two of them seriously.

Several people were injured in the suburbs and the counties north of the Dallas-Fort Worth area as a result of the line of storms. More than 1000 flights were delayed or canceled at the airports, according to FlightAware.

The home where a young boy was found dead was destroyed in the tornado that struck Four Forts, Louisiana, about 16 miles from Shreveport.

A possible tornado blew the roof off the city’s service center — a municipal facility — and left pieces of the roof hanging from powerlines, said Trent Kelley, deputy director of Grapevine Parks and Recreation.

Photos sent by the city showed downed power lines on rain-soaked streets, as well as toppled trees, damaged buildings and a semitrailer that appeared to have been tossed around a parking lot.

All roads in the northeast part of the state were closed. The weather in the area could affect livestock. Extreme winds can push livestock through fences as they follow the gale’s direction, said Jim Santomaso, a northeast representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association.

Nationwide Massive Winter Storms: Snow, Ice, and Rain in the Mid-Midwestern During the Onslaught of a Winter Storm

National Weather Service meteorologist Melissa Dye in the Twin Cities said this is a “long duration event” with snow, ice and rain through Friday night. Minnesota was expecting a lull Wednesday, followed by a second round of snow.

Plus, major cities, including New York and Boston, can expect 1 to 2 inches of heavy rain from the nor’easter into the weekend before the storm system pulls away from the region Sunday,

As millions across the Northeast are under winter weather alerts on Friday, New York Gov. Hochul warned of the hazardous road conditions caused by the storm.

“We urge everyone in the impacted regions to avoid unnecessary travel tonight and tomorrow,” Hochul said in a Thursday statement. “Work from home if possible, stay off the roads, and make sure you and your loved ones remain vigilant.”

Drivers were urged to not travel in Pennsylvania due to the low visibility caused by wind and heavy snow.

The storm system, which has been raging for a week, has cut a dangerous path across the country, with different types of weather hitting different parts of the US.

100,000 homes and businesses in Minnesota, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania are without power due to the storms that struck the South and Upper Midwest.

A quarter of an inch of ice was reported Thursday morning in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia and Maryland, as well as a tenth of an inch in parts of Virginia.

Thousands of people were left without proper heating and electricity in the Upper Midwest after powerful winds blew down power lines during the onslaught of a winter storm.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/16/weather/nationwide-massive-storm-tornadoes-friday/index.html

Associated Sudden Deaths of a La Laguna-Lasinia Child: Predictions for the Coldest Christmas in 20 Years

A woman and her son were killed in Louisiana on Tuesday when a tornado destroyed their home, local officials said.

The air will plunge from Canada this week, bringing dangerously cold temperatures to millions. Temperatures will drop so low in some places that frostbite could begin in as little as 5 minutes on exposed skin.

The Weather prediction Center said that lows would be close to the Canadian border, and highs would only reach into the single digits in the northern Plains. “Gusty winds will make it feel even colder throughout northern Montana, where wind chill advisories are in effect due to the potential for wind chills to dip as low as 30 to 45 degrees below zero.”

More than 30 million people are under wind chill alerts across much of the central and northwestern US, including in places slammed with blizzard conditions by a separate storm system last week. Parts of Alabama and Tennessee are also under a wind chill watch as the “feel like” temperatures are expected to plummet below zero.

It’s that time of year again when everyone hates Florida – the only real warm spot across the country – but only for the next few days, since Florida will also cool down by the end of the week.

This extreme cold will dive to the Deep South as well. Places including Atlanta could experience one of their top 3 coldest Christmases, with the high expected to only reach 33 degrees.

Some Florida residents will see a sudden drop. The high temperature of 64 in Pensacola on Thursday will seem tropical compared to the high of 38 the same day. And yes, this means overnight low temperatures are likely to drop below freezing.

This will be the coldest Christmas in more than 20 years for much of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York City and Washington, DC, will all stay in the 20s for Christmas Day.

The CNN Weather Brief: Blizzard Conditions and the Coldest Mid-Atmosphere, or Bringing Back the Polar Express

CNN releases a version of this article on Mondays in its weekly weather newsletter, the CNN Weather Brief. They can be signed up here to be sent every week and during storms.

Blizzard conditions occur when you have falling or blowing snow combined with winds of at least 35 mph leading to reduced visibility to at least a quarter of a mile for at least three hours.

The winds could be as high as 50 mph on Friday, making it a concern for power outages. This will only make the storm worse as the wind chill will drop to at least 20 degrees below zero.

On Christmas Day in Chicago, the high is 12. It would be the coldest Christmas in Chicago since 1996. Indianapolis has a forecast high of 13 degrees, which would be their lowest Christmas temperature in over three decades.

“It’s night in the northern hemisphere Arctic regions and there’s snow and ice covering that entire area. Greg Carbin, branch chief at the prediction center said, “So, you have basically got a source freezer sitting up there.” “It’s sort of the Polar Express and the cold air can hold on to those characteristics because there’s a lot of snow cover on the ground, even across the north-central United States.”

On Sunday, December 31, 2018, the East Coast will see a Warmer and Colder, Snowier, Better, Better: Forecasts for Memphis, Nashville, and Chicago

As the storm moves east this week, it stands to make holiday travel difficult, if not dangerous, in many places, with forecasters urging people to be prepared to make changes.

On Friday, Memphis and Nashville will be below freezing. The temperature will feel like it is 3 degrees below zero on Friday, thanks to 25 mph winds. On Christmas Day, they will hit 26. There is a forecast high of 28 for Christmas in Memphis, which would be the warmest Christmas since 1985.

The storm will bomb out Friday night into Saturday morning, making this a bomb cyclone before entering the Northeast and New England. A bomb cyclops is when the storm drops at least two bars in pressure in 24 hours.

The areas that are currently seeing snow, can be problematic because of the rain that I-95 gets. You can see flooding and some of the water is melting.

Millions of people across the country will have a white Christmas due to this major storm. The cold temperatures and the snow on the ground made some areas a given.

“The probability is normally about 10% that the DC area will have at least one inch of snow on Christmas Day,” Carbin explained. “With the pattern coming together the way it is, I’d be willing to bump that up to a 30% chance and it could increase pretty substantially here in the next couple of days, depending on what scenario comes out.”

The air feels so cold, frostbite on exposed skin can occur in under 10 minutes in most of the impacted areas, and some isolated locations in under five minutes, forecasters warn.

Snowfall has already begun in Seattle, which is under a winter storm warning Tuesday. The storm will move east into portions of Idaho Tuesday morning and then spread out across northern and central Montana later in the afternoon.

Chicago is forecast to be one of the hardest hit cities, where a winter storm watch is in effect starting Thursday night through Friday evening. It is likely that holiday travel would be put on hold due to the potential for blizzard conditions.

In Texas, the National Weather Service made it a point to reassure residents this week’s unusually cold temperatures are not expected to affect the state as severely as last year’s brutal winter storms, when millions of people lost power during a weeklong extreme weather event in February 2021.

However, water pipes will be at risk of bursting, the weather service said. Amarillo, Texas, has a wind chill watch in effect for the next few days.

“Outdoor pipes will be at risk due to well below freezing temps and windy conditions late this week,” the weather service in Fort Worth said. “Make sure to cover pipes and let faucets drip!”