AccuWeather's Alex DaSilva gives the latest updates on the major winter storm hitting the Plains and Midwest regions of the United States, bringing not just heavy snowfall, but also freezing rain.
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00:00Meteorologist here who's been talking about the snow, the ice, there's so many
00:04different faucets to this storm. As we talk about things though, what are you
00:08seeing right now as you start to look at the radar? Well we certainly see an
00:11expansive storm. This storm is going to be moving from the central plains all
00:15the way to the east coast and it's going to be bringing a mixed bag of
00:18precipitation as it does. We're going to be talking rain, freezing rain, sleet and
00:22snow and if you look at the radar here you can see the snow on the northern
00:25side and the plain rain on the southern side but that pink area that is the area
00:29we're concerned about, that's the battleground. That's where we're seeing
00:32sleet and freezing rain and so that is the area I'm really tracking closely
00:36right now. And it's interesting to see so many lightning strikes in that area too
00:40indicating that that precipitation was coming down so heavily but it goes
00:44beyond the radar then too. Yeah it certainly does. We're tracking the winds
00:48as well so we're talking about all this snow accumulation and the freezing rain
00:52accumulation and then you're adding on to that heavy winds and so that is why
00:56we're very concerned about power outages, downed trees in a lot of these areas
01:00across a widespread area all the way to the east coast. Yeah these are the
01:04sustained winds right now and the gusts could be 10 to 15 miles greater than
01:08what you're seeing here. Of course with this storm the center of it in Oklahoma
01:12it's going to keep pushing east impacting a lot more folks so let's get
01:15into some of those icy threats. Yeah the icy threat is what really concerns me
01:20right now because again you can have, you're putting down ice but you're
01:23also putting down snow on top of that ice and then you have the wind on top of
01:27that so that's where we really get into bad situations with downed trees, power
01:31outages. But look at how expansive this pink area is extending all the way from
01:35Kansas all the way to the east coast and then if you look at those darker pink
01:38areas that's the area where we're expecting half an inch potentially of
01:41freezing rain. And because of all that freezing rain that accumulates it
01:46doesn't really matter how much freezing rain you have you still have impacts at
01:50all different categories. Yeah and it doesn't take a lot to cause accidents on
01:54the highway you really only need a trace or so of ice to really cause those spin
01:57outs and we've already seen plenty of that across the state of Kansas and
02:01that's just going to keep moving east. Once you get into those higher amounts
02:04the half an inch amounts that's where we really see the problem start to mount.
02:08Half an inch of ice can add up to 500 pounds of weight to power lines and to
02:12trees that's where we really see those power outages really start to mount.
02:16We're already seeing some power outages in the plains right now and unfortunately
02:20I think that area is going to expand east and we could see widespread power
02:23outages eastern Kansas all the way to Kentucky. And those power outages fairly
02:29far-reaching. Well we want to thank you again Alex DaSilva as we continue to
02:33talk about this storm and it's trek eastward on this January weekend into
02:38the workweek too.