From Jan. 8-11, forecasters say a winter storm is going to impact a huge swath of the U.S., from heavy snow in Texas to wintry weather in the mid-Atlantic.
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00:00We're joined now by AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist John Porter.
00:02John, we have so many competing storylines right now, but this is a big one here, considering
00:07a major, major metro in the name of Dallas looking at a winter storm late this week.
00:12Man, so many other communities across the southern part of the United States, Jeff,
00:16where snow and ice is less common, there are less snow plows and sanders and things of that nature,
00:22so any snow or ice results in big travel troubles, and we're going to have a huge mess on our hands
00:27here across the southern United States from Wednesday night through the early part of the
00:32weekend with a significant winter storm. And a lot of the time these storms kind of develop quietly
00:37just over our heads in the south-central U.S., but then once they get going on the
00:41lee side of the Rockies, we have an explosive storm on our hands.
00:44And this one's going to have lots of gulf moisture that'll be pouring into it,
00:48so we're going to be dealing with heavy snow on the northern side of the storm
00:53and an icy mix in between, and then closer to the coast,
00:56it's going to be a rain event down toward Houston, but major travel problems erupting.
01:00I was just talking to somebody on social media. Myrtle Beach has a shot at a little bit of snow,
01:05maybe a few flurries or snow showers before this breaks out. There's cold air in place,
01:08but John, the impacts in the southeast are going to be significant inland.
01:12They will be, and that's, we're talking about cities like Atlanta
01:16over toward even Columbia, South Carolina, Charlotte, Raleigh,
01:20all with a snow and ice threat, and that's going to result in very significant travel problems,
01:25both in terms of on the roadways and also big delays and cancellations at the airports.
01:30And then look at this in a Saturday morning. Storm is off the Carolina coast,
01:36and we're going to be dealing with snow. Some of it can be heavy across parts of
01:39Virginia to near D.C., and then lighter snows across parts of the northeast.
01:44That's a very geographically large area facing at least some snow out of this storm.
01:48So when we get into the specifics, again, huge concern in the Dallas metro, John.
01:53Look at this, a strip of 6 to 12 inches of snow just north of the metroplex.
01:57A small shift in the storm track can result in higher totals in Dallas.
02:02And remember, this type of snow is pretty unusual in the Dallas area.
02:07And again, there'll be a sharp variation across the metroplex
02:10with higher snow totals to the north versus less snow as you head to the south.
02:15And one thing that we tend to do well here at AccuWeather is provide context,
02:19and just by the numbers, snows like this in Dallas of three inches or more or six
02:24inches or more are pretty rare. Six inches or more snow, you have to go back to 2010.
02:28This only happens about once every 15 years. That is six or more inches of snow
02:33in Dallas. AccuWeather experts forecasting three to six inches in the Dallas area.
02:38But again, a sharp variation with more snow just to the north.
02:42This is a great time to download the AccuWeather app or go to accuweather.com
02:45for our winter cast feature. You can see how much snow we're expecting in your community,
02:50plus the prospects for a little bit more, a little bit less, a great tool.
02:54And then into the northeast, John, we are dealing with, again, a one to three inch
02:57event for a lot of areas, but who could see more? And again, are we expecting an explosive
03:02storm in the northeast or not? Well, the storm is going to be
03:05moving more east than it is north. If it came up the coast and was stronger,
03:09this would be a different story. We'd have heavy snow in the big cities from Boston
03:12to New York to Philadelphia to D.C. At this point, that looks less likely. In fact,
03:17perhaps only a 15% chance that that happens. Instead, across the Great Lakes to the northeast,
03:21a broader area of one to three inches of snow, higher snow amounts in the West Virginia mountains,
03:26and then also across parts of Virginia seem likely. All right, so the most likely scenario here
03:31showing that snow suppressed a little farther south with widespread light snow farther north.
03:35AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist John Porter. Again, John, just to briefly, had this come
03:39farther north, it would have looked very different, huh?
03:42It would. Heavier snow along the big cities, as we talked about. This scenario, as mentioned,
03:47about a 15% chance of happening still cannot be ruled out. And even without a major storm coming
03:53up the coast, we're going to be dealing with big travel impacts across the mid-Atlantic and the
03:58southeast from snow and ice. Stay with AccuWeather. All right, John, thanks again for all your
04:02insight. As always, AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist John Porter there with the latest on our Texas
04:06to northeast storm late this week.