Snow forecast: Bomb cyclone, winter storms could drop snowfall in Northwest, Plains, Northeast
The first snow of the season could greet some regions of the Midwest, Northeast, Great Lakes and possibly even into the Southeast later this week, forecasts show.
A cold front of air is expected to arrive in the Plains on Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service (NWS), and expand into the South, Midwest and East on Thursday. After an unusually warm fall, southern states like Texas and Florida will see temperatures drop into the 40s and 50s, while the Midwest will experience lows in the 30s, said Weather.com meteorologists on Tuesday.
The Northeast will also be blanketed with cooler temperatures, wet snow, and some rain, offering a reprieve from the ongoing drought. Heavier snowfall is expected especially in the Great Lakes region, which will likely experience lake effect snowfall, as well as the Ohio Valley and Adirondacks, Appalachians and Catskills, according to the NWS.
"There is the potential for a foot or more of snow to fall over the ridges, plateaus and peaks in the mountains of West Virginia, western Maryland and western Pennsylvania form the setup later this week and into this weekend," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dan Pydynowski said in a report. "It is possible that at elevations near and above 2,000 feet can easily end up with a foot or more of snow.
Bomb cyclone to drench Pacific Northwest with rain, snow
Meanwhile, a storm called a "bomb cyclone" formed off the Northwest coast and could bring "flooding, mudslides and rock slides, especially in Northern California and southwest Oregon," as well as feet of snow, AccuWeather said Tuesday.
Described by Weather.com as "a powerful low-pressure system," a storm is deemed a bomb cyclone when pressures drop rapidly enough in 24 hours to indicate a storm is intensifying quickly. In this case, the cyclone will bring a "long-duration atmospheric river" with it, meaning it will carry large amounts of water across long distances.
Because of this, the Pacific Northwest can expect flooding rain, high winds and feet of snow through the end of the week, according to the outlet.
The NWS has also issued winter weather alerts and a blizzard warning from the Washington Cascades to California's northern Sierra as snow levels are expected to rise.
"The storm's fastest increase in strength will be on Tuesday, and correspondingly, that is when the strongest winds (50-70 mph) will be felt from the south along the immediate Pacific coast and from the southeast in and east of the Cascades and (Siskiyous)," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Heather Zehr said in a Tuesday prediction.
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