US Winter Warm-Up Risks
After a cold weekend, it’s getting warmer in the central and eastern parts of the United States. But be careful—there might be some problems. When it warms up, there could be snow, ice, heavy rain, and fog. This can make traveling tricky.
The worry is mainly for travelers in the Midwest and Northeast, say US meteorologists.
Temperatures will go up a lot next week. In Chicago, after being very cold on Sunday morning, it’s expected to be at least in the 30s from Monday to Wednesday. New York City will go from teens on Sunday morning to 40s on Tuesday and Wednesday. Some southern areas will reach 50s and 60s.
But there are issues. Cold air will stay in some places, making surfaces icy. If the ground is below freezing and covered in snow, rain or fog can turn into clear ice, warn meteorologists.
Issues may start in the southern Plains and the Mississippi Valley on Sunday night and Monday. Rain can freeze on roads from Texas to Illinois, making driving risky. It might take until later Monday for the ground to warm up in Missouri and until Monday night for conditions to improve in much of Illinois. The risk of ice buildup is highest around the Ozark Mountains.
More problems might happen in central and eastern Texas to western Tennessee, where 4-6 inches of rain (and up to 8 inches locally) may cause flooding next week.
Up north, from Monday night to Wednesday, there might be rain, ice, and snow from the Upper Midwest to the Northeast. Most wintry issues will likely be north of Interstate 80, but some ice might happen farther south through the Appalachians.
In the Northeast, a bit of cold air from the Arctic might bring wintry weather back from Michigan to upstate New York and New England.
Snow will fall on the Great Lakes and the Northeast from Monday night to Wednesday.
Even in areas like the Ohio River and mid-Atlantic, warmer and moister air over cold ground might cause fog, low clouds, and “ground sweat,” making surfaces wet. This could slow down travel.
The cold air made some ice on streams, rivers, and lakes in the Midwest and Northeast. The warm-up will break some of that ice, but the risk of ice jams is low.
“In New England, any ice-jam flooding should be less compared to coastal flooding from earlier storms,” say meteorologists.
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