Snow brings chaos to roads with more on the way for Midwest, Northeast

ByDANIEL MANZO ABCNews logo
Sunday, February 17, 2019

A quick-moving storm brought snow to parts of the Central Plains on Friday, including a 3 to 5 inches of snow through the Kansas City metro area. The snowfall caused numerous backups and accidents on area roadways.

The storm also brought up to three-tenths of an inch of ice to parts of southeast Missouri and western Kentucky on Saturday morning. The storm is quickly racing off to the East Coast with some rain and snow showers from the Carolinas to West Virginia. Little to no further impact is expected from this storm.

Meanwhile, a new storm is taking shape across the Northern Plains that will track into the Midwest later in the day. Snow will move toward Kansas City, Missouri, as well as Omaha, Nebraska; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Des Moines, Iowa, by Saturday evening.

New winter weather advisories are being posted from the Dakotas to Illinois for accumulating snow through Saturday night.

On Sunday morning, the snow will spread into parts of Chicago and Indianapolis. Accumulations will likely remain on the light side, but it 1 to 2 inches could cause issues on area roadways in the early morning hours.

The snow will spread eastward by Sunday evening and early Monday into parts of the Northeast, before some areas -- especially in Pennsylvania and New Jersey -- start to see some mixing.

A wide swath of 2 to 4 inches of snow is possible for parts of the Midwest, including much of Iowa, southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois. There will likely be another swatch of 2 to 4 inches of snow in parts of the interior Northeast. The big Northeast cities will see light snowfall amounts by Monday from this system.

Wet week ahead for the South

Looking ahead, concern is growing for a wet pattern to take shape across the Southeast. There are several storms that will move in a similar direction over the course of the coming week.

These storms will quickly develop in the central U.S. and race off to the north and east. As a result, they draw in mild and moist air from the Gulf of Mexico that overspreads much of the Southeast.

There could locally heavy rain totals of 3 to 6 inches or higher. Of particular concern would be parts of the Tennessee and southern Appalachian Valley, where computer models are indicating chances for more than 6 inches of rain.

Most of this rain will come over the course of several days, with the peak of the rain coming in the middle of next week. During that time frame, flash flooding will be a concern, with the geography of the region enhancing the flood risk.

Concerns will increase for river flooding by end of the week as the region becomes more and more waterlogged.

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