- A storm entering the West early week will track across the rest of the U.S. in the week ahead.
- The storm will produce snow, ice and strong winds to the north of its track from the Rockies to the Plains and Midwest.
- This storm’s snowfall forecast is still somewhat uncertain.
Snow, ice and strong winds will accompany a cross-country winter storm tracking from out of the West into the Plains and Midwest this week.
This weather system has been named Winter Storm Miles by The Weather Channel.
Miles is spreading through the West right now. From there, it will track across the Central Plains into the Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes while pulling in increasing moisture from the Gulf of Mexico.
Winter storm alerts have been issued from the Front Range of the Rockies into the Great Lakes, including the Denver, Kansas City and Chicago metro areas.
Wednesday and Thursday will be the peak of this storm’s most impactful weather in the central and eastern U.S. However, its track is still somewhat uncertain, which means the area where the heaviest snow is expected could still shift subtly in future updates. Check back with us at weather.com and The Weather Channel app for updates.
There will also be a threat of severe storms and heavy rain on the warmer side of this storm system.
(FORECAST: Severe Storms Rumble Through South)
Storm Timing
Wednesday-Wednesday Night
The storm system will combine with a sprawling high-pressure system over the western Atlantic to draw increasing moisture into the central U.S. by Wednesday and Wednesday night.
Snow is expected during the day and into the evening from the Rockies into the adjacent High Plains, including the Denver metro area.
Wednesday night, snow and a narrow zone of sleet and freezing rain could also develop from Plains as far south as Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle into the northern and western Great Lakes.
Rain and thunderstorms will develop in the South, including the possibility of some severe storms. Locally heavy rain will expand as far north and east as the Ohio Valley and southern Great Lakes, especially by Wednesday night.
Wednesday Night’s Forecast
Thursday-Thursday Night
Snow will be ongoing Thursday from parts of Kansas and northern Oklahoma to portions of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, southern Wisconsin and Lower Michigan. There is still a high degree of uncertainty when it comes to what areas might see more significant snowfall, including portions of the Chicago and Kansas City metro areas.
Strong winds from the storm system will also impact a large area from the South into the Midwest. Blowing snow is expected where those winds overlap with snow in the Plains and Midwest, further worsening travel impacts.
Soaking rain is expected from the Ohio Valley into the Deep South and Northeast Thursday into Thursday night.
Rain might change to snow for a time as far south and east as the Ohio Valley and interior Northeast by Thursday night.
Friday
The storm should be exiting the Eastern Seaboard on Friday. Mainly rain is expected all the way up the Northeast coastline to southern Maine, given the milder air ahead of the system.
Strong, possibly damaging winds might accompany the cold front as it moves through the Northeast coastline late Thursday night into early Friday morning.
Parts of southeast New England and Long Island are most at risk for tree damage and power outages during that time.
Snow, Ice and Rain Forecasts
Snow totals in the Mountain West will be on the light to moderate side, but any fresh snowpack is welcomed given the lack of recent storms in the region.
Multi-inch snowfall totals will be found on the northern side of where this storm tracks from the Central Plains to the Great Lakes.
The purple-shaded areas in the map below show the most likely locations for those heavier totals at this time, possibly topping 6 inches. As mentioned earlier, a corridor from roughly Kansas City to Chicago has a particularly uncertain forecast. If the storm tracks farther north, then heavier snow is more likely in these areas as opposed to a track of the storm farther south.
Some ice accumulation is expected for a time from parts of Oklahoma into the mid-Mississippi Valley and southern Great Lakes. That accumulation may make untreated roads, particularly bridges and overpasses, slippery.
Some localized tree damage and power outages are possible in areas covered by the darker contours in the map below, though a widespread, destructive ice storm is not expected from Winter Storm Miles.
Chance of at least 0.1 inch ice accumulation
(Ice accumulations of 0.10 inches or less can cause travel to be dangerous but usually are not damaging to trees and power lines.)
A broad area from the Ohio Valley into the Deep South could see at least an inch of rain from this storm this week. Multi-inch rainfall totals are not out of the question.
That could raise the potential for localized flooding in parts of those regions, given the combination of water from snowmelt and runoff from frozen ground.
Ice jams could also develop on rivers in the southern Great Lakes region from warmer temperatures and rainfall ahead of the storm.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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