Entire year's worth of snow slams Texas before it shifts north for the Midwest
By
Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist
Updated Jan 1, 2021 3:50 PM EDT
For the second time this week, an expansive storm will coat the central United States with snow and ice from Texas to the Great Lakes, over a 1,500-mile-long swath. The wintry mix, which started to fall in the Lone Star State on Wednesday, caused long backups on the roadways by Wednesday night. The storm continued into Thursday night and ended up delivering an entire year's worth of snow, just in time to close out 2020.
This second round of the wintry storm unfolded much farther south than the first, with portions of northern Mexico and southwestern Texas experiencing a significant accumulation.
San Angelo, Texas received 1.7 inches of snow on New Year's Eve, surpassing the daily record of an inch set in 1978. Typically, the city typically receives only 2.2 inches for an entire winter.
The first part of the double-barreled storm hit areas from Colorado and Kansas to Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois hard prior to Wednesday with snow that rapidly covered roads and made for low visibility in snow that piled up at the rate of 1-2 inches per hour for a time. The first part of the storm concluded over Michigan with rain, spotty ice and snow on Wednesday.
Des Moines, Iowa, set a new daily record snowfall on Dec. 29 with 9.6 inches falling. The old record for the date was 2 inches set more than 100 years ago in 1907. The fast-hitting nature of the the snow made roads an icy mess and resulted in many spin outs and accidents in the Quad Cities area of Illinois and Iowa during Tuesday evening. In Chicago, the 2.6 inches of snow that fell at O'Hare Airport was the biggest single snowfall of the winter so far and has pushed the seasonal total to 3.5 inches.
The new round of snow and ice over parts of Texas was proving to be just as disruptive in the early stages of the storm Wednesday into Wednesday night.
Interstate 10 near Kent, Texas, was closed for a time Wednesday evening due to the bad weather, with reports of cars backed up for over three hours. As much as 3-5 inches of snow had fallen in southwestern Texas by early Thursday morning, with snow continuing to come down.
This radar image from 2 p.m. CST Thursday, Dec. 31, 2020, revealed the snow (blue) and ice (purple and pink) and rain (green, yellow, orange and red) across the south-central United States. (AccuWeather)
As of the midday hours on Thursday, snowfall of 12-24 inches was reported in Big Bend National Park, Texas, according to park rangers.
Snow and ice will overlap some areas that were hit hard from the storm early in the week and will bring some wintry conditions to areas missed by the first round in portions of the Plains and Midwest.
Other locations over the southern Plains that picked up snow on Thursday and Thursday night included Fort Stockton, Abilene, Midland and Odessa, Texas; and Elk City and Enid, Oklahoma; Snow was forecast to spread northward into Wichita, Hutchinson, Manhattan and Topeka, Kansas, by Friday morning.
In part of southwestern Texas, a general 6-12 inches of snow fell with 12-24 inches reported in Big Bend National Park, Texas.
Farther to the northeast, the stripe of heavy snow is expected to extend through northwestern Missouri central and southeastern Iowa, southern Wisconsin, northwestern Illinois and part of northern Michigan on New Year's Day.
A moderate amount of snow is forecast to fall on Madison, Wisconsin, following the 5 inches or so of snow that fell during Tuesday night.
Freezing rain on Thursday evening in Oklahoma City changed over to snow after midnight and heavy snow was still falling early on Friday morning.
Kansas City, Missouri, is likely to be hit hard by both sleet and a moderate to heavy amount of snow. The sleet rolled into the metro area during Thursday night and persisted to around daybreak before switching over to snow. Very difficult travel conditions are anticipated around Kansas City on Friday with the likelihood of localized to regional outages. The Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois, as well as Chicago are other metro areas that can be hit hard with both ice and then snow from the storm.
In this radar image captured at 8 a.m. CST Friday, Jan. 1, 2021, snow (blue) was falling over parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, northwestern Missouri and southern Iowa with ice (pink and purple) extending farther to the east over the Ohio Valley. Rain (green, yellow and orange) was occurring southeast of the ice area. (AccuWeather)
The ice portion of the storm in the Central states can be every bit as or even more disruptive than the snow portion of the second storm.
Areas from north-central Texas to eastern Ohio can expect several hours of freezing rain and some sleet with the storm.
The worst conditions, where there is the potential for ice to accrue to a thickness of 0.25 of an inch or greater, is forecast from central Missouri to parts of central Illinois and northern Indiana.
Ice that thick can weigh down and break tree limbs and cause regional to widespread power outages.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP
Midwest cities that are likely to experience enough ice that can make roads and sidewalks hazardous include St. Louis; Chicago; Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, Indiana; Cleveland and Toledo, Ohio; and Detroit and Lansing, Michigan.
This second part of the storm is not only forecast to bring a new round of snow, ice and rain to the Central states, but also produce icy conditions in the Northeast and a round of flooding rain and severe thunderstorms that advances eastward across the Southern states into the end of the week.
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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News / Winter Weather
Entire year's worth of snow slams Texas before it shifts north for the Midwest
By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist
Updated Jan 1, 2021 3:50 PM EDT
For the second time this week, an expansive storm will coat the central United States with snow and ice from Texas to the Great Lakes, over a 1,500-mile-long swath. The wintry mix, which started to fall in the Lone Star State on Wednesday, caused long backups on the roadways by Wednesday night. The storm continued into Thursday night and ended up delivering an entire year's worth of snow, just in time to close out 2020.
This second round of the wintry storm unfolded much farther south than the first, with portions of northern Mexico and southwestern Texas experiencing a significant accumulation.
San Angelo, Texas received 1.7 inches of snow on New Year's Eve, surpassing the daily record of an inch set in 1978. Typically, the city typically receives only 2.2 inches for an entire winter.
The first part of the double-barreled storm hit areas from Colorado and Kansas to Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois hard prior to Wednesday with snow that rapidly covered roads and made for low visibility in snow that piled up at the rate of 1-2 inches per hour for a time. The first part of the storm concluded over Michigan with rain, spotty ice and snow on Wednesday.
Des Moines, Iowa, set a new daily record snowfall on Dec. 29 with 9.6 inches falling. The old record for the date was 2 inches set more than 100 years ago in 1907. The fast-hitting nature of the the snow made roads an icy mess and resulted in many spin outs and accidents in the Quad Cities area of Illinois and Iowa during Tuesday evening. In Chicago, the 2.6 inches of snow that fell at O'Hare Airport was the biggest single snowfall of the winter so far and has pushed the seasonal total to 3.5 inches.
The new round of snow and ice over parts of Texas was proving to be just as disruptive in the early stages of the storm Wednesday into Wednesday night.
Interstate 10 near Kent, Texas, was closed for a time Wednesday evening due to the bad weather, with reports of cars backed up for over three hours. As much as 3-5 inches of snow had fallen in southwestern Texas by early Thursday morning, with snow continuing to come down.
This radar image from 2 p.m. CST Thursday, Dec. 31, 2020, revealed the snow (blue) and ice (purple and pink) and rain (green, yellow, orange and red) across the south-central United States. (AccuWeather)
As of the midday hours on Thursday, snowfall of 12-24 inches was reported in Big Bend National Park, Texas, according to park rangers.
Snow and ice will overlap some areas that were hit hard from the storm early in the week and will bring some wintry conditions to areas missed by the first round in portions of the Plains and Midwest.
Other locations over the southern Plains that picked up snow on Thursday and Thursday night included Fort Stockton, Abilene, Midland and Odessa, Texas; and Elk City and Enid, Oklahoma; Snow was forecast to spread northward into Wichita, Hutchinson, Manhattan and Topeka, Kansas, by Friday morning.
In part of southwestern Texas, a general 6-12 inches of snow fell with 12-24 inches reported in Big Bend National Park, Texas.
Farther to the northeast, the stripe of heavy snow is expected to extend through northwestern Missouri central and southeastern Iowa, southern Wisconsin, northwestern Illinois and part of northern Michigan on New Year's Day.
A moderate amount of snow is forecast to fall on Madison, Wisconsin, following the 5 inches or so of snow that fell during Tuesday night.
Freezing rain on Thursday evening in Oklahoma City changed over to snow after midnight and heavy snow was still falling early on Friday morning.
Kansas City, Missouri, is likely to be hit hard by both sleet and a moderate to heavy amount of snow. The sleet rolled into the metro area during Thursday night and persisted to around daybreak before switching over to snow. Very difficult travel conditions are anticipated around Kansas City on Friday with the likelihood of localized to regional outages. The Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois, as well as Chicago are other metro areas that can be hit hard with both ice and then snow from the storm.
In this radar image captured at 8 a.m. CST Friday, Jan. 1, 2021, snow (blue) was falling over parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, northwestern Missouri and southern Iowa with ice (pink and purple) extending farther to the east over the Ohio Valley. Rain (green, yellow and orange) was occurring southeast of the ice area. (AccuWeather)
The ice portion of the storm in the Central states can be every bit as or even more disruptive than the snow portion of the second storm.
Areas from north-central Texas to eastern Ohio can expect several hours of freezing rain and some sleet with the storm.
The worst conditions, where there is the potential for ice to accrue to a thickness of 0.25 of an inch or greater, is forecast from central Missouri to parts of central Illinois and northern Indiana.
Ice that thick can weigh down and break tree limbs and cause regional to widespread power outages.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP
Midwest cities that are likely to experience enough ice that can make roads and sidewalks hazardous include St. Louis; Chicago; Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, Indiana; Cleveland and Toledo, Ohio; and Detroit and Lansing, Michigan.
This second part of the storm is not only forecast to bring a new round of snow, ice and rain to the Central states, but also produce icy conditions in the Northeast and a round of flooding rain and severe thunderstorms that advances eastward across the Southern states into the end of the week.
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Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
Report a Typo