Ice storm to hit south as New York continues snowless streak

A prolonged ice storm will affect much of the south until Wednesday, with the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area at the center of the threat.

The slow moving storm system is expected to bring freezing rain and ice accumulation to parts of the country stretching from Texas to West Virginia.

About 50 million people were under winter alert Monday, including Dallas and Austin, Texas; Oklahoma City; Little Rock, Arkansas; Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee; and St. Louis.

Light freezing rain is expected on Monday in parts of the central and southern plains, and winter is expected in parts of the Mississippi, Tennessee and Ohio river valleys. This will be enough to glaze the roadways leading to the treacherous journey.

Heavy freezing rain is expected Tuesday over central Texas and through Arkansas into Tennessee.

Wednesday will bring the third round of winter rainfall across most of the area and could be the heaviest and most damaging as rain is at its heaviest and temperatures are at its lowest.

Ice buildups can be as large as 0.25 inches, which can result in near-impossible driving conditions and a high chance of power outages.

Freezing rain is the most dangerous type of winter precipitation because it looks like rain when it falls but instantly turns to ice when it hits ground below freezing.

Coldest since Christmas

Arctic cold descending from Canada causes cold conditions. As many as 16 million people were warned of cold winds from the Canadian border to the Texas Panhandle on Monday, with temperatures as low as minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit in Montana and Wyoming and as low as minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit in the Dakotas.

It was minus 59 degrees in Peter Sinks, Utah. lowest temperature recorded in the state in 21 years. The last time the state was close to this was at minus 62 degrees on January 20, 2002.

The Arctic air mass, which caused temperatures to drop to 40 degrees below average, will spread to the south and east during the week, eventually moving to the northeast by Saturday, when morning temperatures are expected to reach single digits and winds to cool from minus 10 up to minus 20. range of degrees.

While the southern regions battle the winter storm, several cities in the northeast will continue to wait for snow. New York City set the record on Monday for the last first measurable snow, the previous record being set on January 29, 1973.

With no measurable snow in the short-term forecast, the city could break the record for the longest “snow-free streak” set in 2020, which stands at 332 days. As of Monday, it was 327 days.

Some Other Notable Snowless Characteristics

  • Philadelphia is rapidly approaching its latest first snow on record, which fell on February 3rd.
  • Washington D.C. averages 13.8 inches of snow per year and should be half that by now. The last four first recorded snowfalls occurred in February.
  • Syracuse, New York, one of the snowiest cities in the country, averages more than 120 inches of snow a year, but this winter has only 25 inches, 3 feet below the season average to date.
  • This season, Erie, NY only got 39.5 inches of snow, more than 2 feet less than it should be. By now it should have been 65 inches.

Why is there no snow in the East?

Several factors can be blamed for the lack of snow in the East, the first of which is the lack of cold air and the unfavorable storm path typical of La Niña winters.

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