Important Takeaways:

• America’s first high-impact winter storm of the new year is a coast-to-coast event expected to bring over a 1,500-mile swath of hazardous snow and ice across the central and eastern U.S.
• The storm is roaring ashore on the West Coast Friday, bringing heavy rains and mountain snow to the Pacific Northwest and northern California. From there, it will bring a round of snow to the Intermountain West and northern Rockies on Saturday before emerging in the Plains on Saturday night.
• That’s when the stage becomes set for a significant winter storm. The FOX Forecast Center said north of the storm, a strong arctic high will be supplying cold air, while to the south, moisture from the Gulf of Mexico will be flowing north.
• The FOX Forecast Center is expecting “plowable” snow from the north-central Plains through the Ohio Valley.
• Snow amounts will range from a few inches to more than a foot in some spots. This includes cities such as Rapid City, South Dakota, Omaha, Kansas City, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Charleston, West Virginia, and Washington, DC.
• “Needless to say this will make driving on Sunday and Sunday night extremely hazardous at best, potentially impossible at worst,” the National Weather Service office in St. Louis said in their Friday morning forecast discussion.
• In Kansas, the NWS said snow and sleet accumulations greater than 4 inches are possible, with ice accretions greater than one-tenth of an inch likely. Winds could gust as high as 35 mph, creating blowing and drifting snow, along with near-blizzard conditions at times.
• “With all this said, people should not focus on exact amounts or ranges of snowfall or ice accumulation,” NWS St. Louis said. “Rather, be prepared for a major winter storm.”

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