2024-01-15 09:00:00
(CNN) — A brutal, prolonged Arctic storm that will bring heavy snow, wind and ice to much of the United States threatens record low temperatures and dangerous morning commutes as another storm heads south.
Here’s what you should know about the weather this Monday:
• About 79% of the United States will see temperatures below freezing: More than 140 daily cold records could be broken this Monday and Tuesday from Oregon to Mississippi, as temperatures in Memphis, Dallas and Nashville are expected to stay below freezing for at least 72 consecutive hours. This Monday, the coldest caucuses on record in Iowa are forecast, with subzero temperatures and wind chills of up to -30 degrees Celsius.
• Dangerous trips this Monday morning: Combined with the cold, slippery winter precipitation won’t melt on untreated surfaces for travel this Monday morning in places like Dallas and Shreveport, Louisiana, making travel more dangerous. Ice is expected to accumulate from Texas through the Lower Mississippi Valley to parts of the Tennessee Valley and the Southern Appalachians. “Have a cold survival kit if you must travel,” the National Weather Service recommended.
• Life-threatening wind chills: Below-zero wind chills will affect much of the US and extend into the south. Winds between 10 and 35 mph could cause life-threatening wind chills in the south that could cause frostbite to exposed skin in as little as 30 minutes. Wind chills of minus 30 degrees Celsius are expected from the Northern Rockies to northern Kansas and into Iowa. In South Dakota, wind chills as low as -45 degrees Celsius can cause frostbite to exposed skin in as little as 5 minutes.
• Blinding snow squalls and lake effect snow in the Northeast: Snow showers are possible across the Northeast. It was snowing heavily with lake effect in Buffalo this Sunday and strong winds continued to kick up snow and impact travel in the Midwest.
• Texas suffers with its vulnerable electrical grid: As Texas shiveres in the freezing cold, ERCOT, which manages 90% of the state’s electrical load, asked Texans to conserve electricity use Monday as it “expects tight grid conditions.” Dallas could see up to 0.63 centimeters of sleet and 0.254 centimeters of ice accumulations.
How much snow is expected
Winter weather advisories extend nearly 1,300 miles from parts of the Texas-Mexico border to central Virginia.
About 100 million people are under wind chill watches in the central and northwest U.S., and about 60 million people are under winter storm watches from Texas to Virginia, including all of Tennessee and Arkansas.
“The prolonged nature of this event could result in possible moderate to significant winter storm impacts across portions of Arkansas, northwest Mississippi, and western Tennessee,” the Weather Prediction Center said.
The storm will leave 2 to 6 inches of snow from Oklahoma to Virginia, just north of where the heaviest ice will fall.
Memphis, which has had no measurable snow so far this year, is forecast to receive between 3 and 7 inches of snow.
Snow accumulations of 2 to 7 centimeters are also expected from Oklahoma City to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Almost the entire state of Arkansas is expected to see at least 7 centimeters, and in some places up to 15 centimeters total. Snow accumulations of 3 to 7 inches are expected in Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee.
Workers remove snow from Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York, on Sunday. (Credit: Jeffrey T. Barnes/AP)
Heavy snow was expected over parts of the Central Rockies through Monday night, and lake-effect snow was expected to persist downwind from the Great Lakes through Tuesday, according to the weather service.
The storm will clear the south Tuesday night and then could move into the mid-Atlantic and Northeast, increasing the chances of snow there by Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Oregon is still cleaning up after a powerful winter storm packed up 1.95 centimeters of ice in some cities and damaging winds caused widespread power outages over the weekend. More than 111,000 homes and businesses were without power Sunday night, according to the tracking site PowerOutage.us.
At least two weather-related deaths were reported in the Portland area over the weekend, according to officials.
— CNN meteorologists Robert Shackelford and Sara Tonks and CNN’s Joe Sutton and Samantha Beech contributed to this report.
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