CNN
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A new, fast-moving winter storm on Monday added to travel problems and cleanup efforts in parts of the central US, which were buried in snow over the weekend. However, its next chapter could be the most striking.
The storm will rapidly strengthen into a bomb cyclone on Tuesday as it moves up the East Coast toward Canada’s Atlantic coast, bringing the first widespread snow and ice of the season to parts of the Northeast.
A bomb cyclone is simply a rapidly strengthening storm, measured by a pressure drop of at least 24 millibars in 24 hours. This may increase threats of a storm, especially wind, which in this case will become gusty along the New England coast.
Major cities along the northeast I-95 corridor are likely to avoid snow, but snowfall totals appear to be significant further inland.
Winter weather advisories are in effect for nearly 70 million people, from the Plains to Maine, as the storm moves eastward.
This new round of snow and ice is already underway in parts of the Central Plains and will spread across the Midwest, southern Great Lakes and Ohio Valley through Monday night. This Monday morning, light snow was falling in parts of Nebraska and Kansas, while freezing rain fell as far away as Oklahoma.
This system will bring anywhere from a light dusting of snow to several more inches of snow to cities in the Midwest and Great Lakes that just experienced their snowiest November day, following a major post-Thanksgiving winter storm on Saturday. These cities include Chicago, Madison, Wisconsin; and Springfield, Illinois.
The storm will be the first of the season for parts of New England and the Mid-Atlantic region once it reaches the east Tuesday morning. Morning traffic will likely be affected by snow in interior areas of the Northeast, including Pittsburgh, Albany and Buffalo, New York.
New York City, Philadelphia, Boston and Washington could see snow early Tuesday, but the flakes will likely turn to rain before the snow really accumulates.
The most snow in the Northeast is expected in northeastern Pennsylvania, the upper Hudson Valley in eastern New York, western and central Massachusetts, the southern half of Vermont and New Hampshire, and eastern Maine. In some locations, 15 cm or more of snow could fall.
Just south of the heavy snowfall, warmer air sliding over cold ground could create pockets of freezing rain in the central and southern Appalachians. Even a thin layer of ice in the higher elevations of Virginia and North Carolina would be enough to cause traffic problems or scattered power outages.
Widespread showers and some thunderstorms are expected in the warmest part of this storm over the south. Localized flash flooding is possible from the northern Gulf Coast to central and northern Georgia.
December marks the start of meteorological winter—which extends into February—and it will certainly feel that way for the first week of the season. Many places in the central and northern US will remain in temperatures between -7 and -1 °C on Monday, causing new snow and ice to accumulate on top of what has already fallen.
Once the snow and ice dissipate, the cold will intensify even more. A new surge of arctic air will sweep across the central and eastern US later in the week, causing temperatures to drop to their lowest levels of the season so far.
Some areas could approach daily cold records this Thursday and Friday, especially in the Plains, Midwest and interior Northeast.
The next Arctic irruption could be a preview of colder weather that will arrive throughout December due to a disruption of the polar vortex.