Photo: Weather Channel
Parts of the U.S. is about to experience “the coldest temperatures so far this winter season 2022/23,” blanketing a significant part of North America with snow over the holiday weekend. National news outlets are warning of hazardous conditions for holiday travel across the country, with potential blizzard conditions hitting the Great Lakes and “arctic cold” that will extend all the way down to parts of the Gulf Coast.
The culprit, Winter Storm Elliot, is expected to come through the Pacific Northwest and into the Rockies starting Tuesday. But by Wednesday, Elliot will be moving into the Midwest and intensifying as it pushes east.
“The storm will intensify in the Midwest with areas of heavy snow and rain changing quickly to snow as the arctic front races through,” says the Weather Channel. “Strong winds will spread from the Plains to the Midwest and South. Expect dangerous travel conditions from the central Plains to the upper Mississippi Valley, with blizzard conditions in some areas.”
Those blizzard conditions include winds as high as 70 mph in parts of the Midwest, and so Elliot is expected to wreak havoc on travel plans when the storm reaches its peak intensity Friday with heavy winds and snowfall over the western Great Lakes, from Wisconsin and Illinois to parts of Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. According to AAA, nearly 113 million people in the United States are expected to travel at least 50 miles from home this holiday season.
Conditions aren’t expected to be so hazardous out West. The PNW, specifically, is going to see moderate, consistent snowfall all week. This, from the folks at Powderchasers:
Originally the models showed warm air overtaking the very cold temps in place currently. Models show a trend for the colder temps to hang on through at least Thursday for the western Cascades and certainly further east. It will warm considerably for the Seattle metro area by mid to late week. Most of the snow this week for the PNW will favor Washington state with less noted in Canada until the final push mid to late week (Western Canada might score some moderate numbers versus the interior of BC late week).
And meanwhile, in the Rockies:
By late Wednesday precipitation amounts have increased (Totals from Sunday to Wednesday 12-22) with 1.5-2 inches of moisture noted for much of the central regions of the Cascades. The central panhandle of Idaho and even areas near Missoula (Montana Snowbowl) or east (Discovery) could also score some decent amounts. You can see some decent amounts noted in the Tetons as well that mainly fall from Tuesday to Wednesday PM.
Stay tuned.
