More Snow And Ice From The Southern Plains To Northeast – National Weather Forecast For February 18, 2021

National Weather Forecast

On Thursday the second snow and ice storm of the week will be working east, bringing inclement weather from the Southern Plains into the Great Lakes and Northeast. Rain and snow will also be expected across the Northwest.

Heavy snow and ice will be possible through the end of the week from the Southern Plains to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast with this second snow and ice storm. More on that below. Heavy rain will also be possible in the warm sector, with up to three inches possible from the Florida Panhandle into the eastern Carolinas.

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Praedictix Corporate Custom Weather Briefing: Wednesday morning, February 17th, 2021

Morning Radar. Snow and ice are impacting the central and southern Plains this morning as the second winter storm of the week impacts the region. So far this morning, we have seen reports of 7.5” of snow west of Vernon (TX) and 7.4” of snow at NWS Amarillo. We have also observed a quarter inch of ice in the Austin (TX) area, with 0.15” of ice in San Antonio (TX). This snow and ice are once again leading to major travel issues across the region.

Forecasting Snow And Ice. This system will continue to move northeast through the end of the week, spreading snow and ice from the Southern Plains and lower Mississippi Valley today into the Ohio Valley by tonight, and eventually the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states as we head into Thursday.

Winter Storm Watches And Warnings. Winter storm alerts are in place from the Southern Plains to the Northeast for the second snow and ice storm of the week. Some cities included in these alerts are:

• Dallas, TX: Winter Storm Warning through 8 PM today up to an additional 1” of snow/sleet.
• Austin and San Antonio, TX: Winter Storm Warning through 6 PM Thursday for up an additional 1-3” of snow and light ice accumulations.
• Houston, TX: Winter Storm Warning through 6 AM Thursday for the potential of light icing.
• Oklahoma City, OK: Winter Weather Advisory through 6 PM tonight for up to an additional inch of ice.
• Tulsa, OK: Winter Storm Warning through 6 PM tonight for up to an additional 2” of snow.
• Shreveport, LA: Winter Storm Warning through Noon Thursday for up to 1” of snow and 0.25”-0.5” of ice.
• Little Rock, AR: Winter Storm Warning through Noon Thursday for 4-8” of snow.
• St. Louis, MO: Winter Weather Advisory through 6 PM today for up to 1” of snow.
• Memphis, TN: Winter Storm Warning through 6 PM Thursday for 4-6” of snow/sleet and a glaze of ice.
• Nashville, TN: Winter Storm Warning from 6 PM tonight through 6 PM Thursday for 2-4” of snow and up to 0.1” of ice.
• Jackson, MS: Winter Storm Warning through 6 AM Thursday for 0.4-0.7” of ice and 1-3” of snow.
• Louisville, KY: Winter Weather Advisory from 7 PM tonight to 7 AM Friday for 1-3” of snow.
• Greensboro, NC: Winter Storm Warning from Midnight tonight through 7 AM Friday for 0.25-0.5” of ice.
• Roanoke, VA: Winter Storm Warning from 7 PM tonight to 1 AM Friday for 1-4” of snow and 0.25-0.5” of ice.
• Washington DC And Baltimore, MD: Winter Storm Watch from late tonight to late Thursday night for 5”+ of snow and 0.25”+ of ice.
• Philadelphia, PA: Winter Storm Watch from late tonight to Friday afternoon for 4-6” of snow/sleet and up to 0.1” of ice.
• New York City, NY: Winter Storm Watch from Thursday morning to Friday afternoon for 4-8” of snow.
• Boston, MA: Winter Storm Watch from Thursday morning to Friday evening for 4-8” of snow.

Snow Potential. Through the end of the week, the heaviest additional snow will fall in two areas: one across Arkansas, and another into portions of the Northeast including Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston, where at least 5-7” of snow will be possible. This snow will lead to hazardous travel from the Southern Plains into the Northeast.

Ice Potential. Two stripes of icing are expected through the end of the week, one from central Texas to eastern Kentucky, and another from western and central North Carolina to the D.C. area. Over half an inch of ice will be possible across portions of northern Louisiana, southeastern Arkansas, and western Mississippi, and across portions of north-central North Carolina and south-central Virginia. Icing across these regions will once again lead to hazardous roads, power outages, and tree damage.

Record Cold Weather Continues. Bitterly cold weather will continue across the southern United States over the next several days, with record cold highs and record lows possible. These cold temperatures will help to keep road conditions hazardous and could cause pipes to freeze and burst. Remember to keep people safe from the cold weather outside as well. I would expect rolling blackouts to continue as well.

D.J. Kayser, Meteorologist, Praedictix

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How NASA Aims to Achieve Perseverance’s High-Stakes Mars Landing

More from Scientific American: “If NASA’s $2.7 billion flagship mobile science laboratory, Perseverance, successfully touches down in Jezero Crater on Mars on February 18, the feat will not only open a new chapter in exploration of the Red Planet, but also mark the triumphant culmination of four decades of increasingly challenging landings there. Replete with sedimentary rocks that might contain fossilized creatures from the planet’s warmer, wetter, more habitable past, Perseverance’s destination—the dried-up delta-and-lake system of Jezero Crater—seems so ideal for sniffing out signs of ancient life that one might wonder why it as of yet has remained unvisited. The answer is simple: Attempting a landing in such complex terrain has been a recipe for disaster. At least, until now.”

Why the power is out in Texas … and why other states are vulnerable too

More from Yale Climate Connections: “Many – including some prominent climate change contrarians – were quick to pin the “electric emergency” on the massive turbines that make Texas the leading U.S. state for wind energy. While the deep freeze did knock some turbines offline, practically every mode of energy supply was hobbled by the intense cold, snow, and ice. The main cause of the massive disruption, by far, were the frozen components leading to the outage of thermal plants that heat water and convert the steam to electricity. The vast bulk of those thermal plants are powered by natural gas. In addition, the South Texas Nuclear Plant was thrown out of service Monday as a result of frozen pipes, which cut even further into the Houston area’s electricity supply.”

Win­ter­ing bird communities track cli­mate change faster than breed­ing communities in Europe and North Amer­ica

More from the University of Helsinki: “A study recently completed in Europe and North America indicates that the composition of wintering and breeding bird communities changes in line with global warming. However, wintering bird communities are considerably faster at tracking the changing climate compared to breeding communities. Climate change is driving species’ distribution towards the poles and mountaintops, resulting in changes to bird communities. As a considerable share of birds are migratory species, with the distance they travel varying by species, the rate of change in bird communities is different in the breeding season and in the winter. A new Finnish-led study demonstrates for the first time that changes in bird communities are significantly faster in the winter than in the breeding season.”

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Thanks for checking in and have a great day! Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter (@dkayserwx) and like me on Facebook (Meteorologist D.J. Kayser).

– D.J. Kayser