A low-pressure system is moving across the country, delivering rain, snow, and ice to much of the southeast. This same system will be making its way along the east coast early this weekend, bringing a chance for accumulating snow to the tri-state.
The National Weather Service has issued winter weather alerts spanning New Mexico to Virginia, warning of snow and ice accumulations, especially in parts of Northern Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, where the winter storm warnings are in effect through Friday. Check the latest weather alerts for your neighborhood here.
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Within these warning zones, snow totals of 6 to 10 inches are likely, with some locally higher amounts. Outside the bullseye, 2 to 4 inches of snow will be more common.
But this is not cleanly an all-snow event. Mild to moderate ice accumulations are expected, especially on the southern fringe of these snow totals. Even a small amount of ice is enough to disrupt travel. Greater accumulations can damage vegetation and take down power lines.
These snow and ice totals make for hazardous conditions across the southeast over the next several days. This can be seen especially in the Weather Prediction Center’s Winter Storm Severity Index. Across the greater Dallas metro area, impacts are expected to range from major to extreme.
One area left out of any elevated winter storm concerns: the tri-state area. Precipitation from this storm system arrives in our region after midnight Saturday morning. This will be largely an all-snow event. And it’ll be light snow at that.
Most of the snow showers exit our area by mid-afternoon. In total, we’re looking at less than 1 inch of snow area-wide. Some localized totals could be more on the order of 1 to 2 inches, but that will be uncommon at best.
It’ll be a nice, scenic snow. But nothing particularly sled-able. And certainly not anything that’ll bring your weekend plans to a screeching halt.
No one is getting buried in snow, many of us won’t even have to lift a shovel. But even light snow can make for difficult travel conditions; anticipate some reduced visibility and slippery roads Saturday morning. And with temperatures tipping just above freezing in the afternoon before cooling off again overnight, expect any snowmelt to turn to ice by Sunday morning. Watch your step when heading outside; if the road looks wet, it's best to assume it is ice.
Sadly, snow lovers holding out hope for a big snowstorm in Central Park are going to have to keep waiting; this storm is not it for us. And unfortunately, we won’t get many additional snow chances in the next 10 days either.
