ATLANTA (AP) 鈥� With many Americans still recovering from multiple blasts of snow and in the nation鈥檚 northern tier, a new storm is set to emerge this weekend that could coat roads, trees and power lines with devastating ice across a wide expanse of the South.
The storm arriving late this week and into the weekend is shaping up to be a 鈥渨idespread potentially catastrophic event from Texas to the Carolinas,鈥� said Ryan Maue, a former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know how people are going to deal with it,鈥� he said.
Forecasters on Tuesday warned that the ice could weigh down trees and power lines, triggering widespread outages.
鈥淚f you get a half of an inch of ice 鈥� or heaven forbid an inch of ice 鈥� that could be catastrophic,鈥� said Keith Avery, CEO of the Newberry Electric Cooperative in South Carolina.
Here’s what to know:
鈥楪reat swaths鈥� of heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain expected
The National 蜜桃视频app Service warned of “great swaths of heavy snow, sleet, and treacherous freezing rain鈥� starting Friday in much of the nation鈥檚 midsection and then shifting toward the East Coast through Sunday.
Temperatures will be slow to warm in many areas, meaning ice that forms on roads and sidewalks might stick around, forecasters say.
The exact timing of the approaching storm 鈥� and where it is headed 鈥� remained uncertain on Tuesday. Forecasters say it can be challenging to predict precisely which areas could see rain and which ones could be punished with ice.
Cold air clashing with rain to fuel a ‘major winter storm鈥�
An extremely cold arctic air mass is set to dive south from Canada, setting up a clash with the cold temperatures and rain that will be streaming eastward across the southern U.S.
鈥淭his is extreme, even for this being the peak of winter,鈥� National 蜜桃视频app Service meteorologist Bryan Jackson said of the cold temperatures.
When the cold air meets the rain, the likely result will be 鈥渁 major winter storm with very impactful weather, with all the moisture coming up from the Gulf and encountering all this particularly cold air that鈥檚 spilling in,鈥� Jackson said.
An atmospheric river could set up across the southern U.S.
An of moisture could be in place by the weekend, pulling precipitation across Texas and other states along the Gulf Coast and continuing across Georgia and the Carolinas, forecasters said.
鈥淕lobal models are painting a concerning picture of what this weekend could look like, with an increasingly strong signal for ice storm potential across North Georgia and portions of central Georgia,鈥� according to the National 蜜桃视频app Service’s Atlanta office.
If significant accumulations of ice strike metro Atlanta, it could be a problem through the weekend since low temperatures early Monday are expected to be around 22 degrees (minus 5.6 Celsius) in Atlanta. The city’s high temperature on Monday is forecast to be around 35 degrees (1.7 Celsius).
Highway and air travel could be tangled by the storm
Travel is a major concern, as southern states have less equipment to remove snow and ice from roads, and extremely cold temperatures expected after the storm could prevent ice from melting for several days. In Michigan, into each other or slid off an interstate southwest of Grand Rapids on Monday.
The storm is also expected to impact many of the nation鈥檚 major hub airports, including those in Dallas; Atlanta; Memphis, Tennessee; and Charlotte, North Carolina.
Polar air from Canada to keep northern states in a deep freeze
Unusually cold temperatures are already in place across much of the northern tier of the U.S., but the blast of arctic air expected later this week 鈥渨ill be the coldest yet,鈥� Jackson said.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a large sprawling vortex of low pressure centered over Hudson Bay,鈥� Jackson said of the sea in northern Canada that鈥檚 connected to the Arctic Ocean. 鈥淎nd this is dominating the weather over all of North America.鈥�
Texas could be a harbinger for other parts of the South
Some of the storm鈥檚 earliest impacts could be in Texas on Friday, as the arctic air mass slides south through much of the state, National 蜜桃视频app Service forecaster Sam Shamburger said in a briefing on the storm.
鈥淎t the same time, we鈥檙e expecting rain to move into much of the state,鈥� Shamburger said.
Low temperatures could fall into the 20s or even the teens in parts of Texas by Saturday, with the potential for a wintery mix of weather in the northern part of the state.
Forecasters cautioned that significant uncertainty remains, particularly over how much ice or snow could fall across north and central Texas.
鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be a very difficult forecast,鈥� Shamburger said.
At an Arkansas hardware store, customers gear up for storm
In Little Rock, Arkansas, a steady stream of customers on Tuesday were stocking up on supplies at Fuller and Son Hardware.
鈥淩ight now parents of young children are getting sleds,鈥� said James Carter, the company鈥檚 director of operations.
People were also getting shovels, ice-melting products and covers for outside faucets to keep them from freezing, since low temperatures in the Little Rock area are forecast to fall into the teens, he said.
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Panjwani reported from Washington. Associated Press Writers Seth Borenstein in Washington and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed.
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