Winter Storm Hunter to Bring Snow, Ice From Tennessee and Arkansas to Northern New England

Story Highlights

Snow and ice will spread east into the Ohio Valley, Tennessee Valley and eastern Great Lakes into Friday.

That wintry mess will then arrive in parts of the interior Northeast Friday night into Saturday.

Heavy snow is possible from the eastern Great Lakes into northern New England.

Accumulating ice could lead to slippery roads and some power outages.

Winter Storm Hunter will spread a mess of snow and ice across a large swath of the Tennessee Valley, Ohio Valley and Northeast through Saturday.

(MORE: How Winter Storms are Named | Winter Storm Central)

Happening Now

Into Friday morning, a strip of freezing rain or sleet is expected from as far south as the mid-South region (West Tennessee, eastern Arkansas) into the mid-Mississippi and lower Ohio valleys.

Farther north, rain or a brief wintry mix should change over to light snow in Michigan.

Snowfall amounts up to 9 inches were reported Thursday in parts of the Plains, including 6.2 inches in Grand Forks, North Dakota, 6 inches in Bismarck, North Dakota, and 3 inches in Salina, Kansas.

In the upper Midwest, 2.8 inches of snow was observed at the National Weather Service office in Duluth, Minnesota.

An inch or two of snow was observed as far south as the Texas Panhandle early Thursday.

Blizzard conditions were observed in Grand Forks, North Dakota, Wednesday night, according to the National Weather Service. A roughly 150-mile stretch of Interstate 29 was closed for several hours on Thursday morning north of Fargo, North Dakota, to the Canadian border.

(MORE: What is a Blizzard? | America’s Blizzard Alley)

To the south, wind gusts to 76 mph have been clocked near Garden City, Kansas, with a 68-mph gust reported at Midland International Airport in Texas.

A menagerie of winter weather advisories, winter storm watches and warnings extend from the Mississippi Valley to the Tennessee and Ohio valleys, eastern Great Lakes and northern New England.

If that wasn’t enough, parts of the Northeast may pick up enough rain, coupled with well-above-freezing temperatures, to trigger areas of flooding.

(FORECAST: Flood Threat From January Thaw, Rain Ahead)

Forecast Timing

Friday

• The band of snow, sleet and freezing rain will march east through the Tennessee Valley, Ohio Valley and eastern Great Lakes.
• Any precipitation that starts as rain early Friday could change to freezing rain, sleet and/or snow from west to east in this zone.

Friday Night

• Precipitation in the Ohio Valley and near the eastern Great Lakes should transition to snow or sleet from west to east.
• Freezing rain may persist in a narrow band from parts of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, central and upstate New York to northern New England.
• Much of the rest of the Northeast, even as far north as southern Maine, should see rain. 

Saturday

• Snow will linger in much of New York state and far northern New England.
• A band of sleet and freezing rain may persist from the Poconos, Catskills and the Hudson Valley north of New York City into parts of western and northern New England.

Ice Accumulation Forecast

• As mentioned above, precipitation may start as rain before changing over to a period of freezing rain or sleet as the Arctic cold air marches in.
• Over a broad swath of the mid-Mississippi Valley, Tennessee Valley, Ohio Valley and interior Northeast, enough ice should accumulate to make many untreated roads, especially bridges and overpasses, slippery.
• In some areas, higher accumulations may lead to some downed tree limbs or weaker trees and trigger some power outages.
• The best chance of greater than one-tenth of an inch of ice accumulation will occur from northern Pennsylvania and New York state into northern New England, as well as a swath of the lower Ohio Valley from southern Illinois, far southeast Missouri and northwest Kentucky into southern and central Indiana.

(MORE: Where Freezing Rain is Most Common in the U.S.)

Snowfall Forecast

• In the East, the heaviest snowfall is expected from the eastern Great Lakes to far northern New England.
• However, accumulating snow will extend through much of the Ohio Valley and may extend as far south as parts of Tennessee or even northern Mississippi.
• This accumulating snow will likely occur after a layer of accumulating ice has been laid down in many of these areas.

Check back with us at weather.com for updates to this forecast.

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