Major Winter Storm To Impact Tens Of Millions In Eastern US Over the Weekend

Another winter storm is expected to bring frigid temperatures along with a mix of snow, rain and sleet to most of the Eastern United States over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.  

AccuWeather forecasters predict the storm will reach the northern plains states and Midwest by late Thursday covering North Dakota through Illinois down to parts of Missouri in half a foot of snow by Friday. 

The major winter storm, dubbed by meteorologists as the “Saskatchewan screamer,” will be caused by a mix of frigid air coming down from Canada meeting with a disturbance from the Pacific Northwest.

Forecasters believe the storm could bring up to a foot of snowfall to the area of the Cornbelt between just north of Fargo, North Dakota and Des Moines, Iowa.  

As the storm moves east, forecasters predict it will dip into the Tennessee Valley area bringing snow into Appalachia and cities as far south as Birmingham, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia before moving into the Carolinas early Sunday and snaking up into the Northeast by Monday night.  

AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter warned the Carolinas could see a “significant” amount of sleet that could quickly coat trees and power lines in frozen rain potentially causing “extended” power outages.  

“We see the set up where the cold air can get trapped against the higher elevations of the upstate of South Carolina and across western North Carolina, it could wedge that cold air into place...and that could be a problem for building up ice,” Porter said.  

Porter also predicted that air and road travel would be heavily disrupted over the holiday weekend exacerbating existing supply chain problems for grocery stores, hospitals and COVID-19 testing centers.  

Food stores, hospitals and testing centers are just a few places that have suffered staffing and supply shortages stemming from the omicron variant and made worse by recent foul winter weather.