We continue to watch the upcoming winter storm set to take aim at the Southeast from Houston to Savannah up to Norfolk. While this system is set to bring big snow totals and likely rare snowfall to the Florida Panhandle, this system looks to be a significant ice maker for such cities as Savannah up through Charleston.

Meanwhile, the cold is pouring south over the Midwest tonight and it looks likely to be Chicago’s coldest night of winter and since 2009. There’s a chance it could even be the coldest since 1994 IF the thermometer surpasses -18. The ECMWF is going for the coldest and has Chicago hitting -20. Both GFS and NAM have between -15 and -17.

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As for the Southeast snowstorm, the benchmark goes to the Christmas storm of 1989 which brought upwards of 10-15 inches of snow along the coastal plain of the Carolinas with accumulations into SE Georgia and Florida.

As for recent times, the biggest eastern Carolina snowfalls goes to January 2003 and 2011 but SE Georgia and Florida missed out.

To receive an accumulating snow in Florida I believe you have to go back to the Superstorm of 1993, before then, December 1989. We could well see 1-3″ on the northwest Florida Panhandle by Wednesday morning.

While icing is the biggest threat, places such as Savannah, GA, Hilton Head up to Charleston and Myrtle Beach, SC could see a few inches of snow with major accumulations of 6-12″ occurring just 30-100 miles further west.

Here’s the latest model snow forecasts through the next 48 hrs.

NAM

GFS

ECMWF

ECMWF Shows Extraordinary Cold To Follow Carolina Snowstorm

Check this out Thursday morning.

Yes your seeing that right, the model has temps dropping to zero or below over the freshly laid 6-12 inch Carolinas snowpack with -15 over eastern NC. Quite incredible but likely overdone but by how much?

Yet Another Arctic Blast Early February?

The air mass now over Wisconsin is probably the coldest of the winter thus far or just as cold and it’s heading into the Tennessee Valley. A pull back comes late week but there is solid indication on the models that more ‘lobes’ of frigid air will rotate into the Lower 48 around the Hudson Bay vortex.

The ECMWF shows another major shot of cold down the Plains next week! For those ready to endure a rare winter storm, 70s are on the way this weekend, 60s for the Mid-Atlantic, 50s for the Northeast but this warmth shouldn’t last.

While slightly milder air pushes into the N Plains late week, another lobe of brutal cold rotates around the vortex and tries to drop south.

At 168, major cold lurks on the US-Canada border. Note the system over Baja California. Surface storm pushing into the heart of the US that meets arctic air dropping south out of Canada could mean a major Central US snowstorm with severe weather in the Southeast.

By 216 another dump of bitter cold down the Plains.

According to the CFSv2 there’s plenty of cold left to come… In fact it looks kinda brutal which could make this winter one of the coldest since 1979.

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Tags: arctic blast, Carolinas snowstorm, Carolinas winter storm, Southeast snowstorm, US coldwave