Snow squalls accompanying an arctic front are causing problems from the Midwest into the Northeast.
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00:00This is tonight's top story. Arctic air. The Arctic front is racing across Wisconsin into Michigan right now, packing more snow and making for dangerous travel conditions.
00:09Yeah, and you're going to want to look for more frigid conditions in the wake of the front later this week with more bands of lake effect snow.
00:17Though it's not all bad news, there is some good news. We're also tracking milder weather for the weekend.
00:24We'll have more on that in just a bit, but first, why don't we take you outside. This is a view of State College.
00:30Not looking forward to coming out, is that Jeff? But, you know, they have it worse, or they at least have more of it in Ironwood, Michigan.
00:39And in some cases, you can make an argument that it's easier to drive on three inches of snow than half an inch if there's ice at the bottom of the surface.
00:48And the roads have been chilled down across the Northeast. None of this is good. Again, traveling is not advised there in Ironwood.
00:54We're at 13 degrees, but overall, this area is facing the snow squalls.
00:59And you might notice that there's a little bit of a sneaky green zone here with even a few thunderstorms in southwest Michigan.
01:06So that's the warm sector just immediately in advance of our Arctic front.
01:11So this Arctic front's just about to plow into that area, dropping temperatures.
01:15And I want you to be aware that right along the immediate leading edge of this really cold air, there's going to be a snow squall.
01:21And it may snow heavily for 20 minutes or so. It may have moderate snow and then it's going to escalate to heavy snow for 20 minutes and then back down to moderate snow.
01:31But during that 20-minute period of time, when the snow squall kicks through, you're going to see very low visibility and you may double the amount of snow you have on the roads.
01:39You may go from half an inch to an inch or so in just a few minutes' time.
01:43Other areas here to the east, this is all associated with a warm front lifting in temporarily before the next system comes in.
01:51And this Arctic front's going to change the direction of the wind flow.
01:54But again, this warm front is leading to some widespread snow into parts of Pennsylvania and a lot of slick roads, road closures in parts of even central Pennsylvania now because of slide-offs and vehicle accidents and so forth.
02:05We've got some issues there in Clearfield County and Center County as well, near State College.
02:09Butler County, north of Pittsburgh, we've got some issues there with the snow falling.
02:12And into the New England states and upstate New York, some snow is falling there as well.
02:16We're down to 8 degrees in Fargo, still 51 in St. Louis. That's a warm spot.
02:20Don't get used to it though.
02:22And we're going to track the Arctic front.
02:24So here is this band of snow from Erie down into eastern Ohio.
02:27That is the Arctic front at midnight or 1 a.m.
02:30In advance of that, yes, the snow will be falling.
02:32But this Arctic front's going to lead to a condensed burst of snow that will drop visibilities into Poconos.
02:38Look out, 6, 7 a.m.
02:39Scranton, PA, we're going to have a tough morning commute.
02:42There probably will be some school delays in many of these areas, into Poconos, into Binghamton, New York here.
02:48At least there's a potential for that here as the burst of snow comes in during the early morning commute.
02:53Overall, the red zone is where we are most concerned about low visibility
02:57and a quick half inch to an inch in just 20 minutes' time with these snow squalls.
03:02And again, time and time again, we've seen so many problems on the interstates.
03:05I-95, rain, snow mix changing over to snow.
03:08Just a brief burst, low visibility.
03:10We got some issues there during the morning commute as well.
03:12But Bree, the cold that follows this is going to be a big story.
03:15And lake effect follows too.
03:16Exactly.
03:17And you know, the cold comes with it.
03:19This time, at least, you're seeing some of those temperatures dip down to the teens.
03:24And that's just for the highs in Minneapolis.
03:26Though, it's going to be really that wave of cold that penetrates the bright north,
03:32across the upper midwest and northern plains and makes its way south through the Ohio Valley,
03:38Great Lakes, even into the mid-Atlantic southeast and even up towards the northeast as well.
03:43Freezing line, you're going to feel that chill along that I-20 corridor.
03:49You've been seeing a slight chill there along I-10.
03:52Let's follow this storm, though.
03:54I'm going to pick this up where Jeff left off Thursday morning
03:56while we're talking about some of that squally behavior across eastern PA,
04:01right along that I-95 corridor going up to New York and down to Baltimore.