A bitter cold continues to envelop the nation today, ensuring that snow floats down from clouds in the Northeast and the Rockies.
The low pressure system that swarmed parts of the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic with snow, ice, and rain will find itself far off the coastline today. However, two bouts of snowfall behind the storm are likely.
Firstly, increasingly frigid air will shove up snow flurries to the east of Appalachia and north of Georgia. Snow totals here for the day will largely remain under two inches and will widely conclude by the afternoon, although some locales could jump slightly above that mark.
Secondly, the arctic air mass behind the storm will launch heftier snow showers southeast of the Great Lakes through central and southern Appalachia, all powered by the vastly warmer Great Lakes. The highest mountains will exceed 6 inches, with highlands from far eastern Tennessee into western New York experiencing a light blanket of 2 to 4 inches. Just sheets of snow, thinner than 2 inches, are expected along the western foothills, in central Michigan, or along northern Wisconsin. However, a few lake-effect snow bands are expected to easily break that total, but it is uncertain where exactly they will lie.
Another barrage of snowfall will launch in the Rockies, west of the frigid pool of air in the nation's midsection, as more heated air fights to stay. Over a foot of snow will cover some slopes in the central Rockies, although a few inches decreasing to flurries in lower areas will be more common.
Other than some light rain showers in the Key West and parts of the Pacific Northwest, elsewhere in the nation will steer clear of both fluffy and wet precipitation. Cold, on the other hand, will take a stranglehold over most of the nation, with some record lows and highs breaking for another day. Some places in the Central Plains will hold 50 degrees below normal!
Putting numbers to the today's deep chill, the Minnesota-North Dakota border will not surpass the negatives, while folks in the Great Plains as far south as northern Oklahoma will keep below the 20s. Similar high temperatures freeze into Appalachia, most Rocky mountaintops, and the interior Northeast. Any towns east of the Rockies and north of the Sunbelt will stay below freezing.
Just punching above the ice, the Deep South and Intermountain West match in the 30s and 40s. Few corridors of heat will remain, but 50s and 60s will warm the Pacific Northwest and central Florida. Only South Florida and the Southwest heat into the 60s and 70s, with a couple of spots breaking 80 degrees in the Desert Southwest.