The U.S. is still grappling with the impact of the brutal winter storm that swept across the country over the weekend, knocking out power for more than a million people and leaving dozens dead. But forecasts indicate another storm could soon slam parts of the East Coast.
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A winter storm is expected to form off the coast of the Carolinas on Saturday before potentially intensifying into a bomb cyclone, a quickly strengthening storm that rapidly drops in pressure. The sudden pressure drop in such storms can cause intense winter weather conditions, such as blizzards, strong winds, and freezing temperatures.
The coming storm is not anticipated to be nearly as widespread or intense as the last one. Where it will hit, and what kind of weather will ensue, is not yet clear: It may bring snow to large swaths of the East Coast, some forecasts suggest, or it may simply cause low temperatures and some not-so-high winds if it doesn’t make landfall. More will become known about what the storm will look like in the coming days as it approaches.
Here’s what we do know about the possible storm so far, as well as the state of power outages, flight disruptions, and other storm fallout in the wake of the last one.
What the forecasts say
One possible path for the storm—which CNN, citing computer model projections, forecast was the most likely as of Tuesday—would see it bringing snow to coastal areas, but sparing most major East Coast cities as it then moved further out to sea. In that case, snow and strong winds could hit as far south as Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, on Saturday before moving up towards Cape Cod, Massachusetts, as the storm evolved into a bomb cyclone, likely missing Washington, D.C. and New York City on its way but potentially bringing some snow to Boston, according to the outlet.
A westward shift in that trajectory by just 100 or 200 miles—also a possibility—could see much greater snowfall in major cities, however.
AccuWeather forecasts that in another potential scenario, a stronger version of the storm could turn north earlier and evolve into a nor’easter, bringing heavy snowfall from the mid-Atlantic to New England with even stronger winds than those states saw last weekend. And if the storm develops even more rapidly, according to AccuWeather, it could bring snow further west to the Appalachians from Georgia to Pennsylvania, New York, and New England.
Regardless of its path, forecasters say the storm is likely to produce high tides along the coast, leading to coastal flooding.
“Even if a more moderate storm unfolds and tracks within a couple of hundred miles of the mid-Atlantic and New England coasts this weekend, increasing winds from the northeast and north will raise seas and the likelihood of coastal flooding,” said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.
Strong winds are also likely, according to The Weather Channel, and with them the threat of further power outages and tree damage. It is uncertain how far inland such winds could reach, however.
Unlike the storm that hit the country last weekend, the coming one isn’t expected to bring any freezing rain or sleet, meaning it doesn’t carry the same threat of ice. But forecasters caution not to underestimate the potential impact of this storm: blizzard conditions, including heavy snowfall, extreme winds, and damaging waves to the eastern coastline, could further damage areas already impacted by the recent, harsh winter weather.
The lingering effects of last weekend’s storm
With another storm approaching, millions of Americans are still recovering from, and feeling the effects of, last weekend’s massive winter storm.
At least 50 deaths have been linked to the storm and the freezing temperatures that have persisted in its wake, according to The Associated Press.
The rising death toll includes 10 people in New York City who officials said were found deceased outside in the below-freezing temperatures. Authorities have not confirmed that all the deaths were a result of the cold.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani warned that the temperatures pose an ongoing threat. “Just because the storm has passed doesn’t mean the danger to homeless New Yorkers has passed,” Mamdani said on Monday.
The reported deaths also include two people run over by snowplows in Ohio and Massachusetts, teenagers involved in fatal sledding accidents in Texas and Arkansas, and a 28-year-old elementary school teacher whose body was found in a wooded area on Monday after she was reported missing days earlier.
The storm has also caused widespread—and ongoing—power outages for many Americans, particularly in Southern states, where freezing rain caused power lines to fall and tree branches to snap. Nearly 400,000 U.S. customers remained without power as of Wednesday morning, according to poweroutage.us. That number included around 130,000 in Tennessee, almost 120,000 in Mississippi, and more than 75,000 in Louisiana. More than 20,000 were still experiencing outages in Texas, and smaller numbers of customers were being impacted in Kentucky, Georgia, and South Carolina.
Though flight disruptions dropped off markedly from their weekend levels, more than 1,200 Wednesday flights had been cancelled and over 1,800 had been delayed by the late morning, according to flight-tracking website Flight Aware.
The inclement weather itself has largely abated for the time being, aside from the frigid temperatures expected to continue around much of the country in the coming days. Locations in the Ohio Valley, Midwest, and Northeast are forecasted to continue experiencing below-freezing temperatures through the week, and such temperatures are also expected in Texas, Mississippi, and the Southeast at night.
The post As the U.S. Reels From Weekend Storm, Forecasters Warn Another May Be Brewing appeared first on TIME.
