Map Shows States Bracing for Snow as Temperatures Plunge

Unseasonably warm weather will grip a large swath of the Eastern and Midwestern U.S. later this week, but temperatures will plunge late in the weekend and early next week in advance of a storm that threatens to bring accumulating snow to several states.

An Atlantic storm caused heavy snowfall in Nova Scotia earlier this week, and the system brought dry air across the central and eastern U.S., according to an AccuWeather report. In the coming days, a southwesterly air flow will replace the storm system, bringing high temperatures in the 60s to much of the Ohio Valley and Southern states. However, the balmy temperatures will be short-lived as another storm brings cold temperatures and the possibility of accumulating snowfall.

"While the January thaw and break from the stormy pattern extended into early February, there is going to be a change in the pattern with a potentially impactful storm coming swinging across the Midwest and Northeastern states from Monday to Tuesday," AccuWeather meteorologist Dean DeVore said in the report.

AccuWeather chief meteorologist Jonathan Porter told Newsweek that the intensifying storm system along the East Coast is the product of two storm systems merging.

"On Tuesday, those distinct disturbances merge and result in a more intense storm right along the eastern seaboard," he said. "It's looking less likely that this would be just a storm that passes harmlessly out to sea."

The worst of the snow will impact interior New England states, but the storm track and strength are still uncertain.

Depending on its development over the next few days, the storm could bring a strip of snow to the Midwestern U.S., as well. A map published in the report shows that by early next week, snow could begin falling in a strip traveling from Missouri through Illinois, northwestern Indiana, southeastern Michigan and into much of interior New England.

Porter expects that south of New York City will mostly experience rain, but the Big Apple could also see some wet snow. A wintry mix of rain and snow is forecast in a band from southeastern Missouri through southeastern Illinois and Indiana and across much of Ohio and into Pennsylvania, according to the map.

"One thing is for sure, this storm will start a pattern that brings colder, more active weather from the Midwest to the Northeast with reinforcing shots of seasonably cold air masses with the potential for some clipper systems to bring snow events," DeVore said.

Given that the storm is still days away, it's possible it could fail to fully organize and may only bring spotty precipitation and light snow accumulations to states in the Ohio Valley, central and southern Appalachians and mid-Atlantic.

And the West Coast is recovering from a severe atmospheric river that caused catastrophic flooding throughout California. The deadly atmospheric river has started to travel eastward, prompting avalanche warnings across five intermountain states on Thursday morning.