People in the frigid Northeast could finally get relief from the worst of the cold as early as Tuesday, February 10, forecasters said.
Watch as an ‘ice volcano’ erupts in upstate New York
When the cold weather sets in, the fountains at Letchworth State Park in upstate New York freeze, creating an enchanting winter sight.
People in the frigid Northeast could finally get relief from the worst of the cold as early as Tuesday, February 10, forecasters said.
“The last bit of arctic air in a long line of cold waves will circulate through the Northeast through Monday (Feb. 9),” AccuWeather senior meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said in an online forecast. “But then the warm air that is already forming in the west and highlands will move eastward.”
In an online forecast discussion, the National Weather Service said, “After a particularly cold weekend in the eastern United States and a particularly severe weekend in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic, a moderate trend is expected through midweek.”
How warm does it get?
“Well-above-average temperatures will extend from the Mississippi Valley/Southeast on Monday (Feb. 9) to much of the Great Lakes/Ohio Valley and into the mid-Atlantic on Tuesday (Feb. 10), bringing at least near-normal temperatures to New England,” the weather service said in an online forecast.
Expected high temperatures through Tuesday, Feb. 10, are in the 20s to 30s in New England, 30s to 40s in the Great Lakes and northern Mid-Atlantic, 40s to 50s from the eastern Mississippi Valley through the Ohio Valley to the southern Mid-Atlantic, and 60s to 70s in the Lower Mississippi River Valley/Southeast, the National Weather Service said.
Temperatures in the central United States are expected to be well above normal starting Tuesday, Feb. 10, and into next weekend, the National Weather Service said in a discussion of the extended forecast. “Daytime high temperatures could be more than 20 degrees above normal in some areas of the north-central Plains. Both the East and West Coast states should be near or within a few degrees of normal.”
Warm-up is carried out in stages
Warming will be gradual, Sosnowski said, due to the lack of widespread snowpack, frozen lakes and rivers, colder ground and strong winds associated with Pacific air.
By mid-to-late week, the February sun will bring temperatures to below freezing or slightly above freezing. Ice accumulation on the region’s rivers, lakes, and bays will cease. However, reversal may take more days.
What about a snowstorm?
AccuWeather says temperatures could be much warmer than they have been in recent weeks, but still likely cold enough to bring snow, sleet or freezing rain across the Midwest and Northeast.
“Storms are likely to form with the Pacific air, and the nature and timing of the precipitation the storms will bring will become clearer in the coming days,” Sosnowski said. “After several weeks of severe cold, as many areas in the Northeast and Midwest are experiencing, the pattern almost always changes and storms with wintry precipitation occur,” he said.
First, a clipper system moving along the U.S.-Canada border is expected to bring wintry precipitation to parts of the Upper Great Lakes on Monday, February 9, with the possibility of light snow and freezing rain, the National Weather Service announced.
This system will continue eastward on Tuesday, February 10th, bringing more moderate snow to parts of upstate New York and central New England.
The National Weather Service said another storm could bring rain and snow to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast by next weekend, but details are still unclear by when that event will occur.
Doyle Rice is a national correspondent for USA TODAY, focusing on weather and climate.
