After blanketing Kansas and Missouri, the latest winter storm was centered over southern Illinois last evening, dropping heavy snow across the Great Lakes region. Its cold front bowed southward, across Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama and thence southwestward over the Gulf of Mexico. A secondary low had developed along this front; centered in northern Alabama, this circulation reinforced the primary storm, pulling in copious, tropical moisture across the drought-plagued Southeast.
Producing heavy rain, thunderstorms and tornadoes throughout Georgia and the Carolinas overnight, this secondary low moved to the northeast and, this morning, is parked above the mid-Atlantic coast. Meanwhile, the primary storm has moved into northwestern Ohio and will track across northern Pennsylvania and southern New England. Pulling in warm, moist air that was injected northward by its secondary low, the storm will produce rain to the south and east of its path and heavy, wind-blown snow to its northwest.
As it continues to move eastward, strong, northwest winds will develop behind the storm, dumping lake-effect snows across the snowbelt counties of Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York. Finally, the secondary low will merge with the primary storm off the Northeast coast; after bringing heavy snow to the Northern Appalachians, this powerful winter storm will move out to sea.
