The storm that drenched California, dropped snow by the foot across the Sierra Nevada and knocked out power to thousands is drifting east, threatening to bring tornadoes to some areas of the U.S. later this week.
Snow and ice will drop across at least 15 western states from the border with Canada down to Mexico with blizzard warnings lingering across the upper Great Plains through the middle of the week, according to the National Weather Service. In addition to the snow, parts of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Arkansas could be raked by tornadoes Tuesday. Central Florida faces a severe risk of the dangerous storms Thursday.
“This storm is affecting a large part of the country over the next few days,” said Tom Kines, a meteorologist with commercial-forecaster AccuWeather Inc.
The massive system has already snarled travel across the western U.S. Almost 20,000 Californians were still without power Monday, according to PowerOutage.us. Even so, it brought the Golden State much needed rain and any snow in the east will help build up ski areas that provide an economic boost to many areas of Upstate New York, Pennsylvania and New England.
The storm will arrive along the East Coast Thursday, bringing mainly rain to New York City and the other large cities on the Interstate-95 corridor, Kines said. It will likely develop a secondary system off the coast that will spread rain and snow across the region.
“For the interior Northeast, there could be a significant snowfall,” Kines said. “For the ski areas of the Northeast this should be a good storm for them.”
