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New arctic front sends temperatures plummeting again

The storm, which will affect 20 million people, will cause heavy frost and sleet from Texas to the Ohio Valley and Tennessee.

New arctic front sends temperatures plummeting again

Published by
Rosana Rábago Sainz

The nation is facing another winter storm. After Winter Storm Elliott just a month ago and the recent flooding in California caused by several atmospheric rivers, the National Weather Service issued a new warning. This time, an arctic air mass will create a winter storm that will be accompanied by freezing rain and sleet from Texas to the Ohio Valley and Tennessee.

The worst of the arctic front, the NWS explains, began Sunday and will extend through Wednesday, affecting roughly 20 million people. The NWS warned that it could be dangerous to travel by car, "especially on untreated surfaces" and that ice accumulation could extend to at least 15 states. Freezing rain is expected in central Texas, southwestern Oklahoma, central Arkansas and western Tennessee:

Total freezing rain amounts could become significant across parts of central Texas, southwest Oklahoma, central Arkansas, and western Tennessee, where over a quarter inch of ice accrual is forecast. Additionally, low to moderate chances for three-day ice accretion over a half inch exists over parts of central Texas and Arkansas.

Extreme cold

This phenomenon, as explained AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowshki, is due to the collision between a cold air mass and a warm air mass that will cause multiple storms, with "nearly constant" precipitation in some of the affected places:

Cold air will plunge far enough south to set up a weather battle zone much of the week. The dividing line between the cold to the north and warm air to the south will set up an active storm track where multiple storms will move through.

The National Weather Service predicts temperatures "20 to 30 degrees below average" in parts of the northern Rockies and Great Basin to the Plains and Upper Mississippi Valley, with some parts of the country seeing temperatures as low as -45 ºF.

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