Heavy rain and snow crosses the southern and eastern U.S.
While Minnesota is nice and quiet, many other parts of the country are getting a large dose of winter weather and moisture. A large storm is pushing through the southern & eastern U.S. midweek leading to a band of heavy snow from Texas to New England as well as heavy rain across the Southeast.
The band of heavy snow is nothing ground breaking, but some of it at least will be falling in areas that may only see this much snow every couple of years. Parts of west and north Texas, much of Oklahoma, and Missouri could get over 8”+ of heavy wet snow. Many of these areas just aren’t equipped to handle that much snow at one time, so many roads and airports will likely be closed until the sun comes up on Thursday and begins to quickly melt what had fallen. Several hundred or more flights are likely to be cancelled in the Southern Plains on Wednesday. Further to the northeast, the overall moisture pushes a little further south leading to a lighter band of snow northeast of St Louis late Wednesday through Thursday from Indianapolis and Chicago to parts of northern New England.
For the Southeast though, heavy rain will be the issue with flash flood watches posted for parts of nearly a dozen states. Widespread amounts of 2”-5” look likely from Nashville, Birmingham, and Atlanta, northeastward through the Carolinas and up to Virginia. Many of these areas have seen a break in moisture levels over the last couple of weeks, but heavy December and early January rains have still left many of these areas with some very wet soil, likely adding to the flooding issues going into the end of the week.