A Huge Winter Storm Is About to Make Life Messy for Half the U.S.

The Northeast U.S. is still digging out from the monster snowstorm that hit over the weekend, but the rest of the country better buckle up — there’s some serious weather coming this week. A storm could hit states from Colorado to parts of Texas to Ohio by Groundhog Day, dumping freezing rain and snow and snarling travellers in messy weather.

The storm, dubbed Winter Storm Landon, is the result of a cold front that is expected to move into much of the Midwest and central U.S this week, backed by freezing Arctic air. The jet stream moving south will help spread moisture over the cold air, creating the recipe for possible snow, sleet, freezing rain, and icy conditions in a huge strip of the U.S through Friday. About 1,609 km of the U.S., extending diagonally northeast from Colorado Springs, Colorado, and parts of northern Texas to Chicago and Detroit are currently under winter storm watches for Tuesday through Thursday. Over the course of the week, Landon could impact residents from Texas to Maine.

The storm is still forming, so predicting what’s going to happen is still a pretty inexact science — a lot could change between now and Wednesday. But preliminary forecasts show a pretty gross set of conditions in several different states, beginning Tuesday night, when snow and rain — a wintry mix — is expected to start in an area spanning from the Rocky Mountains to parts of the Great Lakes. This weather is expected to last through Wednesday, which is Groundhog Day, into Thursday.

Parts of Colorado could see up to a foot of snow, while snow is even possible in parts of northern Texas. The National Weather Service shows nearly the entirety of Missouri is under a winter storm watch (which is not as serious as an advisory or a warning and is defined as conditions that are “favourable” for a storm event to develop), as well as much of Illinois. What’s in store for places farther east depends on how the storm develops, but forecasters say snow heavy snow is possible in New York Thursday, while “rain, snow, freezing rain, sleet are all on the table” for parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania, the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh said. Portions of the Northeast could see…