U.S. Weather Forecast: Weather forecast for Friday: Snow, arctic air disrupts post-New Year’s day travel

Arctic air will blow from the Upper Midwest to the Northeast on Friday. As the latest storm surge moves offshore, increased lake-effect snowfall will create challenging travel conditions across the northern and eastern portions of the Great Lakes. Many of these areas already have several feet of snow on the ground due to recent lake-effect snow.

Further to the southwest, a storm developing in Arkansas will begin to pull moisture from the Gulf. Areas from part of the Florida Panhandle to Louisiana, Kentucky and part of Missouri will receive showers on Friday. Thunder and lightning will also fall in a few spots. The same storm will pass through the Southeast on Saturday, bringing rain and some snow to the northern tip of southern Virginia. Most areas from the Dakotas to Texas will be dry.

In the west, California will experience a lull in rain on Friday, while occasional rain will spread from that state into Washington, Utah, Idaho and western Montana. Snow will fall in the higher reaches of the Sierra Nevada as well as the Cascades and Rocky Mountains in Colorado and Wyoming. A major storm will make landfall from the Pacific this weekend into next week. Northern California will receive the heaviest rain and mountain snow. Meters of snow are expected to fall in the Sierra Nevada.
FOCUS: Weather Change Next Week

Pacific air is expected to shift toward the eastern part of the country next week as the jet stream increases from west to east across the lower 48 states. For most of December, the jet stream moved from northwest to southeast, bringing cold.