SnoCountry SnoCast: Heavy Wintry Mix With Temperature Swings

Heavy rain and snow will hit places like Mad River in Ohio Friday. (Mad River Mountain/Facebook)

The East gets much warmer with a very heavy wintry mix, while the Midwest sees heavy snow, and the West stays in a favorable pattern too.

Eastern U.S. & Canada

After a cold and snowy start to the new year, Thursday to Saturday will feature a stint of much warmer temperatures and a heavy wintry mix. A warm frontal system (circled in red) will move from the Midwest to the East coast with warmth, then cold, and rain going to snow.

It will get as warm as the mid 40s and 50s, some areas seeing above 60 degrees on Friday. Unfortunately these warmer temperatures will carry with them precipitation in the form of rain Thursday and Friday, then freezing rain and snow Saturday. Luckily behind this system will come temperatures back down in the teens and 20s, providing these areas with pockets of heavy snowfall. Parts of Quebec and Ontario are primed for 10"+ by Saturday, the case for Ontario's Glen Eden. Upstate New York will have high totals of 10"+ including Titus Mountain.

It will be cold again Sunday through Tuesday with intermittent snow showers. The Midwest, especially Minnesota and Wisconsin, look primed for moderate to heavy snow of 5-10” Thursday. Heads up, Whitecap in Wisconsin and even Mad River in Ohio. 

Western U.S. & Canada

After the Sierra Nevada returned heavy snow January 7-9, more may be on the way. Thursday and Friday, British Columbia, the Northwest U.S. and parts of the Rockies will get moderate snowfall of up to 6-18”, highest in BC and Washington. Great weekend weather is in store at Utah's Park City, Wyoming's Snow King, and Washington's Stevens Pass.

The weekend will clear and be mild. Monday to Wednesday features the chance of another heavy snow event from central California northward into BC/Alberta, moving across much of the rest of the West with another potential of 1 to 3 feet in the highest range of totals, another 6-12 inches for many. 

Lyndon State College seniors Philomon Geertson and Liam Kelleher contributed to this article.