Storm that dumped 4 feet of snow in Rockies heads to the Midwest, thunderstorms forecast in South

After a “crippling” winter storm dumped up to 4 feet of snow in the Rocky Mountains – closing roads, canceling flights and prompting avalanche warnings over the weekend – the storm on Monday was expected to dump snow on the Midwest and spark thunderstorms in the South.

“A band of moderate snow with some mixed precipitation is moving across the Midwest and should reach the upper Midwest and lower Michigan by tonight,” forecasters at the National Weather Service said Monday morning.

The storm will cause “a burst of heavy snow” in Iowa and Minnesota before moving east, said AccuWeather senior meteorologist Dan Pydynowski. Eastern parts of South Dakota and Nebraska, Iowa, southern Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan could all see the storm’s effects.

The weather service in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and Des Moines, Iowa, said the snow could fall at a rate of over an inch per hour. Up to 18 inches could fall in areas along the Iowa and Minnesota border, according to AccuWeather.

The storm will also hit Chicago by the afternoon but turn into a wintry mix, Pydynowski said. Mixed precipitation was expected in the Appalachians by Monday night, the Weather Service said.

More on the ‘historic and crippling’ storm: 25 inches of snow in Cheyenne, Wyoming; travel halted in Colorado and Nebraska

Meanwhile, thunderstorms were expected to roll through the South on Monday, lasting through Tuesday, before another system midweek sparks even more thunderstorms.

AccuWeather said the storm will stall over the South on Tuesday, “leading to rounds of downpours from Louisiana to the Carolinas throughout the day.”

As the week continues, the severe weather “will tend to repeat itself,” the Weather Service warned. 

Another snow storm was already pressing east in California and the Pacific Northwest on Monday. That system will bring more mountain snow and rain, and by Wednesday morning, “intensify over the southern Plains,” the Weather Service said.

That could mean more thunderstorms, tornados and “torrential downpours” by midweek in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama according to AccuWeather.

Cold air on the back end of the storm means more snow is expected in the Rockies and northern Plains at the same time, the weather service said. 

Over the weekend, the storm blanketed Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska and led to widespread disruption of travel with the heaviest snow of the year in the West so far.

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