Southern, Midwest storms may converge on northeastern US as a snowstorm prior to New Year's Eve

In a pattern similar to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, two storms may attempt to merge and deliver snow to part of the northeastern United States as 2017 winds down.

One storm is forecast to sweep across the Midwest with snow, while another is projected to move northward after bringing icy precipitation to parts of the Southern states.

At the very least, travel delays will unfold over a large part of the Upper Midwest before the end of the week.

Since moisture from the Gulf of Mexico will be cut off, both storms may struggle to produce heavy precipitation through Friday.

Any snow that falls on the Midwest will be light and fluffy.

One quick round of snow will swing through Wednesday night to Thursday night.

The Great Lakes may add enough moisture to bring 1-3 inches of snow to a number of communities and create slippery travel in the Interstate 70, 80 and 90 corridors of the Plains and Midwest.

A second round of snow is likely to sweep quickly eastward on Friday and Friday night.

Both rounds of snow would overlap areas that have been hit with feet of lake-effect snow in recent days.

Cities that have the potential to receive enough snow for slippery travel include Fargo, North Dakota; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Des Moines, Iowa; Minneapolis; Madison, Wisconsin; Chicago; Indianapolis; Detroit; Columbus, Ohio; Pittsburgh; and Buffalo, New York.

Both rounds of accumulating snow are likely to pass north of St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri; Louisville, Kentucky; and Cincinnati.

It is the second round of snow that sweeps through the Midwest that has the potential to link up in the Northeast on Saturday.

"How quickly the storms from the Midwest and the South converge and strengthen will determine the extent and intensity of the snow from the mid-Atlantic to New England," according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski.

At this point, it appears that New England stands the best chance at being hit with several inches of snow from later Saturday to Saturday night.

"If the storms converge quickly, near the New Jersey or Delaware coasts, then accumulating snow would be thrown across both the mid-Atlantic and New England," Pydynowski said.

In this scenario, significant snow is possible from Philadelphia and New York City to Boston and Portland, Maine.

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"However, if the southern storm swings too far out to sea early on, then it may not merge with the Midwest storm fast enough to bring snow to much of New England, let alone the coastal mid-Atlantic," Pydynowski said.

Either way, there is likely to still be a small amount of snow over the central Appalachians and snow showers elsewhere in the Northeast from the Midwest storm.

There is one major difference from the storm around Christmas to the potential storm this Saturday: Temperatures are projected to be 10-20 degrees lower on Saturday.

During the storm, temperatures will be no better than the single digits over the northern Plains, the teens and lower 20s over much of the Midwest and the 20s to lower 30s in the Northeast.

Any snow that falls would accumulate, including coastal areas of the mid-Atlantic. Some of the snow may partially melt and freeze. Because of the very low temperatures, some ice melting compounds may be ineffective in much of the Midwest and central Appalachians.

Even colder air is expected to pour in later this weekend through the first week of 2018.

There is a chance the next surge of arctic air may be held up by another storm in the eastern third of the nation around New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

AccuWeather will continue to provide updates on the cold air, lake-effect snow and winter storm potential in the coming days.