Massive storm unloads snow, ice from Nebraska to Pennsylvania, New York

A winter storm unleashed more than a foot of snow across parts of the Midwest on Monday, snarling travel across parts of Nebraska and Iowa. Wintry precipitation spread from the central Plains to the Ohio Valley and mid-Atlantic Monday into Tuesday morning, with far-reaching impacts.

The National Weather Service (NWS) office in Des Moines, Iowa, tweeted a picture of snow-covered roads on Monday, saying, "It's going to get bad folks, please prepare accordingly."

Highway 34 west of Red Oak, Iowa, was completely covered by snow on Monday afternoon, with poor visibility. (NWS)

Winter storm warnings will remain in effect until noon, local time, from Iowa to northern Illinois, and across a zone in the central Appalachians. A slew of winter weather advisories were in place in between the two areas.

Travel conditions will remain hazardous along the Interstate 80 and 90 corridors of the Midwest and will expand over the same corridors of the Northeast on Tuesday.

This radar image, captured during early Tuesday morning, Jan. 26, 2021, shows snow (blue), ice (pink and purple) and rain (green, yellow and red) from a storm sprawling from Nebraska and Kansas to Pennsylvania and New York state. (AccuWeather)

"Travel in areas from Philadelphia to New York City and Boston could be delayed as Tuesday progresses," AccuWeather Meteorologist Rob Richards said.

Roads along much of Interstate 95 in the mid-Atlantic will be mainly wet, but areas just to the north and west from Philadelphia to New York City are likely to have enough wintry mix or snow to make for slippery conditions.

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The storm brought accumulating snow to the major cities of Omaha, Nebraska; Des Moines, Iowa; Chicago; and Detroit; and is expected to do the same in Hartford, Connecticut, and Albany, New York.

The storm already unloaded more than 13 inches of snow on Des Moines and at least 12.5 inches of snow on Omaha. Several inches of snow are forecast for Chicago, where snow was falling at a steady pace Tuesday morning and about 3 inches had piled up near the lakefront.

"Following this storm, Chicago could be close to their normal snowfall levels for this season to date," AccuWeather Meteorologist Jake Sojda said, adding that prior to this storm the city had only picked up about half of the normal snow so far this season. The total was 8.6 inches through Jan. 24.

Meanwhile, New York City will likely trend above average in the wake of this storm. As of Jan. 25, 10.5 inches of snow have fallen on the Big Apple which is 0.1 of an inch above average. New York City is forecast to receive a light amount of snow with some sleet likely for a time.

Pedestrians cross a snow-covered street, Monday, Jan. 25, 2021, in downtown Des Moines, Iowa. A major winter storm is expected to blanket a large swath of the middle of the country with snow Monday and disrupt travel as more than a foot of snow falls in some areas. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Ice has been and will continue to be a significant component of the storm with freezing rain and or sleet expected to occur from Kansas to New Jersey, southeastern New York state and parts of coastal southern New England.

Central Illinois to west-central Ohio could pick up between 0.10 and 0.25 of an inch of ice buildup on trees and power lines with sporadic power outages possible. However, in parts of the central Appalachians, which includes northeastern West Virginia, northwestern Virginia, western Maryland and part of south-central Pennsylvania, even higher amounts of 0.25 to 0.50 of an inch of ice can accrue, which will weigh down trees and branches that can lead to power outages.

Along a large portion of the I-70 corridor, rain will fall at the height of the storm in the Central states, but there will still be episodes and stretches of snow and ice. In portions of eastern Kansas and northern Missouri, the rain and ice forecast changed to snow and flurries Monday night. Cold air will put up more resistance in the East, where a prolonged icing event is forecast across parts of the Appalachians.

Even a thin glaze of ice or a small amount of snow can make for dangerous driving and walking conditions. Meteorologists are urging people to avoid traveling if possible until the storm has passed and crews have a chance to clear off roads.

A wintry mix is predicted in Cleveland, Philadelphia, New York City and Boston.

Washington, D.C., picked up 0.3 of an inch of snow on Monday from the outer reaches of the storm. This was the first accumulating snow of the 2020-21 winter season. Typically, the first measurable snow (0.1 of an inch or more) occurs a few days before Christmas in the nation's capital.

Farther south, warm and moist air helped to spawn severe weather Monday night, including a thunderstorm that produced a damaging tornado in Alabama.

A zone of locally heavy, gusty thunderstorms is forecast to extend from the southern Atlantic coast to the northeastern Gulf coast into Tuesday evening.

The storm with its snow and ice is forecast to wind down from west to east later Tuesday to early Wednesday.

However, another sneaky storm on its heels is anticipated to track farther to the south on Wednesday with snow possible in areas that will be missed by wintry precipitation from the early-week storm.

More winter storms are expected to roll in from the Pacific Ocean and into California through the end of the month and push inland, keeping the weather pattern quite active in the United States. That will potentially set the stage for more snow and ice events in the Central and Eastern states lasting into early February.

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