Northern USA can expect a snow-filled week

Christmas week will be cold and snowy for much of the northern and higher-elevation areas of the country as the largest snowfall of the season blasts across the Great Lakes region for the next few days.

Another snow system could develop before New Year’s that might bring ice around the Mississippi Valley to the Carolinas.

Heavy snow is forecast through midweek over parts of the Northeast, the Great Lakes and the northern and central Rockies. Freezing rain is likely over parts of the Pacific Northwest and parts of southern New England, according to the National Weather Service.

The Christmas snowstorm across the Northeast will be followed by “a multiday lake-effect snow event” that will bring the heaviest snowfall this season across the Great Lakes, AccuWeather said.

Winds over the lakes, together with a slow-moving cold front, will produce snow to the east. Up to a foot of heavy snow is forecast through late Wednesday in most of northern New England.

Snowfall may reach 5 to 6 inches an hour at times, creating whiteout conditions that will make travel difficult, if not impossible, in the most extreme areas around Lake Huron, AccuWeather’s Steve Travis said. Travel on Interstates 75, 81, 86, 90 and 94 could be slowed.

Pockets of rain, freezing rain and snow in the Pacific Northwest will spread from portions of the northern and central Rockies into the central and northern High Plains into Tuesday. Rain will wash over portions of the Southern Plains and Gulf Coast states by Tuesday morning.

The rest of the country will see little to no precipitation early this week.