This latest storm system will slide through the Rockies on Saturday, dumping snow from Wyoming to New Mexico. Snow totals are likely to be about 2 to 3 inches for cities like Cheyenne, Colorado Springs, to Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Higher amounts are likely to be found as you go up.
For the second half of the weekend, that system focuses on Texas and Oklahoma, which can see up to 12 inches of snow between Lubbock and Oklahoma City.
The current forecast for Oklahoma City is 8 to 12 inches over the 48-hour Sunday through Monday period. The last time the city had a two-day snowfall of at least 20 centimeters was ten years ago. In February 2011, Oklahoma City picked up 11.8 inches, which also happened to be the fifth largest two-day snowfall on record.
Tulsa, Oklahoma and Fayetteville, Arkansas, will be hit by two blizzards over the next five days, increasing the likelihood of an inch of snow in this region.
The “worst ice storm in 20 years” hits the middle of the Atlantic Ocean
And a separate system could deliver the worst ice storm in 20 years in parts of the mid-Atlantic Ocean through Sunday morning – a wintery mix of precipitation and freezing rain that’s likely to cause power outages and near-impossible travel conditions, according to the National Weather Service. in Wakefield, Virginia.
The heaviest ice is expected to accumulate in parts of Eastern Virginia.
Additionally, ice storm warnings are in effect through Sunday morning for parts of Virginia and Maryland. Early Saturday saw freezing rain and winter rainfall in parts of North North Carolina, Virginia and Southern Maryland.
Seattle breaks daily records for cold and snow
In the northwest, the temperature dropped to a record depth of 26 degrees Fahrenheit on Friday at the National Weather Service’s Seattle office, breaking the old daily record of 29 degrees in 2004.
And a daily record for maximum snowfall was set Friday at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where 2.2 inches was reported – the old 0.2 inches record was broken in 1995, according to the NWS.
Seattle will remain under a winter storm warning through Saturday afternoon, with the NWS predicting 4 to 6 inches of snow until the end of the day. The city has an average of 6.8 inches of snow per year.
Winter storm warnings and advisories on Saturday spanned much of the Pacific Northwest and into Intermountain West. Ice storm warnings were issued along the coasts of Washington and Oregon.
Areas from Montana to Minnesota have been under wind chill for at least a week, sometimes experiencing “tactile” temperatures as cold as 60 degrees below zero. Wind chill warnings include more than 65 million people from the Canadian border to southern Texas, as the Arctic outbreak continues to soar south in the coming days.
Texas
Record-breaking snowfall will be possible in some cities in Texas.
Confidence is growing for a major snow event for the Red River Valley and surrounding areas this weekend.
If the city measured more than 12 inches of snowfall in one day, that would approach record snowfall. In February 2010, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport had a record 12.5 inches in just 24 hours.
“Persistent freezing temperatures will drop even further when another wave of arctic air arrives.”
Other areas of Texas will also be affected by fresh powder, including San Angelo, Amarillo and Lubbock. The forecast for the area around Lubbock is about 10 to 20 centimeters. If Lubbock received 8 inches, that would crack the top 10 snowiest days.
The NWS office in Amarillo warns of major winter weather conditions, including dangerous driving, power outages, reduced visibility and dangerous cold winds.
The forecast for this region is 6 to 9 inches of snow.
Farther east, Oklahoma City could see the biggest snowfall in a decade, with a forecast of 8 to 10 inches.
Snowfall of 4 to 8 inches is expected from the Rockies through the Southern Plains and through Monday in the Ohio River Valley.
Ice worries in the south
South and east of all this predicted snow is the risk of ice. Some cities that don’t normally have winter weather conditions will face a slippery mess.
The first round of freezing rain will be possible Saturday evening through Sunday in northeast Texas, southern Arkansas, and northwestern Louisiana.
Ice build totals should be light. But only a glaze of ice can cause treacherous road conditions.
However, as more moisture rises north from the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday evening and Monday, there may be greater ice build-up further south.
“This system will lead to greater widespread frozen [precipitation] accumulations … maybe as far south as the coast, ” says the NWS office in Houston.
Houston and other Texas cities like San Antonio and Austin – as well as Shreveport, Louisiana – are at risk of icing by Monday. But the exact details in the forecast are still unknown.
The system will then continue tracking north and east to the east coast of the US mid-week. This could introduce icing from Mississippi through the Ohio River Valley, impacting similar locations to earlier this week.
CNN’s Ray Sanchez contributed to this report.