(AccuWeather.com)
AccuWeather.com-(ENEWSPF)- AccuWeather.com reports a swath of ice and a wintry mix later this week threatens to slow travel and cut power from parts of Texas to Kentucky.
As dangerous cold sweeps southward and eastward over the Plains and Midwest in the wake of a North Central states snowstorm, it will set up a weather pattern favoring a narrow zone of freezing rain, sleet and some snow late this week.
The icy mix will spread from part of northern Texas Thursday to northern and western Arkansas, central Kentucky and southern Ohio Thursday night into early Friday.
The potential for slippery travel includes the cities of Dallas; Little Rock, Ark.; Cape Girardeau, Mo.; Paducah, Ky.; and Cincinnati. More snow, rather than ice, will fall farther to the northeast into the central parts of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, as well as in western and central Pennsylvania and upstate New York.
There is the potential for ice and a wintry mix to last more than a few hours.
In some locations, a glaze of ice may span several days and last into the weekend.
"Such an icing event could result in power outages ranging from a local to regional basis," AccuWeather.com Expert Senior Meteorologist Henry Margusity said, "At the apex of the ice may be portions of Arkansas."
A wedge of warm air will hold over the southeastern United States and will extend northward to the I-95 Northeast this week. The warmth is forecast to outlast the precipitation in this area so that rain falls from Houston to Atlanta and in the corridor from Raleigh, N.C., to Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York City and Boston.
The ice and wintry mix will not stop at Friday. A series of storms will continue to roll out from the Southwest.
As the wintry mix and ice buildup returns to some locations over the weekend, it will also spread to new territory over the South Central states and could reach Shreveport, La.; Memphis, Tenn.; and perhaps Longview, Texas.
The wintry mix is forecast to reach into part of the central Appalachians over the weekend.
(AccuWeather.com)
By Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meteorologist for AccuWeather.com
