Winter Storm Outlook January 22, 2004

[CaptinCrunch]

Winter Storm Outlook
2PM EST, January 22, 2004

A moisture -laden storm finally pushing eastward from the desert southwest and a Pacific storm moving into the northwest are expected to be the main winter weather threats over the next few days.

Early Thursday, the southwest storm continued to be cut off from the main jet
stream flow with little to steer it. By late Friday into Saturday, the storm is finally
expected to get a push eastward.

Mountain snow is expected to continue affecting mainly southern parts of
Arizona and New Mexico into Friday.
As the storm moves east it is expected to pick up Gulf moisture and become
more organized. Accumulating snow is a possibility on the storm`s northern
fringe Saturday night into Sunday over parts of the Ohio Valley and mid-
Atlantic.

Further south there is the threat of icing as far south as the interior Carolinas as
cold air is likely to be tough to dislodge.
The timing of the storm`s push eastwar, how far north its moisture gets, and
how much cold air remains in place are both rather uncertain, so stay tuned for
updates.

The Pacific northwest storm is expected to reach the Washington and Oregon
coasts late Thursday afternoon into Thursday night. Snow levels will initially be
quite high but will gradually drop late Friday into Saturday as the storm moves
east and colder air moves down from western Canada.

The storm is expected to move east toward the Plains over the weekend.
Mountain snow will spread into the Great Basin and Rockies on Saturday with
light snows possibly streaking as far east as the western Great Lakes by
Sunday.

Late in the weekend, it could get cold enough for wintry precipitation even in
the lowest elevations such as the Seattle and Portland areas. However,
precipitation there is expected to be light with no organized storm in place.
Meanwhile, lake effect snow is expected to continue across parts of Michigan,
northwest Pennsylvania and western New York through Friday and early
Saturday.