A late-winter snowstorm is about to hit the Plains, Midwest and Great Lakes

A sprawling and powerful late-winter storm is about to blast the northern Plains, Midwest and Great Lakes into southeastern Canada. It will bring heavy snow measured in feet, plus high wind that will lower visibility while buffeting a large region with a risk for damage and power outages.

On its cold side to the north and west of the track, the storm is expected to drop a zone of 12 to 36 inches of snowfall from the eastern Dakotas through the north-central Great Lakes and into Ontario province.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s winter storm severity index, about 16 million people, mostly in a stretch noted above, can expect moderate to locally extreme winter weather impacts.

To the south of the low-pressure area, another round of severe thunderstorms is set to rumble across a large portion of the eastern half of the country.

The weekend storm follows a quick-moving but potent clipper storm system that passed the Upper Midwest on Thursday night and continued across the Great Lakes on Friday. It is dropping a maximum strip of 5 to 10 inches of snow, including around Duluth, Minnesota, and has been accompanied by strong winds causing drifting.

Some locations that pick up plowable snow from the first storm could end up receiving the highest impact of the weekend storm, which could continue into Monday morning.

Storm will rapidly intensify

An amorphous zone of precipitation riding the jet stream – a river of air aloft – over the Pacific Northwest will drift across the northern Rockies on Saturday as it becomes increasingly energized by atmospheric interactions.

The storm really ramps up Saturday night into Sunday as a dip in the jet stream buckles southward. Beneath the jet stream, a surface low-pressure area congeals in the central Plains, tracking eastward to around Chicago late in the weekend.

On Sunday, heavy snowfall first targets the southern half of Minnesota, then spreads into the northern half of Wisconsin and Michigan. While the first half of the snow event moves into Canada, snow bands on the backside of the storm will continue across the Midwest and Great Lakes into Monday.

Through Monday, the potent winter storm curves north near lower Michigan before slowing down somewhere over the northern Great Lakes. It could ultimately attain a central pressure into the 970s for millibars – equivalent to a hurricane – while dropping heavy snow to the west and north of its location.

Although the warm sector of the storm – between a warm front draped across the Great Lakes and a cold front slicing east – will be smaller than what caused severe weather outbreaks earlier in March, some severe weather is probable from the Mississippi Valley to the mid-Atlantic on Sunday and Monday.

The storm should then depart into Canada, leaving some lake effect snow behind for Tuesday.

Heaviest impacts

Temperatures will be plenty cold in areas that see snow, starting in the 20s and dipping into the teens or single digits over time.

With no trouble sticking, accumulating snow will run in a continuous swath from the Cascades and northern Rockies across the northern Plains and into the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes. From there, it will progress into southeast Canada, with spottier coverage into the Northeast United States.

The heaviest accumulation should set up from southern Minnesota through Wisconsin and the northern half of Michigan, including the upper peninsula of that state.

At peak – focused from Sunday in the west through midday Monday in the east – snow will come down very intensely. There will probably be enough to make travel impossible for a time.

“Snowfall rates of 1-3 inches per hour are likely with the strongest bands from southern MN to northern MI,” wrote the Weather Prediction Center.

The center indicated total snowfall in the area of 1 to 2-plus feet is possible with some of the totals potentially setting two-day snowfall records.

In Green Bay, Wisconsin, where the Weather Service has warned of a 91 % chance of a foot and a 57 % chance for 2 feet, any total over 19 inches would be in the top five storms. Similar odds are in place for Minneapolis, where top five storms begin at 17.4 inches.

The last event with a foot or more of snow in Green Bay happened in January 2024 with 14.4 inches. In Minneapolis, it was January 2023 with 14.8 inches.

A zone just south of the heavier snow may see a prolonged wintry mix. This will cut down on the highest-end totals where it occurs. A few spots, such as northern lower Michigan, could see significant ice accumulation of ¼-inch or greater.

Strong winds and blizzard conditions

Widespread wind gusts of 35 to 50 mph are probable across the Midwest, the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley on Sunday into Monday. Portions of Michigan and Wisconsin could see considerable wind damage and power outage potential with gusts of 50 to 70 mph possible.

Locations such as Marquette, and other similarly placed spots not far from one of the lakes, could see gusts upward of 75 mph.

There is “the potential for blizzard and possibly whiteout conditions at times Sunday through Monday, which will bring widespread travel disruptions,” wrote the Weather Service in Green Bay. “The main question that remains is where these conditions will align best.”

Much of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast could also see gusts of 40 to 50 mph, especially late Monday into early Tuesday out ahead of a strong cold front associated with the storm.

Thunderstorm and tornado risks

The primary fuel of moisture ahead of the cold front will be more limited than during recent severe thunderstorm events. Still, the atmospheric disturbance is potent and may make up for it in some regards. Rather than isolated to scattered spinning thunderstorms, the primary mode here may be a large squall line, or linear band of thunderstorms.

Such a line could contain widespread wind damage, especially across the Mid-Mississippi Valley and parts of the Midwest.

Embedded tornadoes are also a risk, some of which could be strong.

The threat will persist into Monday for the East Coast, particularly from the Carolinas to the Mid-Atlantic, where damaging winds, tornadoes, and hail are all possible.