America is on alert for Winter Storm Jerry, which will hit the country with the coldest blast in a year, causing major snowfalls and even snowfall in the “desert.”
As the weekend winds down, Jerry will be the third in a three-pronged attack and will bring temperatures plummeting in the wake of deadly storms Ember and Fen.
Frozen air flowing south will collide with warm air from Mexico, creating a polar strike that will unleash a bizarre bout of “desert snow.”
The US National Weather Service (NOAA) has issued a raft of warnings across the country as the threat of heavy snow, blizzards and flooding reaches crisis point.
Storm Jerry is set to hit hard
Weather channel
“The disturbance is moving inland across the desert southwest, bringing valley rain and mountain snow across Arizona and New Mexico,” a spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, a polar front descends south from Canada on Wednesday, heralding the arrival of the coldest temperatures yet this season in the northern Plains.
“This cold air mass will continue to settle south through the end of the week. The combination of this front and a storm system from the southwestern U.S. will eventually produce a much larger low pressure system over the southern Plains by the end of the week.”
Storms swept across large swaths of the United States this week, with a barrage of low-pressure tornadoes sweeping from the west to the East Coast.
The storms will cause chaos across the United States
Weather channel
The deadly winds killed at least three people while leaving hundreds of thousands of homes without power, according to the Weather Channel.
Violent hurricanes unleashed chaos across the Gulf Coast and Southeastern states, with strong winds blowing across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and North and South Carolina.
Thousands of flights were canceled at the start of the week, and meteorologists are now warning that blizzards will sweep America in the wake of the storms.
“The snow is not over yet, we have another system on its way to arrive Friday evening, and this could lead to significant snowfall totals,” The Weather Channel meteorologist Dominica Davis said.
“There will be heavy snow and strong winds and the line of rain and snow will be to the south. This will likely be a very large storm.”
“It will continue into Sunday, and travel conditions will be difficult through the weekend. Yes, there could be over a foot of snow.”
Vast swaths of the United States face Jerry's wrath, which also threatens to draw in a plume of frigid Arctic air.
Storm Jerry has already battered the northwest, knocking out power and leaving some communities buried under inches of snow.
Central and eastern states are bracing for the worst attack this weekend when thunderstorms could produce bouts of thundersnow.
A Weather Channel spokesman said: “The peak impacts in the central and eastern states will be on Friday and Saturday.
“Low pressure will move into the Plains states on Thursday, and snow will develop in the cold air with the potential for some severe thunderstorms.
“The storm is expected to intensify Friday in the Mississippi Valley, then move toward the Great Lakes and eastern Canada by Friday night and Saturday.”
He added that the storm will become stronger due to floods of tropical moisture coming from the Gulf of Mexico.
