The Christmas week winter storm could result in a travel nightmare

Just as millions of Americans begin to travel across the river and through the woods to grandma’s house, there is growing confidence that a significant winter storm will develop later this week and affect a large portion of the country, according to the FOX Forecast Center.

“Our confidence is growing, and that means there’s more consistency in the forecast data, making the significant winter storm more likely,” said Amy Freeze, meteorologist at FOX Weather. “The timing at the moment is that this could last until Christmas weekend. For some it’s a nightmare. For others, this could be the dream of a white Christmas.”

With the storm still several days away, details remain highly uncertain due to a wide spread of potential scenarios represented in forecast models – typical of forecasts this far in advance. The FOX Forecast Center has observed the following so far.

“It’s a significant winter storm bringing rain, wind and snow and causing travel issues,” Freeze said. “But the heavy snowfall and the strong wind, strong wind, I can’t stress that enough, can really disrupt the ride and maybe even sap some strength.”

Light to moderate snow will initially develop over the northern Rocky Mountains and northern plains on Wednesday, before an Arctic cold front moves south from Canada, according to the FOX Forecast Center.

That snow will then spread south and east ahead of a front Wednesday night and is expected to reach the central plains and upper Midwest by Thursday morning.

This snow is accompanied by high winds that could result in a treacherous journey from Kansas to Wisconsin.

From there, the details of this violent winter storm are becoming increasingly clear.

Models showing a powerful low-pressure system developing over the Midwest and Great Lakes are consistent, according to the FOX Forecast Center.

Should that occur, heavy snowfall and high winds will hit an area stretching from Oklahoma to the Great Lakes Thursday night, Friday and possibly even Saturday.

Along the East Coast and in New England, heavy rain and potentially damaging gusts of wind could turn off power to thousands.

But there’s still a possibility that the low-pressure system could wait to develop, which would put the Southeast and Northeast in play for heavy snow, but over time that scenario is looking less likely, according to the FOX Forecast Center.

The bottom line is: A strong winter storm is likely towards the end of the week. Those living or traveling in the country’s eastern third will need to keep a close eye on the forecast as it becomes firm in the coming days.