Deadly Thanksgiving Storm Moves East

Deadly ice storm claims at least 13 lives across the U.S.

A major storm system moving across the U.S. has caused at least 13 deaths including four in Oklahoma, four in Texas, three in California and one each in Arizona and New Mexico, as well as numerous road accident injuries.

The massive storm dumped at least 35cm of snow on Sunday in many mountain regions of Colorado and Utah, as well as significant amounts on  parts of Arizona and Texas.

The system has forced more than a thousand flight cancellations across  southern U.S.

US Composite Satellite Image – Nov 26, 2013 at 00:30UTC. Source: SSEC/Wisc-Uni

U.S. Weather Forecast

The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued multiple severe weather Warnings, Watches and Advisories including Ice Storm Warning, Winter Storm Warning, Storm Warning and Flood Warning for a large portion of the country.  The following are highlights of their latest forecast Valid 00UTC Tue Nov 26 2013 – 00Z Thu Nov 28 2013

• Sleet/freezing rain possible from the Southern Appalachians to parts of Northern New England
• Snow is possible from Eastern Ohio Valley/Central Appalachians to the Lower Great Lakes
• Heavy rain possible from the Central Gulf Coast to New England
• Temperatures will be 10 to 20 degrees below average from the Central Appalachians to the Central/Western Gulf to the Upper Midwest
• A complicated storm will develop over the Central Gulf Coast and move to the Mid-Atlantic by Wednesday.
• Another storm over the Central Gulf Coast will move northeastward to Mid-Atlantic and combined with the energy from the Great Lakes. The developing storm will produce moderate to heavy rain over the Central Gulf Coast and expand into the Southern/Central Appalachians by Tuesday morning. The moderate to heavy rain will move eastward to the Southeast/Mid-Atlantic on Tuesday, expanding into Northern New England by Wednesday morning. Showers and thunderstorms will develop along the Central Gulf Coast and move eastward to the Southeast by Tuesday night, moving offshore by Wednesday morning.