A major storm system is set to bring a significant cold snap to much of the U.S. starting early next week.
Following a weekend storm, temperatures are expected to drop 20-40 degrees below normal, disrupting farming operations and affecting winter crops and livestock management.
Livestock producers should prepare extra feed and shelter for prolonged cold and icy conditions.
According to USDA Meteorologist Brad Rippey the chill, which could last into mid-January, may bring record-breaking lows, with snowfall changes steadily increasing.
“Will start getting more snow in areas that really haven’t seen much snow so far this winter. Now, if you look at snow average across the United States, as we wind down 2024, less than 20% of the lower 48 states currently covered by snow, and almost all of that is confined to the northern tier of the country and the higher elevation of the western United States,” Rippey explains. “But, as we make the transition to colder weather, we will have an opportunity to add or replenish or establish snow cover in areas that haven’t had much, it’s a little too early to pin down timing, but suffice to say that in the near future, we’ll see some increase in snow cover across the Northern Plains, the Midwest, the Northeast, and then as we get into next week and especially the end of next week, there are some opportunities for some coastal development along the Atlantic Seaboard. We got very cold air moving across, still, warm ocean waters that could lead to explosive development of a storm system sometime around the end of next week.”
Rippey says that the northeast may be in for quite a snowstorm in the next week and a half and the potential for some significant snow exists as far south as the mid-Atlantic.
