A developing winter storm may keep truckers away from portions of Texas and the mid-Atlantic for a couple of days.
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Freezing rain and snow will make travel treacherous Thursday and Friday as low-pressure systems move along a cold front stretching from the Gulf Coast to the East Coast. Moisture feeding into these regions will hit cold air that’s already in place.
Southern Texas
The National Weather Service has issued winter storm warnings and winter weather advisories for all of southern Texas, from Brownsville to just north of San Antonio. This covers a larger part of the region compared to Wednesday.
Places under these alerts will see a light glaze to a 10th of an inch of ice, along with a few areas of sleet and snow. Given that it’s far southern Texas, which isn’t used to frozen precipitation, any amount of sleet or freezing rain could cause transportation issues and possible power outages.
Bitterly cold air will follow, with wind chills Thursday night and Friday morning as low as the teens and 20s.
Mid-Atlantic
Some major cities and freight hubs may see minor snow accumulations Thursday, but the main event will be farther south later Thursday and Friday.
The highly favored areas for freezing rain and very icy conditions are from eastern North Carolina to northeastern South Carolina. The NWS has issued an ice storm warning, stretching from Newbern and Jacksonville, North Carolina, to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. This is more serious than the alerts posted for these areas Wednesday. Ice accumulation could reach one-third of an inch, which could easily weigh down utility and electrical lines, as well as tree limbs. Power outages and road closures are likely.
Snow and sleet are more likely from central portions of the Carolinas to southern sections of the Delmarva Peninsula. The storm should fade across the mid-Atlantic by Saturday morning.
Major lanes of concern
• Interstate 26 in South Carolina from Columbia to Charleston.
• Interstate 35 in Texas from Laredo to Austin.
• Interstate 37 in Texas from Corpus Christi to San Antonio.
• Interstate 40 in North Carolina from Winston-Salem to Wilmington.
• Interstate 64 in Virginia from Richmond to Norfolk.
• Interstate 69E in Texas from Brownsville to Corpus Christi.
• Interstate 77 from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Columbia, South Carolina.
• Interstate 85 from Charlotte to Petersburg, Virginia.
• Interstate 95 from Petersburg to Walterboro, South Carolina.
• U.S. Highway 17 from Portsmouth, Virginia, to Charleston.
Click here for more FreightWaves articles by Nick Austin.
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