Orelon Sidney: Nation braces for more harsh weather

Orelon Sidney

CNN Meteorologist Orelon Sidney is tracking the snow system from the CNN weather center.

Q: Is the weather expected to ease up over the coming days?

SIDNEY: There's going to continue to be a chance of snow across the Great Lakes and a mix of ice and snow stretching all the way down into southern Georgia and maybe northern Florida. However, as you get past the Georgia border, it looks like it will mostly be rain.

The next storm system we will have to worry about is going to move across the Great Lakes Wednesday morning and settle into the central Great Lakes Wednesday evening.

Some more snow is expected through the Rockies and especially heavy across parts of Minnesota and southward into Arkansas. Very, very windy conditions are expected for Vermont, New Hampshire and into Maine.

By Thursday morning a new storm system is going to develop across the southern Plains and head into the Gulf states. It's going to be attached to an area of low pressure in the Great Lakes. What that means is there will be a chance of an icy mix from Jackson, Mississippi, to Little Rock, Arkansas, and all the way into the Great Lakes where it changes into snow.

There's also going to be a Pacific storm that's moving into Washington. You might see some rain along the coasts and snow in the mountains.

Thursday evening, the icy mix heads off to the East, and we'll continue to see a chance of freezing precipitation in Mississippi and Alabama and in the northwest portions of Georgia and the central Appalachians. The snow may be a little lighter in the Great Lakes, but the Cascades will continue to see snow with rain increasing across Oregon and Northern California.

Q: So, pretty ugly weather across the nation?

SIDNEY: Everybody's going to have temperatures in the 40s or 50s or lower, except for South Florida and Southern California. Those two areas will be in the 60s.

Q: Is it too early to predict a white Christmas?

SIDNEY: I'm not going out that far. I think if you've got snow on the ground now in the North, you've got a pretty good chance of it sticking around for Christmas. Aside from that, it's a little hard to tell because I don't know the snow depth in a lot of places and that makes a big difference. If the snow is deeper, obviously it's going to have a better chance to stick around.

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