Winter storm spews snow, ice and rain across central US

A prolonged period of unsettled wintry weather is underway for the midsection of the United States as a slow-moving, multifaceted storm system tracks through the region.

Conditions across southeastern Nebraska deteriorated quickly Tuesday night as freezing rain developed, resulting in numerous accidents between Hastings and Omaha.

The Nebraska State Patrol urged drivers to stay off the roads on Tuesday night following multiple accidents. (Twitter/@NSP_TroopC)

Early Wednesday morning, hazardous driving conditions were also reported along Interstate 94 in Minnesota where state troopers had responded to numerous accidents, including a jackknifed pickup truck that was pulling a trailer. Sleet covered the ground in western Arkansas into the midday hours.

The threat for a disruptive wintry mixture of precipitation continued to slowly expand northeastward across the Midwest Wednesday night.

This radar image, taken Thursday midday, Jan. 23, 2020, shows rain (green and yellow), ice (pink and purple) and snow (blue) over the middle of the nation. (AccuWeather)

Snowfall accumulations across the Midwest through Wednesday night was generally light, especially by Midwesterners' standards. However, a few inches of snow piled up in some locations with up to 6 inches in parts of northern Missouri.

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The storm system continued to keep many of the same areas across the Midwest grey and dreary on Thursday as well. Some locales, such as St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri, may switch back and forth between rain and snow as temperatures hover in the lower to middle 30s.

A disturbance in the upper atmosphere will join up with the storm and give it a boost toe end the week. Along with adding the threat for a steadier snow in the Midwest, it will also bring the threat for heavy rain and thunderstorms farther south.

If the disturbance is able to inject enough cold air into this storm system, it will bring a threat for more substantial snowfall across the Midwest into Thursday night. Places across Missouri, Iowa and Illinois that received a mixture of rain and snow on Thursday may have a complete changeover to snow during the overnight hours. This would include areas in between the Interstate 70 and 80 corridors in Iowa, Missouri and Illinois.

If the added boost of energy fails to inject enough cold air into the storm system by Thursday night, many of those places may just continue to have a mixture of rain and snow into Friday morning.

The storm system is expected to continue to slowly spin its way towards the Ohio Valley Friday, shifting the threat for wintry weather eastward.

Again, depending on how cold the air is in the vicinity of the storm system will determine how widespread the snowfall will be. Regardless of the magnitude of the cold weather, a focal point for some of the steadiest and heaviest snowfall is likely from northern Missouri to southeastern Iowa, northwestern and northeastern Illinois and southeastern Wisconsin. This area can expect a general 3-6 inches of snow with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 8 inches.

The storm system will begin to make a more eastwardly jog from Friday into Saturday, bringing an end to the wet and wintry weather across Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and much of Wisconsin and Illinois. Bouts of rain and snow will likely continue to persist across Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, but again with temperatures hovering in the lower to middle 30s, accumulations may mainly be on non-paved surfaces.

At the same time, wintry weather will expand into the Northeast.

The entire Midwest and western Great Lakes region will finally say goodbye to the storm system by Sunday, and unlike previous storms to track across the region this January, slightly above-average temperatures are expected in the wake of the system.

Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.