You Won't Believe What's Coming Next Week...

It's Friday, March 13th, 2026. It's the 72nd day of the year, and things are really ramping up out there. A high-end blizzard is set to paralyze the upper Midwest this weekend, while the same system is gonna bring powerful squall lines

and potential tornadoes into the Ohio Valley, and that's gonna move into the Mid-Atlantic right after that. So let's jump right into it. Now, yesterday, we had some crazy stuff going on in the Southeast. We had a bunch of storms and we had a 109 mile per hour wind gust out West. That same system has kind of ushered into the Ohio Valley today where we've seen widespread damage in Indiana and Ohio, even up there into portions of Illinois and Kentucky. An 85 mile per hour hurricane

force wind gust was recorded in Cleveland. We've had multiple semis blown over, we've had schools closed, we've had schools damaged, roofs blown off of buildings, shingles coming off of houses, a lot of big time stuff is happening out there with this wind and it's catching a lot of people off guard. We've also got hundreds of thousands of people without power right now and that is because we just have this crazy dynamic system moving through that's setting the stage for our next big storm. That's why I wanted to bring this up.

The power that you're feeling out there today is going to be the fuel for our next storm. And that next system really starts with an enhanced risk for heavy snow across the upper Mississippi Valley, putting cities like Minneapolis and St. Paul

right in the crosshairs for snowfall rates that are going to be intense, easily exceeding 2 to 3 inches per hour as a band of very heavy snow is going to expand from South Dakota and Montana all the way into Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. On top of the snow we're gonna have northerly winds starting to gust over 40 miles per hour and that's gonna create blowing snow and localized whiteout conditions. So if you live anywhere in this zone, your Saturday night travel plans are going to be

a lot more complicated here. Okay. And this is really just the beginning. As you can see, this thing is just getting started here as we go from Saturday into Sunday. And even though we're just getting started, we're already talking about by Sunday morning, having over seven inches of snow in Dickinson, South Dakota, 4 or 5 inches in Jamestown.

We're talking about already 5 inches on the ground by 2 a.m. Sunday morning. And remember, we're just getting started. And then in St. Cloud, we're talking about 7, maybe 8 inches or so. Eau Claire will already have potentially 4 inches on the ground by this time. And you can see that this is going to continue to move east. It really hasn't started accumulating yet in Green Bay or Oshkosh or all the way down there towards Detroit,

but it's coming. And boy, is it coming. By Sunday morning, this system is going to become an absolute monster. We have a rare high risk for significant winter storm impacts

from Eastern Minnesota straight through Wisconsin. This is going to be one of the more impactful storms that we've had up here in quite some time. You see, we're gonna have a rapidly deepening surface low dropping below 990 millibars, and that's gonna track right across the Great Lakes,

throwing immense amounts of moisture into sub-freezing air. This is a classic textbook setup for paralyzing upper Midwest blizzard conditions. And the worst is gonna be expected probably between the Twin Cities and Eau Claire and Wausau. But I think even places as far south as Rochester could get a good blizzard out of this. You're going to have intermittent blizzard conditions on the backside

in Des Moines, potentially even over there towards Milwaukee as well. But you can see that Chicago, for the most part, is going to stay all rain here, it seems like. And you can also see that there's gonna be a thin band of freezing rain somewhere, but it doesn't look like it's gonna be stationary enough to be a huge problem, except for maybe in Northern Michigan. Not the UP of Michigan, but Northern Michigan, where potentially Gaylord is right around there.

I think that we might have some ice accumulation problems, but right now those problems pale in comparison to the just general blizzard that we're going to be having to the north and west. We are really talking about widespread crazy snow totals here of 12 to 18 inches with many places getting over two feet and the NBM, which is a average of all the models. It's just going plum wild here. It's going off the charts in Wisconsin and the UP of Michigan.

We got some places clocking in at over 40 inches of snow by Monday afternoon. Okay. This is just so much snow out here in the UP of Michigan. Also Northeast Wisconsin, we're talking about Rhinelander, Townsend, Crandon, Iron Mountain, potentially over three feet of snow.

And this is going to be just an absolute shutdown storm for anybody in the light blue there. But even Minneapolis could see up to 18 inches of snow. And once again, Chicago on the backside, you guys might get a couple inches out of this as well. Three to four inches from Des Moines to Chicago. That is definitely in the realm of possibility. Milwaukee, Madison, we're talking about six to eight inches. And even up there towards Duluth, we're talking about

13 inches or so. But the snow is really only like half the story. I mean, we're going to get a lot of snow here, but the wind is going to be a big thing. We're talking about 50 to 60 mile per hour wind gusts. That's going to definitely cause some power outages and some other problems with white out conditions. So when you combine the snowfall rates that are needed to make this much snow and 50 to 60 mile per hour winds, you're going to have yourself a very memorable snowstorm up here. I know we get Wisconsin all the time. I know,

but I promise it's been several years since you've seen one like this in this specific area. So please do not try to drive in this on Sunday or Saturday, even going into Monday. It's possible that you're going to get stranded and emergency crews will not be able to reach you. Temperatures are going to plummet behind this system into the single digits on Sunday night, which means any wet roads are also going to freeze instantly.

So if you start off as rain, that isn't a saving grace. This heavy blowing snow combined with severe winds will also lead to scattered power outages, maybe even moderately widespread power outages. So make sure that you have your devices charged and you stay warm. Okay. If this verifies over 14 million people are going to be dealing with one of the most intense blizzards we've seen in years. And as if that wasn't enough, the upper Midwest is getting buried in snow while at the same time, we're potentially going to be having a severe weather outbreak just to the south. This is all the same system here. The storm prediction center has issued an enhanced risk for severe weather from Northeast Louisiana up through Mississippi, Alabama,

Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. And then we've got a slight risk around that. It goes all the way up to Chicago and Southern portions of Michigan. Yes, we're potentially going to have severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings in places that will shortly afterwards see snow and intermittent blizzard conditions. Yes, this is an incredible dynamic situation. Yes, also Clarksville, Tennessee is included in this highest risk area.

So we will be reaching out and covering you guys during this as well. But this just looks like a widespread severe weather event that's gonna have hundreds of wind reports and the potential for some tornadoes. So here's the setup.

We've got a powerful upper level trough that I was talking about yesterday, and that's gonna rapidly deepen on Sunday, creating an intense high level jet stream across the region. The jet stream winds with this are literally, I hate to be too repetitive here, but plum wild.

I mean, it's absolutely crazy. And at the surface, there's gonna be a very prominent cold front that comes together that's gonna sweep eastward. And that's going to, of course, crash into very warm, moist air mass coming from the Gulf. And that squall line is actually going to start forming in the

afternoon from Arkansas to Texas. And that's going to bring the initial threat for large hail and damaging wind gusts, and you can see how quickly that's going to spread out into Indiana, Western Kentucky, Western Tennessee as well. But I want you to notice something here. There's something really interesting going on out in front of that main line. You see the brief moment where we have some super cells popping up. If that is something that actually happens, there's so much wind shear

out here that tornadoes are going to be possible. This might actually be a significant tornado outbreak if that actually happens. But right now, we're too far out to be talking like that. All I know for sure at this point is that we are going to have a widespread damaging wind squall line event. And that's what we need to be preparing for, at least at this moment. We'll update you on the tornado threat as we get more data.

And just look at all the moisture that we're going to have with this, man. It's absolutely crazy. You don't normally see a cold front this sharp, that is this large, it's going to impact everybody. And it's going to be very impactful whenever it comes through. We're talking about the main threat being widespread damaging winds. This is a system where everybody's going to get hit by it. You're not going to get missed.

So make sure you're ready for that. The primary threat is going to be widespread, destructive, straight line winds that could easily knock down power lines. I think we're going to see a potentially over a million people, maybe even millions of people without power for a period of time during this storm. And what's really unfortunate about it is that it's happening during the evening and early night timing hours, which is going to accelerate our problems as far

as people being surprised, people not taking shelter and stuff like that. So make sure that you have a way of getting alerts on a night. And notice how far east this goes. This looks like the kind of system that is not just going to be for the Midwest and for the Ohio Valley and for the South. It really looks like the East Coast is going to get in on this. And in fact, there's a possibility right now that this could be a bigger deal for the East

Coast, for the Mid-Atlantic, and for the Carolinas than it is in Missouri. For example, it's very rare that we see this kind of set up, uh, so favorable for the East coast. We're talking about Washington DC down to Columbia and everywhere in between. Really notice how we have this thunderstorm fuel really get going in the center of the U S it goes down overnight on Sunday, but as we go into Monday, it builds back up and it meets up with that incredible moisture and wind shear that we're going to have over here.

Once again, between Washington DC, Baltimore, Raleigh, Richmond. This looks like a really intense, severe setup for our friends on the East Coast. Check it out. The Storm Prediction Center is already putting out a rare 30% risk for cities like Washington DC, Raleigh, Wilmington, Fayetteville. This doesn't happen over here. It's very rare that we get a day four slight risk

on the East Coast like this. It's crazy that we have a day four 30%. I don't know when the last time this happened was, but I also don't remember the last time I've seen a setup this favorable for severe weather on the East Coast. And the latest Rufus model here is just absolutely,

it's pretty crazy and we got to remember that the Rufus can sometimes be a little bit of a doofus and it can kind of over exaggerate things. I mean we said that for the last storm and it was kind of it wasn't exaggerating too much but what we see here is that big squall line coming through potentially meeting up with prefrontal supercell so we got a real tornado threat over here plus one of the more intense to actually happen like this, this, once again, this will be a very memorable and impactful storm for the East Coast. Once again, millions of people potentially are losing power.

And then if we have that tornado threat with the sails that are popping up out in front of the main line, that takes this to a whole other level. But I don't want to talk about that too much right now, because it depends on too much mesoscale meteorology that we just don't know right now. The only thing that I can tell you for sure is that we are definitely gonna be live for both of these days,

so make sure you're subscribed with notifications on. And I just wanna harp on the moisture a little bit more. We're talking about temperatures and dew points up into the mid 60s, all the way up into Pennsylvania and New Jersey, okay? We're gonna have very deep dew points,

very deep moisture over here in South Carolina and North Carolina approaching 70 degree dew points. That is insane. Okay. We're going to have a crazy convective available potential energy levels as well. We're going to have that sharp boundary.

So this is something we all have to watch very closely. If you're on the East coast, start letting everybody know, Hey, it looks like Monday is going to be a big day because you guys don't have to worry about this stuff as much as people farther west. And moving on a little bit, while the Eastern US is going to plunge into a January-like freeze after this storm goes by, the West and the desert Southwest is about to be engulfed in a historic, mind-boggling heat wave. We have an anomalous high-pressure system that's going to be itself over the region, trapping, sinking air and sending temperatures skyrocketing to pretty much unthinkable

levels for this time of year. We're talking about widespread highs surging well into the nineties with a very real threat for several areas getting into the 100 degree range. That's going to be on a Wednesday and Thursday. This is going to be before the spring equinox has even happened, which is once again, why it's so unheard of over here. The level of heat that we're gonna be talking about

is actually unheard of. That's not hyperbole, that's not hype, that's not the weatherman trying to get clicks and views. This is absolutely, for the third time this video, I think this is a record, plum wild, get ready for 45 degree above average temperatures

on Thursday, holy smokes. This is gonna be a heat wave. The true definition of a heat wave over here. We're gonna be smashing records all over the place. I mean, records, just go ahead and throw them out. If you're heading to spring training games in Arizona, or if you're spending any time outdoors

over here on the West coast, you must prepare for dangerous midsummer heat and hydrate aggressively. It's gonna feel like July, but it's not. It's gonna feel like July, but it's not. It's March. Okay. So once again, get ready for those records to be broken and enjoy it. You know, not everywhere is it going to be dangerous. It's just going to be like weirdly nice. And this is going to lead to likely some

crazy implications for the overall weather pattern at some point when this flips, I don't know what's going to happen, but yeah, this is a highly, highly, highly anomalous warm air coming into the West. But with that being said, I do want to emphasize that we should make no mistake. This isn't just an early taste of spring. This is a potentially life-threatening, extreme climate anomaly,

arriving months ahead of schedule. All right, so if you know elderly people, if you know people that don't get checked on often down here, especially in the Southwest, make sure you're checking on them. There might even be power outages associated with this. So this is going to be a good heat wave. It's going to be nice for a lot of us, but it's also going to be dangerous for some of us. So let's all think of each other and

stay safe out there. Once again, don't be scared, be prepared and I think we'll be all stay safe out there. Once again, don't be scared, be prepared and I think we'll be all right. And that's going to be all the weather talk I have for you today. Thank you so much