My comment:  Before you look at what’s coming for the Palm Sunday weekend, take a look at this video from one of 3 deadly tornado outbreaks on past Palm Sunday’s.

By AccuWeather.com

Another major storm has begun to cross the nation with areas of heavy snow, flooding rain and severe thunderstorms. The worst conditions with the storm may center over the Palm Sunday weekend.

Like many storms during the second half of the winter, this first major storm of the spring could threaten lives and property, bring significant travel disruptions and foil outdoor plans.

The storm will drive cold air southward over the Rockies and part of the Great Basin.

After bringing drenching rain and heavy mountain snow to the Northwest and part of the Rockies later this week, a storm from the Pacific will reorganize over the Central states this weekend.

A weaker storm will push eastward across the South later this week, ahead of the main storm coming this weekend. Snow will streak across Kansas City and the Ozarks Thursday, then onward in a swath from Memphis to Huntsville and northern Georgia Thursday night.

The exact track of the main storm as it heads from the Rockies to the Atlantic coast will determine the portions of states along the way that will be on the receiving end of heavy snow versus drenching rain.

The storm will move eastward along a strong temperature contrast from south to north. Almost midwinter cold will linger in the northern tier states, while warmth and humidity build over the Deep South. This temperature contrast will likely be compressed in the middle with a distance of a couple hundred miles or less potentially separating temperatures in the 80s from the 20s and low 30s.

The temperature contrast will make for very challenging forecasts when determining which areas near the storm track will get snow versus rain. However, this stored energy can yield very dramatic results ranging from a foot or more of snow in some areas to a half a foot of rain with flooding and a severe weather outbreak.

Snow

The storm will gather enough cold air to begin producing a swath of heavy snow over parts of the central and southern Plains later Saturday and Saturday night. Parts of Kansas and Missouri appear to be in the middle of several different potential tracks at this time.

During Sunday, the band of heavy snow will nose eastward, most likely impacting some of the Ohio Valley states. A small shift in the storm track could mean the difference between heavy snow in Kansas City, St. Louis, Indianapolis and Dayton versus Omaha, Chicago and Cleveland.

By Monday, the zone of heavy snow will be impacting part of the central and southern Appalachians and could be aiming all the way to part of the mid-Atlantic coast and the I-95 corridor. Not only will the same challenges remain in the north-south orientation of the storm, but warm air from the Atlantic Ocean may play a role.

Severe Weather

There is the potential for severe weather to develop in portions of the Deep South from Texas and Louisiana to Mississippi, Alabama, southern Georgia and northern Florida with the storm system this weekend.

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