Potential Strong Nor'easter Next Week Follows Weekend Snow in the Midwest and South

Winter Storm

After snow dusts the South, a major snowstorm is possible in the Northeast next week.

ByJon Erdman•March 11, 2017

The Day The Temperature Rose 103 Degrees

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Winter Storm Stella has been named. For the latest details on this system please click here.

A strong Northeast snowstorm is increasingly likely next week, following a stripe of weekend snow penetrating into the South and an initial round of snow from Winter Storm Reggie.

(MORE: Winter Storm Central)

The jet stream is now taking a bit of a southern dive into the Midwest and East.

An initial disturbance in that jet stream will produce the stripe of snow through this weekend in the Midwest and South.

However, a much sharper plunge of the jet by next week should spin up a strong low-pressure center off the East Coast, raising the potential of a nor'easter with heavy snow and wind for parts of the Northeast.

(MORE: Where March is the Snowiest Month)

The Corridor Winter Forgot

For some in the Midwest and East, winter has been exceptionally mild and snowless.

Chicago just experienced its first January through February period without as much as an inch of snow on the ground. The last such snow cover at O'Hare International Airport was on Christmas morning.

Along with the Windy City, Indianapolis, Washington D.C. and Baltimore are also at a snowfall deficit of at least one foot through March 5.

In Baltimore, it's the least snowy winter-to-date since 0.4 inches of snow fell through March 5, 1950. The last one-inch-plus snowfall at Baltimore-Washington International Airport was roughly one year ago, March 3-4, 2016.

(INTERACTIVE: When Spring's Last Snow Typically Happens)

Just down Interstate 95, the 1.4 inches at Washington's Reagan National Airport so far is the least snowy season-to-date in 19 years, when only 0.1 inches had fallen, and would tie 1972-73 for the least snowy season.

According to an index known as AWSSI, which calculates the severity of a winter based on snowfall and cold weather days, this has been a record-mild winter in the following cities:

Omaha, Nebraska
Des Moines, Iowa
Louisville, Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
Charleston, West Virginia
Elkins, West Virginia

Plot of Accumulated Winter Season Severity Index (AWSSI) values on March 6, 2017. Red diamonds indicate locations which were calculated to have a record mild winter-to-date through March 6. Red circles denote a "mild" winter, orange circles a "moderate" winter, yellow circles an "average" winter, and blue circles a "severe" winter.
(Midwest Regional Climate Center)

Southern snowfall in March isn't as unusual as it sounds.

For instance, Nashville, Tennessee, has had a number of significant March snowstorms.

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, has had several heavy March snowstorms in their history, as well, but they've only had a single 1-inch-plus March snowfall since 1983, a 3.2-inch event on March 2, 2009.

MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Winter Storm Niko (Early February 2017)