The punches just keep on coming from Old Man Winter with a new storm poised to impact parts of the South, Midwest and Northeast this weekend, threatening to bring travel delays and disruptions to outdoor activities. The storm will affect the Central states Friday night into Saturday and much of the East Saturday into Sunday.

A stripe of heavy snow is most likely to fall over parts of northern Indiana, Ohio and northwestern Pennsylvania, upstate New York, northern New England and neighboring Canada. Cities that could be hit with an all-out snowstorm include Cleveland, Syracuse, N.Y., and Burlington, Vt. Most cities in the I-95 corridor of the Northeast will have a brief period of snow or a wintry mix at the onset, followed by rain at the height of the storm. A change to plain rain is forecast in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York City and Boston. However, it could snow hard prior to a change to rain in part of the coastal Northeast, raising concerns for a period of slippery travel.

The storm will come together over the Deep South Friday and head toward a cold high pressure system moving across the Northeast. The storm will be preceded by the coldest air of the season so far in parts of the Midwest and Northeast. The storm itself will attack the cold air, removing much of it, but squeezing out heavy precipitation in the process.

In the wake of the storm this weekend, a mixture of Arctic and Pacific air is forecast to come in, so it may not feel quite as cold as recent days from the Midwest to the East. The milder air starting next week will allow a break from the wintry precipitation in some areas hit hard, but not everywhere. Just enough cold air will linger in the northern tier states to allow more storms with snow and wintry mix as the the month progresses. -SS