Breakfast Brief: winter relentlessness

Two winter storms will cause midweek problems across both the eastern and western U.S. The eastern one will be the bigger troublemaker. The Breakfast Brief is published daily, Monday through Friday, at 5:00 a.m., Eastern time.

A major winter storm that kicked off with heavy rain across the Lower Mississippi Valley and snow across the Mid-Atlantic Tuesday evening, will slide off the coast this morning. In its footsteps will be a a second even bigger winter storm rolling across the Midwest and Great Lakes.

As the WeatherRadar shows, heavy rain with embedded thunderstorms will roll across the South and lower Mississippi Valley, increasing the risk of flash flooding. This is a multi-day flood risk.

The rain will spread into the Appalachians and the Mid-Atlantic later Wednesday. Heavy snow will spread from the south-central Plains northeastward into western Great Lakes. More than six inches of snow will be possible.

Behind this system, another strong arctic blast will settle southward. The TemperatureRadar shows highs only in the teens as far south as Kansas with single digits over the Upper Midwest and northern Rockies. The Dakotas will not crack zero.

The next winter storm for the U.S. will encroach on the West Coast. Pockets of rain will bring rain to coastal central and southern California including Los Angeles and San Diego. This will be day one of several rounds of rainfall. This rain could trigger flooding and mudslides, especially in mountainous areas recently burned by wildfires.

The warm spot continues to be southern Texas and Florida. Highs will be in the upper 70s to low 80s.