Spring may be a little more than a week away, but winter still has unfinished business.
A storm that has already caked parts of the northern Rockies in snow was expected to push across the Midwest and into the Northeast late Tuesday, forecasters said.
The system is set to cruise across the east early Wednesday, dumping mounds of the white stuff on Chicago and the Great Lakes. Maine and Kentucky are slated to be hit with bands of ice while some big cities in the Northeast will be lashed with heavy rain, according to forecasters from The Weather Channel.
It is to dump up to 8 inches in the Chicago area and northern Indiana and more along the Great Lakes in Ohio, Pennsylvania and upstate New York.
The weather service says Chicago has been buried by 75.5 inches of snow this winter, fourth most dating back to 1884-1885. The snowfall expected into Wednesday could push it to third place, ahead of the 77.0 inch total from 1969-1970.
The National Weather Service has enacted winter storm warnings from northern Illinois to northern Maine.
Snow totals could exceed 2 feet in northern New England through Thursday.
Chicago was bracing for heavy snowfall Tuesday. A storm warning took effect at 10 p.m. local time Tuesday and will last through 1 p.m. local time Wednesday, according to NBC Chicago.
In the parts of the Rockies, the storm exacerbated flooding that began over the weekend in Montana and Wyoming, where warm weather melted snow quickly.
Floods washed out roads and damaged homes, rivers swelled enough to block bridges, and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock mobilized the National Guard.
But water levels were dropping for flooded rivers in Montana and Wyoming by Tuesday evening as authorities rushed to restore road access for hundreds of people cut off by high waters, according to The Associated Press.
— Daniel Arkin
