US and UK Face Wild Storms Over Next Two Days: Weather Watch

Chicago commuters will have a slippery start to the work week as a couple waves of ice and sleet are due to come their way through Tuesday.

The current forecast calls for 0.1 to 0.25 of an inch of ice to accumulate, creating slick roads and possibly a few power outages, said Marc Chenard, a senior branch forecaster at the US Weather Prediction Center said.

There is a touch of uncertainty in the forecast. Temperatures could rise a few degrees, bringing mainly rain, he said.

As of 6 a.m. local time, 85 flights were canceled out of Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, according to FlightAware. Winter weather advisories and storm warnings stretch from western New York to northern Texas in the path of the system.

In other weather news:

Europe: Back-to-back Atlantic storms will bring high winds and heavy rain across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Storm Isha’s center is passing north of Scotland bringing a “very windy start to the new working week,” Ellie Glaisyer, a forecaster with the UK Met Office, said in a video statement. The storm will be briefly followed by a period of milder weather before the next system Storm Jocelyn arrives Tuesday to bring another round of harsh weather. Some gusts could reach 90 miles per hour on Monday across parts of Scotland, she said.

Australia: A tropical cyclone is set to spin up over the Coral Sea northeast of Australia in the next day or so, said Miriam Bradbury, a forecaster with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. A tropical cyclone watch has been posted for the coast between Ayr and St. Lawrence on Australia’s east coast, Bradbury said. High winds and rain could reach the Queensland coast by Wednesday morning. Wind gusts up to 120 kilometers (75 miles) per hour, flash flooding and sever downpours are all likely, she said. Trees could be toppled, roads closed and power outages are likely.

“You might see these impacts with in the next 24 to 48 hours,” she said. The storm will intensify as it nears the coast, possibly reaching Category 3 strength on Australia’s storm scale before it makes landfall Thursday possibly near Townsville, Australia.

Top photo: A customer carries a bag of ice melt on his shoulder at a Home Depot Inc. store in Evanston, Illinois, U.S., on Thursday, Feb. 8, 2018. The biggest snowstorm of the season is heading towards Chicago. The dump will start late Thursday and continue through the next day, bringing 8 to 10 inches.