The upcoming warming trend in December will also include storms in the eastern United States

The clock is already ticking with the latest blast of arctic air. But the path to the ensuing warming trend will be bumpy and dotted with several storms – some of which will bring snow and ice rather than rain in some places, AccuWeather forecasters warn.

After a January-like cold start to the weekend in the East, temperatures will gradually rise through the first half of this week.

Temperatures will climb into the 40s in New York City. High temperatures in Washington, DC will rise from the mid 40s on Saturday to a possible 60s on Sunday. Further west, highs around 40 degrees on Saturday in Chicago will be followed by highs around 50 degrees on Sunday. In the South this weekend, temperatures will rise back into the 60s on Sunday in places like Atlanta.

However, there will be a bit of trouble when the warm-up begins in part of the north tier.

A clipper-style storm will move southeast from central Canada into southern Ontario on Saturday and then into northern New England on Sunday, AccuWeather meteorologist Grady Gilman said.

“This fast-moving storm will have enough moisture to generally push out 1 to 3 inches of snow from northwestern Ontario to northern New York and northern New England, with local snow amounts of 6 to 12 inches, including over some mountains,” said Gilman.

This storm has an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ snowfall of 20 inches across the ridges of the Adirondack, Green and White Mountains.

There will be some rain, sleet and freezing rain on the southern edge of the snow, from parts of northern Michigan to the northern tier of Pennsylvania, the lower Hudson Valley and southern New England, Gilman added.

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South of the storm’s track, the milder air will have little difficulty penetrating. The milder air will eventually move into central and northern New England later this weekend into early this week. Highs will reach the 40s in Boston on Monday.

The next storm will not move south from Canada, but will rise from the Southern Plains and the Gulf of Mexico.

With milder air ahead of the storm, most precipitation will fall in the form of rain, said Paul Pastelok, senior long-range meteorologist at AccuWeather.

“The exceptions are the northern plains of the Northeast, where there is just enough cool air behind the clipper storm to create problems in the form of a mix of snow, ice and rain,” Pastelok said.

Due to snow cover or cold ground from recent waves of Arctic air, the storm’s moisture will result in areas of fog. It’s the same process that causes mist to come out of the freezer door on a warm and humid day. The combination of rain and fog can slow travel.

While where there is deep snow there likely won’t be enough rain to liquefy the snowpack and cause major flooding, the impending thaw and some rain could lead to puddles on streets and highways where piles of snow are clogging storm drains . Another problem will be the additional weight of the rain that the snow will absorb. This can stress some roofs to the point of failure.

In parts of the East, there could be enough rain to cause localized urban flooding, even if there is no snow on the ground.

There will be more storms this week.

While mild air continues to flow north along the Atlantic coast, cooler air will move south again over the central states. This west-east temperature contrast zone will form a south-north storm track anywhere from the Appalachian Mountains to the Atlantic Coast.

Depending on the storm’s track, storm intensity and blast of cold air, there is at least a chance of a band of snow accumulating in the zone from the Appalachians to perhaps parts of the Tennessee Valley and the Midwest with Wednesday’s storm, Pastelok said.

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