18 winter, cold and freeze alerts are in effect right now, including 1 winter or cold warning (updated 22:07 UTC). Every alert is drawn on the official NWS forecast zones, refreshed every 10 minutes.
Each city page shows the alerts at that exact spot, the official 7-day NWS snow forecast and how much snow the city gets in an average winter.
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Heavy snow or ice is possible in 2–4 days. Plan ahead: fuel, medicines, a phone charger, and a backup way to heat one room.
Heavy snow or ice is expected or occurring. Travel will be dangerous or impossible — stay off the roads if you can.
Lighter snow, sleet or freezing rain that makes roads slick. Below warning level, but slow down: black ice is hard to see.
Winds of 35 mph or more and blowing snow below ¼-mile visibility for 3+ hours. Whiteouts strand drivers even on short trips.
Average yearly snowfall, 1991–2020, for cities over 100,000 people — measured at the best-matching NOAA station near each city.
| # | City | Avg. snowfall | Days with 1″+ | Snowiest month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Syracuse, NY | 127.8″ | 34 | January |
| 2 | Rochester, NY | 102.0″ | 29 | January |
| 3 | Buffalo, NY | 95.4″ | 26 | January |
| 4 | Amherst, NY | 95.4″ | 26 | January |
| 5 | Boulder, CO | 85.2″ | 21 | February |
| 6 | Anchorage, AK | 77.9″ | 22 | December |
| 7 | Grand Rapids, MI | 77.6″ | 24 | January |
| 8 | Arvada, CO | 75.5″ | 21 | March |
| 9 | Worcester, MA | 72.9″ | 16 | February |
| 10 | South Bend, IN | 64.5″ | 20 | January |
| 11 | Centennial, CO | 64.0″ | 19 | February |
| 12 | Cleveland, OH | 63.8″ | 20 | January |
| 13 | Ann Arbor, MI | 59.3″ | 19 | February |
| 14 | Albany, NY | 59.2″ | 15 | January |
| 15 | Lowell, MA | 59.0″ | 15 | January |
| 16 | Lakewood, CO | 58.0″ | 17 | March |
| 17 | Green Bay, WI | 55.6″ | 17 | January |
| 18 | Rochester, MN | 53.1″ | 16 | December |
| 19 | Manchester, NH | 52.8″ | 12 | February |
| 20 | Salt Lake City, UT | 51.9″ | 16 | January |
| 21 | West Valley City, UT | 51.9″ | 16 | January |
| 22 | West Jordan, UT | 51.9″ | 16 | January |
| 23 | Madison, WI | 51.8″ | 15 | January |
| 24 | Springfield, MA | 51.7″ | 13 | February |
| 25 | Hartford, CT | 51.7″ | 13 | February |
A Winter Storm Watch means heavy snow, sleet or ice is possible in the next 2–4 days — time to prepare. A Winter Storm Warning means it is expected or already happening and will make travel dangerous; the usual threshold is about 6 inches of snow in 12 hours or 8 in 24 hours (lower in the South, higher in mountains), or a quarter inch of ice.
An advisory is the lower tier: snow, sleet, freezing rain or blowing snow that will be a nuisance and can make roads slick, but is below warning level. Many crashes happen during advisories, because people drive normally.
The NWS issues a Blizzard Warning for sustained winds or frequent gusts of 35 mph or more with falling or blowing snow that cuts visibility below a quarter mile for at least three hours. It is about wind and visibility, not the amount of snow.
A NOAA Weather Prediction Center product that combines snow amount, snow load, ice, blowing snow and the local climate into one expected-impact level — minor, moderate, major or extreme — for the next three days. A few inches in Atlanta can rate higher than a foot in Buffalo.
A Frost Advisory means temperatures of about 33–36 °F with frost likely on plants. A Freeze Warning means 32 °F or colder, which kills tender plants and can burst unprotected outdoor pipes; a Hard Freeze Warning means 28 °F or colder. NWS offices stop issuing them once the growing season has ended in their area.
Snow totals are among the hardest forecasts: a 1–2 °F error decides rain versus snow, and a 30-mile shift in a storm track can halve the amount. That is why we show the WPC probability of at least 4, 8 and 12 inches rather than a single number.
Alerts come straight from the National Weather Service. Winter alerts are issued for forecast zones rather than storm-shaped polygons, so we draw them on the NWS public forecast zone boundaries. The snow and ice odds are the Weather Prediction Center’s probabilistic forecast for each of the next three days; the Winter Storm Severity Index is WPC’s expected-impact rating. Snow depth is NOAA’s daily national snow analysis (NOHRSC), which blends stations, satellites and a snow model. Snow and ice reports are preliminary spotter, observer and automated reports from the last 72 hours.