Storms continue to move across US bringing tornadoes, heavy snow, freezing rain and flooding

January 26, 2021January 26, 2021 WKXA

ABC NewsBy MAX GOLEMBO, ABC News

(NEW YORK) — Several storms moving through the country are bringing tornadoes, heavy snow, freezing rain, flooding and hail.

There are 31 states on alert Tuesday morning for a variety of dangerous weather stretching from California to Massachusetts.

The same storm that hit the Midwest overnight with heavy snow and ice also produced at least one tornado north of Birmingham, Alabama, with major damage to homes and buildings.

In the Midwest, up to 14 inches of snow fell in Iowa and Nebraska, shutting down interstates with numerous accidents and injuries reported.

Chicago is seeing 1 to 4 inches of snow with more snow to come through the day and, locally, 8 inches of snow is possible when the storm moves out later on Tuesday.

This same storm is moving into the Northeast now with snow and freezing rain and strong thunderstorms to the south.

Throughout the day, this icy mix will continue in Pennsylvania and into New Jersey and parts of Maryland where a winter weather advisory has been issued Tuesday morning.

Elsewhere, snow is expected to fly from upstate New York into New England.

Snowfall totals will range 3 to 6 inches from the Hudson Valley to New England and, locally, 8 inches is expected in the higher elevation in New York, Massachusetts and Vermont.

Two more storms are moving through the West Tuesday into Wednesday with copious amounts of rain and snow.

Already, up to 18 inches of snow fell in Arizona in the last 24 hours and, in Nevada, I-15 was shut down near the California border.

Snow even fell just outside of Los Angeles on I-5 in Grapevine and up to 3 inches accumulated.

The current storm in the West will move east in the next 24 hours and could bring a wintry mix to the southern Appalachians and parts of Carolinas and the southern Mid-Atlantic by Wednesday night.

Meanwhile, a new storm will hit the West Coast Tuesday night into Wednesday — the strongest of them all — with more than 7 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California and more than 8 inches of rain for coastal California.

Mudslides and flooding are a major threat for the state of California by Thursday.