Weather forecast for New York, California, other parts of U.S. out. Check latest update

The U.S. will be free from major storms and dry in most places on Thursday. In the wake of a storm in the Northeast, colder air moving in will lead to some snow showers from West Virginia to western and northern New York state. Since much of the Great Lakes are frozen over, lake-effect will be minimal. Still, there will be some pockets where a few inches of snow will fall with slippery travel. The air coming in will pale in comparison to the arctic waves that were persistent during the second half of January and the first 10 days or so of February.

Farther west, a storm will emerge over the High Plains of Colorado and New Mexico. This storm brought some drenching rain and mountain snow to California from Tuesday to Wednesday. Enough moisture will linger to cause areas of low elevation rain and mountain snow Colorado and Wyoming to Northern California. As the storm moves along over the south-central and southeastern region of the nation from Friday to the weekend, it will produce areas of drenching rain and severe thunderstorms. Northward progress of the storm into the Northeast later this weekend to early next week is still in question. There is the possibility of some snow, ice and rain in the coastal Northeast.

The same storm that will bring widespread rain to the South this weekend will also produce severe thunderstorms across portions of the Gulf Coast states. The primary risk from the most intense thunderstorms will be damaging winds and even a tornado.


It looked like a time warp on the frozen Navesink River in New Jersey: Six hulking wooden iceboats, more than a century old, had gathered to race.

Two-man crews bundled like Arctic explorers stood by boats weighing half a ton, poised to push their vessels across the starting line.

And with a blast from a miniature cannon, the Van Nostrand Challenge Cup was on.

Some boats reared up perilously on two blades. Some stalled completely. But after decades of waiting, a grudge match dating to the late 1800s would be settled by antique wooden sailboats on steel blades racing along a frozen river in Red Bank, New Jersey.