Another winter storm threatens fresh travel headaches for areas already hit hard over the holiday weekend

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By CNN Meteorologist Briana Waxman

(CNN) — Winter hasn’t even officially started, yet the vibe is already approaching full late-February fatigue. A new storm is barreling out of the Plains toward the Northeast, threatening more travel disruptions after a post-Thanksgiving blast dropped record November snow in Chicago, shut down highways across several states and triggered thousands of flight cancellations.

A fresh round of snow and ice Monday will hit many of the same regions, then rolls into Tuesday with snow in the interior Northeast, heavy coastal rain and an icy stripe through the Ohio Valley.

For those hoping to dodge travel trouble by heading home this week, Mother Nature may have the last laugh. This fast-moving, but high-impact system arrives uncomfortably soon after one of the most disruptive post-Thanksgiving travel weekends in years.

The new storm began building over the West this weekend, where a strong low pressure system has been funneling Pacific moisture into the Northwest, Great Basin and Rockies. Higher elevations picked up fresh snow, and pockets of lighter snow swept through lower valleys.

On Monday, this spinning energy will team up with Gulf moisture, sparking showers and thunderstorms across Texas and the Deep South while the northern edge of the storm taps into much colder air. Snow and a wintry mix will spread from the Central Plains to the Mississippi Valley, lower Midwest and Great Lakes through Monday evening.

Any lingering lake-effect snow left behind by the holiday weekend storm will keep parts of the Great Lakes in steady snow for much of the day. Des Moines, St. Louis and Chicago are just a few of the places forecast to pick up a few inches of additional snow Monday. Shovels will have to stay on active duty a bit longer.

Rain, snow and ice move east

The storm will intensify as it tracks east. By Monday night into Tuesday, widespread rain will move into the Mid-Atlantic, Southeast and Gulf Coast regions. Flash flooding is possible across the South. The colder northwest side of the system will pull snow back into the Appalachians and interior Northeast.

Just south of the heavy snow, warmer air sliding over cold ground could create pockets of freezing rain along the Central and Southern Appalachians. Even a thin glaze of ice in higher elevations of Virginia and North Carolina would be enough to trigger travel problems or scattered power outages.

Forecast confidence drops a bit closer to the I-95 corridor. New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, DC, could see snow at the start Tuesday, but the exact track of the low pressure center will determine whether flakes stick or quickly turn to rain. The boundary between those two outcomes is razor-thin and depends on how quickly the coastal low deepens offshore.

The cold digs in for an extended stay

December marks the start of meteorological winter — which runs through February — and it will certainly feel like it well into the first week of the season. Many spots in the central and northern US will stay stuck in the teens and 20s Monday, causing new snow and ice to pile on top of what has already fallen. Gusty winds will make it feel even colder.

Once the snow and ice exit, the cold digs in even deeper. A fresh surge of Arctic air will spill across the central and eastern US late week, dropping temperatures to their lowest levels of the season so far. Some areas could flirt with daily record lows Thursday and Friday, especially across the Plains, Midwest and interior Northeast.

The upcoming Arctic blast could be a preview of more cold to come deeper into December from a disruption of the polar vortex.

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