AccuWeather

An area stretching from Texas to Tennessee braced Wednesday for the expected arrival of freezing rain and snow, as some other parts of the country that already received an arctic blast this week prepared to go another round with the plunging polar vortex.Weather forecasting service AccuWeather said the winter storm, forecast to bring snow and ice to more than 20 states, will cause major travel impacts and disruptions that will be felt across the country this week.Meanwhile, millions of Floridians are feeling the big chill this week after multiple cold fronts prompted freeze warnings, weather advisories, wind chills advisories and more across many parts of the Sunshine state.

Risk of flooding, hail and isolated tornadoes will extend from Texas to Florida and the Carolinas through the weekend.

A disturbance in the Caribbean has been designated as Invest 97 by the National Hurricane Center Sunday evening with increasing probabilities of it forming into a stronger tropical system in the coming days and week.

WGCU's Tom Bayles predicts hurricane season will heat up and, if so, he believes a Category 2 or 3 hurricane may be in Southwest Florida's near future. He hopes he's wrong.

AccuWeather lowered storm total expectation but neither Colorado State nor the National Weather Service did, even after five weeks of only minor rumblings in the Atlantic hurricane season which typically peaks in less than two weeks

Commercial weather forecasting company Accuweather on Wednesday repeated earlier forecasts about the intensity of the coming hurricane season. The company said a turbulent year in the tropics is expected, possibly approaching a record-setting pace that could run through the entire list of names for tropical storms and hurricanes -- and beyond.

AccuWeather hurricane experts warn that all the ingredients are coming together for explosive tropical development in the Atlantic this year — especially in the second half of season.But, there is still a lot of time before the start of the season and weather is a notoriously fickle thing at times.

Disturbed weather developing in the Gulf of Mexico had meteorologists wondering if it would become the first tropical system there in April, one that might ease Southwest Florida's drought