Bill Karins, Meteorologist

On Feb 5th, Super Tuesday, millions of votes were casts and the clear winner was Mother Nature. She outshined all the candidates producing more than 100 tornadoes and taking dozens of lives in the Tennessee Valley. Now comes the most important primary since and once again the weather could steal the show with her snow, ice, rains and severe weather. The threat of tornadoes and wind damage exists for LA, MS and AL through Wednesday morning but will thankfully miss the election states of Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island.

The primary state with by far the worst forecast on Tuesday is Ohio. Northern Ohio will deal with an ice storm and Central and Southern Ohio will deal with flooding. The biggest problem for potential voters will be from Toledo to Cleveland. Temperatures will remain at or below freezing all day Tuesday. Sleet and freezing rain will make untreated roads especially hazardous. Some schools will possibly be closed and as we know a lot of polling places are in schools. There is also the chance that the power could go out at a few polling places which would be a huge issue for touch screens if the sites don’t have generators. Across Central and Southern Ohio the snowmelt combined with 2-4” of heavy rain will flood most small rivers and streams by Tuesday night. We will have to watch the big rivers for flooding on Wednesday.

Another messy election state on Tuesday will be Vermont. A mixture of rain, snow and ice is likely across the state beginning early on Tuesday and continuing during the day. Southern and Central Vermont will see up to a ¼ inch of ice. Northern Vermont will pick up a few inches of snow. Temperatures will be near 32 degrees so hopefully the roads will stay wet instead of icy.

In Rhode Island it will be warm enough for all rain. Wet weather will greet voters during the afternoon but the heaviest rain should hold off until Tuesday night.

Out of all the states Texas will see the best weather, but watch out in Dallas. A few snowflakes are likely overnight with up to an inch possible on the grassy surfaces. With temperatures near freezing at daybreak icy spots will have to be watched from Dallas up to the border of Oklahoma. Once the sun comes up the entire state of Texas will be sunny with highs in the 50s and 60s.

We’ll have to wait and see what the finally vote is at the end of Tuesday, but in a recent NBC Weather Plus poll Mother Nature is leading with 100 percent of the votes.