Parts of the Midwest, Great Lakes, and Northeast are expecting winter storm impacts to begin as soon as Tuesday night.

The battering weather that brought hard rain, thunder and lightning to the Bay Area and near white-out conditions and an avalanche in the Sierra Nevada ceased by early Wednesday, but a third successive storm system was on its heels and set to bring more widespread rain later Wednesday night and into Thursday.

A lightning strike sparked a fire that burned hundreds of palm trees at a nursery in unincorporated Escondido. Early reports estimated about 100 trees caught fire, but a battalion chief at the scene later told NBC 7 about 1,000 trees were damaged.

The storm had already dropped 9.4 inches by Sunday morning, with “plenty more on the way,” the lab said in an earlier update. Forecasters noted moderate snowfall rates and unusually high snow-to-liquid ratios — roughly 12:1 at the time — meaning lighter, fluffier snow piling up quickly.

Strong winds combined with the wet weather could create dangerous conditions for outdoor recreation, according to the NWS.

At 12:03 p.m. on Tuesday, the National Weather Service released an updated winter storm warning in effect until Thursday at 10 a.m. for Jackson County.

A fast-moving winter storm will push into the region starting Wednesday morning, bringing snow, sleet, and spotty freezing rain to portions of New England.

A weekend storm system sweeping across the Southeast brought tornado warnings to Mississippi and Louisiana, and then took aim at parts of Georgia and Florida, as people in the Northeast were finally