Washington (Platts)--9Feb2010/435 pm EST/2135 GMT

East Coast utilities and coal-hauling railroads will get their second dose of severe winter weather in five days as another major storm moves into the region Tuesday with snowfall expected to exceed a foot in many areas from central Virginia to Boston.

Forecasters say the storm currently moving across the Midwest could bring another 10 to 15 inches of snow to areas east of the Appalachian mountains.

Many cities and towns are still digging out from record snowfall over the weekend that exceeded three feet in some parts of Pennsylvania and Maryland.

Norfolk Southern issued its third service advisory since the first storm began Friday afternoon, warning customers of delays in excess of 24 hours. The railroad on Tuesday lifted a force majeure that suspended delivery deadlines for time-sensitive shipments beginning Saturday.

CSX, meanwhile, warned customers of delays of at least 24 to 48 hours in a bulletin issued Monday. The railroad said the new storm front would compound operations issues as had a derailment in the western Maryland town of Cumberland over the weekend.

"Trains are being held throughout the Northeast, including the Baltimore Division where only critical service is being provided due to the heavy accumulations of snow and unsafe conditions," the railroad wrote.

Officials from both companies said in recent days that while the snow has slowed deliveries, coal shipments were made to some mid-Atlantic utilities Monday. A Baltimore coal port owned by Consol Energy was expected to reopen Tuesday.

The latest storm already has dropped snow as far south as Texas and Mississippi up to South Dakota and Illinois. Parts of northeastern Minnesota got more than a foot, while the Twin Cities got eight inches. Snow was falling Tuesday morning in Ohio and western Virginia.

Federal forecasters say that snowfall in Appalachian coal fields is expected to be limited to about eight inches, far from the December totals that crippled the eastern coal producers late last year.

"They're not really getting the major brunt of this storm, the brunt of this storm is east of the Appalachians," said Brian Korty, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

What snow does fall is likely to stick around for some time. Current models show below-average temperatures for much of the northeast for at least two weeks.

"You're not going to see any significant melt for a couple weeks," Korty said. "This will be around for a long time."

--Peter Gartrell, peter_gartrell@platts.com