Meteorologists warned that millions in the east of the country will experience blizzard conditions, dangerous ice, freezing temperatures, and significant travel disruptions when a strong winter storm hit the central United States on Saturday.
The deadly storm is expected to send the eastern half of the United States into a deep freeze of Arctic air through Monday, affecting almost 60 million people.
The National Weather Service (NWS) has warned of ferocious weather, including gale-force winds in states from the central plains to the Mid-Atlantic.
Winter storm warnings have been issued from western Kansas clear across to the coastal states of Maryland, Delaware and Virginia, an unusually broad 1,500-mile (2,400-kilometer) swath under immediate threat.
“Disruptive winter storm to impact the Central Plains to the Mid-Atlantic through Monday with widespread heavy snow and damaging ice accumulations,” the NWS said in its latest report.
The first major storm of 2025 was already wreaking havoc on travel, with Kansas City International Airport announcing closure of its flight operations Saturday “due to rapid ice accumulation.”
Parts of the eastern states of New York and Pennsylvania are facing “heavy lake-effect snow” coming off the Great Lakes that could dump as much as two feet (61 centimeters) there, according to the NWS.
Forecast company AccuWeather said Saturday that the lake-effect snow total in the region, already blanketed in snow this week, could top four feet.
A blizzard will rage across the Central Plains by early Sunday, and “whiteout conditions will make travel extremely hazardous, with impassable roads and a high risk of motorists becoming stranded,” the NWS said.
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