US braces for ‘extremely dangerous’ winter storm

More than 160 million Americans are expected to face an unusually brutal winter storm starting Friday, with heavy snow and freezing rain expected.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said the storm is expected to sweep across much of the United States, creating “extremely hazardous” conditions as it moves eastward from the High Plains and Rockies.

It warned that the Arctic blast would bring sub-zero temperatures and wind chills, which “pose a life-threatening risk of hypothermia and frostbite to exposed skin”.

U.S. transportation officials, including airport authorities in several major cities, have warned of possible disruptions, delays and cancellations to weekend travel.

The winter storm is expected to slowly move across the United States, blanketing cities such as Memphis, Nashville, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York with snow.

Heavy snow is expected to move across the southern Rockies and Plains into the mid-Atlantic and into the Northeast.

More than a foot of snow is possible from Colorado to West Virginia to Boston, according to the National Weather Service’s Probabilistic Precipitation Portal.

The NWS predicts snowfall will begin early Sunday and continue into Monday in parts of northeastern New Jersey and southeastern New York state, including New York City. Wind chills as low as -10 degrees Fahrenheit (-23 degrees Celsius) are expected in the same area from Friday night into Saturday afternoon, the department said.

Much of southern New England, including Boston, is expected to see 12 to 17 inches of snow from Sunday into Monday, with wind gusts up to 30 mph, the NWS said. Wind chill temperatures could reach -15 degrees Fahrenheit (-26 degrees Celsius) Friday through Saturday.

Many low temperature records are likely to be broken, with the coldest wind chills in the northern Plains possibly dropping below -50 degrees Fahrenheit (-46 degrees Celsius), according to the National Weather Service.

The broader southeastern United States is also expected to experience freezing temperatures.

The governors of many U.S. states, including Arkansas, Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, and South Carolina, have declared a state of emergency, allowing emergency officials, including the National Guard, to begin mobilizing response efforts.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said at a press conference on Friday that the state had prepared more than 1,600 snowplows and 114,000 tons of salt for the storm, which she said would keep any corner of the state “safe from the wrath of nature.”

Hochul urged residents to work from home, stock up on groceries and essentials in advance and be careful when shoveling snow, which can increase the risk of heart attacks.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Friday that the city will deploy thousands of sanitation workers, 700 salt spreaders and 2,200 snowplows this weekend once snow reaches 2 inches. While subways and buses will operate this weekend, he urged New Yorkers to stay home if possible.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday that the state’s power grid would not fail “under no circumstances” as it did during a major storm in 2021 that killed hundreds of people in the state.

He said power outages were possible in some areas due to falling ice and snow, but stressed that this was different from a large-scale grid failure.

“Local power providers have never been more prepared for any winter storm,” Abbott said.

Amid concerns about flight cancellations, some airlines are offering passengers the option to change flights, in some cases at no additional cost.

National Weather Service meteorologists Rich Otto and Tony Fracasso told the BBC’s US news partner CBS that motorists should avoid driving over the weekend, with travel expected to be “nearly impossible during the peak of the storm.”

Meanwhile, severe cold weather in Canada has spread across the country, with snow expected to fall in eastern and Atlantic areas on Monday, meteorologist Geoff Coulson told CBC earlier this week.

Even as storms move across the U.S. this weekend, a strong arctic air mass originating from Canada will keep temperatures cold in the eastern United States into next week, according to the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center.

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