It might be time to double-check your emergency kit. A major winter storm is on the move, and it looks like it’s going to cause headaches from the Southern Plains all the way to New England.
Forecasters are watching a huge system that stretches nearly 2,000 miles. It is expected to drop heavy snow and ice on a long list of states, impacting over 200 million people. If you have travel plans this weekend, you might want to rethink them.
The system starts its journey Friday, dumping snow on parts of Colorado, New Mexico, and the Texas panhandle. From there, it pushes east.
By Saturday, the snow spreads into the Midwest. Cities like St. Louis, Indianapolis, and Cincinnati will likely see conditions go downhill fast. The storm then aims for the East Coast Saturday night into Sunday, targeting a massive corridor that includes Washington D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston.
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Evan Myers, a Senior Vice President at AccuWeather, warned that a storm combining this much snow and cold over such a huge area is rare. He noted that it could “stall daily life for days” in the hardest-hit regions.
For many, this will be more than just a dusting. A large chunk of the country is forecast to see a solid 6 to 12 inches.
The “bullseye” seems to be the zone around central Maryland, southern Pennsylvania, and parts of West Virginia. In these areas, snowfall could reach 12 to 18 inches, with some isolated spots getting buried under nearly 2 and a half feet of snow.
There is a catch, though. Warmer air pushing into the Tennessee Valley and parts of the East Coast could mix in sleet or freezing rain. While that keeps the snow totals down, it makes the roads significantly more dangerous and can weigh down power lines.
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Getting around is going to be tough. Road conditions are expected to deteriorate almost immediately once the precipitation starts. In the peak of the storm, snow could fall at a rate of 1 to 2 inches per hour—too fast for plows to keep up with.
Airports won’t fare much better. With major hubs in Dallas, Chicago, and the Northeast in the storm’s path, thousands of flight cancellations are expected. Even if your local airport is clear, displaced planes and crews from other cities could leave you stranded.
As if the snow wasn’t enough, dangerous cold is trailing right behind the storm.
Once the system moves out, Arctic air will rush in, dropping temperatures into the single digits or even below zero in some spots. This deep freeze makes cleanup harder because road salt doesn’t work well in extreme cold, meaning icy patches could stick around well into next week.
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