Dangerous winter conditions gripped much of the central United States on Sunday as a severe storm system tracked east, causing travel and work disruptions from Kansas City to Washington.
A dozen states from Kansas to New Jersey were under winter storm warnings as of Sunday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service (NWS), while parts of the southern United States faced possible threats. tornadoes and cold weather.
Nationwide, more than 60 million people were under some sort of weather alert, according to CNN, while air traffic monitoring site FlightAware recorded nearly 2,200 flight cancellations and more than 25,000 delays.
Gusty winds from the storm system, the first of the year, brought blizzard conditions to Kansas and Missouri, while states farther east were covered in several inches of snow.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear implored residents to “stay home” after reports that several vehicle crashes had closed a major highway.
The NWS also warned that accumulations of up to half an inch of ice in some areas — as well as widespread tree damage from powerful wind gusts — could lead to “extended power outages.”
A mix of freezing rain, sleet and snow began hitting Kansas early Sunday morning. Storm chaser Brian Emfinger told X that the roads around Kansas City were “an ice rink.”
Video posted by the Weather Channel showed cars skidding on ice-covered highways and tractor-trailers jackknifing in Kansas, where some areas expected more than a foot of snow.
“Areas of heavy snow will spread eastward across the Ohio Valley and central Appalachians this evening, reaching the northern Mid-Atlantic by Monday morning,” the NWS said in an update.
Areas around Washington could see up to 10 inches of rain overnight Sunday into Monday, making “unsafe travel and closures likely,” the Washington Post reported.
That could complicate the task of U.S. lawmakers, who under a constitutional mandate must meet at the Capitol on Jan. 6 to certify the winner of last year’s presidential election.
“Whether we’re in a snowstorm or not,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Fox News on Sunday, “we can’t delay this certification…I hope we have full participation.” .
A joint session is scheduled to meet on Monday at 1:00 p.m. (18:00 GMT).
A freezing cold
With the jet stream plunging south, temperatures are expected to drop, in some places to minus 18 degrees Celsius, while strong wind gusts add to the dangers.
The mercury could drop several dozen degrees below seasonal norms as far as the US Gulf Coast. Until then, severe thunderstorms are expected in the lower Mississippi Valley, the NWS predicts.
Another major concern is freezing rain and sleet. A thick layer of ice could make travel dangerous, bringing down trees and toppling power lines.
The NWS predicted more than an inch of freezing rain over parts of the Middle Mississippi and Ohio Valley region, and warned that “long-lasting power outages” could leave millions of customers without electricity, from Kansas to the central Appalachians.
Conditions could prove particularly perilous in Appalachia, where a deadly hurricane in late September devastated communities and ravaged several southeastern states, including Kentucky.
The new storm “will likely cause significant disruptions and dangerous conditions on our roadways and could cause significant power outages just about 24 hours before it gets really cold in Kentucky,” Gov. Andy Beshear said during of an emergency meeting.
Governors in Kentucky, Missouri and Virginia declared states of emergency in their states and took to social media to warn residents to stay home.