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Millions in the U.S. are expected to be affected by what is shaping up to be the worst storm ahead of the Christmas holiday in decades.
Many across the country are under winter storm watches, advisories and warnings, as well as wind chill alerts. The large weather system is expected to bring potentially life-threatening cold and strong winds, with a high likelihood of travel chaos and possible outages.
What to know
- A strong arctic cold front is set to begin moving south into the central Plains on Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.
- A developing low-pressure system is forecast to strengthen by Thursday night over eastern Michigan, deepening record cold temperatures for the Gulf Coast and the Eastern U.S. by Friday.
- The severe weather is expected to cause travel chaos and power outages across the U.S.
Wisconsin, Missouri and Illinois to face winter blast Thursday
Green Bay, Wisconsin; St. Louis; and Chicago could be among the major cities most affected Thursday by a freezing winter storm that is blanketing large parts of the country, according to forecasters.
Memphis, Tennessee, and Little Rock, Arkansas, could get rain and snow Thursday afternoon and evening, and Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York City could get heavy rain, according to NBC News’ Climate Unit.
Freezing temperatures have already been felt farther west. Snow began falling in Minnesota on Wednesday. From 6 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, there were more than 200 vehicle crashes and 189 spinouts, the State Patrol said. There were no deaths.
More than 59 million people, including most of Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota east to parts of Ohio, were under winter storm warnings Wednesday night, according to the National Weather Service.
Another 7 million were under blizzard warnings, and wind chill warnings covered 57 million people, as far west as Washington state and including Texas and Tennessee, according to the agency. A low of 11 degrees was forecast for Fort Worth, Texas, on Thursday. The wind chill will make it feel worse.
Airlines have pledged to waive change fees or to take other steps to help passengers in anticipation of travel disruptions.
More than 100 cars are stuck in South Dakota, authorities say
Authorities in South Dakota were helping more than 100 drivers who were stranded when an arctic front blasted the region with subzero temperatures and blizzard-like conditions, officials said.
The Pennington County Sheriff’s Office said the motorists were stuck between Rapid City and Wall. It told drivers to stay in their vehicles and call 911.
The South Dakota Highway Patrol and Pennington County Emergency Management were assisting in the effort, the sheriff’s office said.
Earlier, authorities closed Interstate 90, which connects the two cities, citing deteriorating conditions.
The National Weather Service’s office in Rapid City said a record low of minus 18 degrees was set Wednesday, beating out a previous record of minus 17, recorded in 1924. With the wind chill, the agency said, there were widespread temperatures in the region of minus 40 to minus 60.
With arctic storm blast approaching, migrants in Texas are sleeping on the streets
EL PASO, Texas — The nation began readying for an arctic storm that could send temperatures around the country plunging, but on the southern border many migrants said they didn’t know they were in for colder, nastier weather.
Grisleida, who migrated from Venezuela and declined to give her last name, waited on the sidewalk with her young children, ages 8 and 6, near the Greyhound station. She crossed the border Monday with her husband, but he has been deported to Mexico.
She has been sleeping at a shelter where she tries to arrive early each evening to get a spot inside. She has no money or cellphone or any other way of communicating with her husband.
El Paso’s forecast calls for temperatures to drop to the low 20s Thursday.
“I didn’t know about the cold,” she said when she was asked her plans for the approaching colder weather. She and her children wore light winter clothes.
Weather expected to delay bus, rail customers
Bus and train passengers were also preparing for cancellations and delays due to the winter storm.
As of late Wednesday, Amtrak had canceled train service on around 30 routes, some through Sunday.
Greyhound canceled bus service on 25 routes for Wednesday and Thursday, including service from Las Vegas to Denver, Denver to St. Louis and Chicago to Minneapolis and Memphis and Nashville in Tennessee.
Southwestern Missouri to see wind chills not felt since 1989
The wind chill in the area of Springfield, Missouri, is expected to be down to minus-35 degrees in this winter storm, which hasn’t happened in more than 30 years, a National Weather Service official said.
The dangerous and life-threatening wind chills are expected starting Thursday night and Friday morning, but conditions will deteriorate Thursday, Shelby Melto, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Springfield, said in a video Wednesday.
Wind chills that low were last recorded at Springfield’s airport in 1989, she said.
While snow is forecast to be 5 inches or less, blowing snow and reduced visibility will lead to “near-blizzard conditions,” Melto said.
Hundreds of flights in Denver and Chicago are canceled
More than 220 flights out of Chicago’s two airports and 130 from Denver scheduled for Thursday have been canceled as much of the country was suffering or preparing for a major winter storm.
Denver was in the throes of an arctic blast Wednesday evening, with temperatures dropping more than 30 degrees in one hour.
There were 130 flights out of Denver International Airport scheduled for Thursday that had been canceled as of Wednesday night, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware.
In Chicago, 159 flights scheduled to depart O’Hare International Airport and 66 scheduled for Midway Airport on Thursday had been canceled, according to the website.
There were also 317 delays and 68 cancellations in Denver on Wednesday, according to FlightAware. The arctic front is forecast to hit the Chicago area Thursday, the National Weather Service said.
There were also 192 flights scheduled to arrive at O'Hare on Thursday that had been canceled as of Wednesday night, as well as 88 scheduled to arrive at Midway and 125 scheduled to arrive at Denver, according to FlightAware.
Temperatures in Denver drop 37 degrees in one hour
The mercury in Denver dropped from 42 degrees to just 5 degrees in around an hour Wednesday as an artic front moved in, officials said.
The temperature dropped 37 degrees at Denver International Airport from around 3:53 p.m. to 4:54 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.
The weather service had warned in a tweet: “Brace yourselves Denver, here comes the front!” and it said a drop of more than 30 degrees in one hour was possible.
“It is because of the arctic front,” said Victoria Chavez, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Boulder. “It’s not an everyday occurrence — that would be awful.”
200-mile stretch of South Dakota interstate to close because of blizzard
More than 200 miles of Interstate 90 in South Dakota will close Wednesday because of snow, high winds and “blizzard-like conditions,” the state Transportation Department said.
The interstate, which runs east and west, will be closed in both directions from Chamberlain to Rapid City starting Wednesday at 7 p.m. CT, the agency said. An expected reopening date was not given.
Other roads are also closed. “Many secondary highways are currently listed as impassable due to high winds, drifting and blowing snow, and low visibility associated with this winter storm system,” the department said in a news release.
Wind chill warnings covered all of South Dakota — including many other states — and blizzard warnings covered a large part of the state, including near Rapid City, on Wednesday afternoon.
Upstate N.Y. to get ‘once-in-a-generation storm’
Upstate New York and the Buffalo region could get a “once-in-a-generation storm” with wind gusts over 60 mph Thursday and Friday, the National Weather Service said.
The first round of wind will hit east of Lake Ontario, where Watertown and Fort Drum are located, overnight Thursday into Friday morning, the weather agency said. The second will affect the Buffalo area and Niagara Falls on Friday and Saturday.
“Winds could gust over 65 mph, leading to at LEAST scattered power outages, if not widespread outages,” the weather service tweeted.
It was only last month that areas south of Buffalo got around 6 feet of snow in a lake-effect storm.
In this storm, temperatures will plummet, resulting in a flash freeze Friday and snow in the Buffalo area, forecasters said.
