More than 219 million people were under winter weather alerts Saturday as more than 1 foot of snow fell in parts of the mountainous Southeast and as Floridians braced for bitter cold.
The National Weather Service characterized the storm as "an explosively deepening coastal cyclone" and said it will intensify overnight with possible blizzard conditions, moderate to heavy snow and high winds for the Carolinas.
The winter weather alerts include cold weather advisories, which warn of dangerously low temperatures, for more than 98 million people, as well as extreme cold warnings, which advise that hypothermia and frostbite are possible for anyone outdoors, that cover more than 55 million. Those two alerts cover populations from the Gulf Coast to New England.
Dozens of record lows will be possible Saturday night across the Southeast, including in Florida cities such as Daytona Beach, Gainesville, Jacksonville, Miami and Orlando; in Augusta and Savannah, Georgia; in Charleston, South Carolina; in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Miami could see its coldest temperatures in over a decade with an overnight low of around 35 degrees. This will be a damaging freeze for Florida, with wind chills hovering in the single digits across northern parts of the state and in the teens across central Florida.
As of Saturday afternoon, more than 1 foot of snow had fallen in parts of North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, and 7.5 inches had fallen in Tiger, Georgia.
Faust, North Carolina, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, reported 14.5 inches in 24 hours, according to National Weather Service data. In other parts of North Carolina, including the southern Appalachians and the western reaches of the state, 4 to 8 inches of snow had been recorded, the weather service said. Along the state's Crystal Coast, 3 to 6 inches were measured.
Los Angeles resident Kate Tews became stranded Saturday due to weather-related flight cancelations after having traveled to the North Carolina coast near Wilmington for a one-day business trip on Friday.
"I feel a little spoiled because it's very beautiful here," she said in an interview. "I can see the ocean from my room, so it's kind of a nice problem to have."
Roughly 90 miles northeast, in Newport, the weather service recorded 11.4 inches of snowfall Saturday night.
The area was under a winter storm warning through late Sunday afternoon, according to the weather service.
Snowfall was expected to continue in parts of the Carolinas, Tennessee and Georgia through Sunday morning. The low-pressure system producing that powder will also be a snowmaker as far north as Cape Cod as it moves north and east offshore.
Highs on Sunday are expected to dip as low as 25 degrees below average in some locations in the eastern third of the country.
This weekend's snowfall comes a week after a massive snowstorm killed more than 100 people across the U.S., including 21 people in Tennessee and 17 in Mississippi.
There is a dry patch over central parts of North Carolina, which may lower the accumulation in Raleigh, but eastern parts of the state are still expected to see at least 6 to 12 inches of snow by Sunday morning.
The combination of strong, gusty winds near the coast will create near blizzard conditions, which will greatly reduce visibility and cause dangerous conditions late Saturday and overnight. The strong winds will also raise the risk of coastal flooding, with 2 to 4 feet of inundation possible for the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
Parts of North Carolina, including highways, were covered in a fresh white blanket of snow Saturday morning. A semi-truck was stuck in the snow on Interstate 40 near Iredell County along the state's border with Tennessee, according to a video from the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Snow began falling in Jacksonville near the North Carolina coast Saturday afternoon.
“For the safety of our crews, first responders and yourself, please avoid unnecessary travel today," the department asked residents.
The North Carolina State Highway Patrol reported 750 collisions on Saturday.
Northbound Interstate 85 in Kannapolis was shuttered for hours after more than 100 vehicles were stranded, with tractor-trailers unable to achieve traction and momentum on the icy roadway, NBC affiliates WCNC of Charlotte and WXII of Winston-Salem reported.
National Guard troops were summoned to help clear the roadway using six trucks, WCNC reported. In a post on X after 9 p.m., the highway patrol reported northbound lanes had reopened.
In Gaston County, a train slammed into a semi-truck on Saturday morning, according to the Gastonia Police Department. No one was injured in the crash, police said.
A curfew is scheduled to go into effect for coastal Onslow County on Saturday at 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. daily until further notice due to the winter storm.
Heavy snowfall rates of 1 inch per hour were forecast for Piedmont, South Carolina, on Saturday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center.
More than 164,00 utility customers were without power in the Southeast on Saturday night, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us. In Mississippi, more than 58,000 were in the dark.
The storm is expected to intensify and expand Sunday as it heads out to sea, affecting Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. As the low moves offshore mid-morning, snow will come to an end for all except eastern Massachusetts.
A quick burst of snow will continue through Sunday afternoon before coming to an end in the evening. Even after the snow tapers off, the weekend will remain breezy and cold across the mid-Atlantic and Northeast, with wind gusts of 30 to over 60 mph possible.
For the rest of the Northeast, Sunday will be dry, blustery and very cold.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani warned constituents that the coastal front affecting the Southeast would bring more cold air to the region.
"This is one of the longest, most sustained cold stretches our city has endured in years, and it is showing no signs of abating," he said at a news conference Saturday.
As he announced a 14th death resulting from extreme cold since the previous weekend, Mamdani said the city remained under Code Blue status, which strives to provide anyone who asks with shelter.
"I can tell you that our administration is going to exhaust every possibility in front of us to ensure that people are warm and that work will continue through this cold front," the mayor said.
The mayor’s office said the city was expanding availability of single-room-occupancy style shelter units in Upper Manhattan on Sunday for those reluctant to share rooms or use more impersonal shelter.
Arctic blast and record cold
More than 186 million people were under cold weather advisories, extreme cold warnings and freeze warnings on Saturday evening, according to the weather service. Those alerts stretch from Texas to Massachusetts.
The cold air has a grip on the eastern half of the nation, with temperatures 10 to 30 degrees below average, especially from the southern Plains to the East Coast. Highs on Saturday across the Midwest, Ohio Valley and Northeast will remain below freezing, with temperatures struggling to climb out of the teens and 20s.
The freezing temperatures will also affect much of Mississippi, Louisiana and northern Georgia, with the next push of frigid air on Sunday sending temperatures tumbling down in Miami.
Federal forecasters said arctic air would continue to plunge south in the wake of Saturday's storm, and an Alberta clipper — a low-pressure system in the western half of Canada — would also dip south and rapidly move east, bringing precipitation to the Great Lakes.
Along the East Coast, the air will warm slightly on Monday, but temperatures will remain below average through most of next week.
