Wind chills of as low as minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit in Montana and the western Dakotas. Whiteout conditions near the Great Lakes, with as much as 2 feet of snow falling in parts of New York state. Possible snow squalls in the Northeast and the upper Mid-Atlantic.
These are just some of the forecasts from the National Weather Service as dangerous winter storm conditions pounding the United States from coast to coast are expected to persist through the holiday weekend. Snow, sleet, rain and dangerous wind chills are expected to batter the West Coast, the Plains, parts of the Northeast and extend into sections of the South.
An “Arctic blast” will bring dangerously low wind chill temperatures in large parts of country, particularly through the Rocky Mountain region, the Dakotas, Montana and south through the Mississippi Valley.
“These wind chills will pose a risk of frostbite on exposed skin and hypothermia,” the Weather Service said. “Have a cold survival kit if you must travel.”
At the same time in the Northeast and upper Mid-Atlantic region, snow squalls and whiteout conditions are also possible, forecasters said.
Lake-effect snow is also a threat this weekend in the Great Lakes region, with the potential for whiteout in Wisconsin, Michigan, western and northern New York State.
Blizzard conditions were already in effect on Saturday around the Buffalo region, where up to 2 feet of snow was predicted to fall throughout the weekend. Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York warned residents on Friday to take shelter ahead of this weekend’s storm and to prepare for blackouts. More than 11,000 customers in New York State had already lost power as of Saturday evening, according to PowerOutage.us.
As a result of the bad weather, the NFL’s wild card weekend game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y., was moved from Sunday at 1 p.m. to Monday Monday at 4:30 p.m.
Around New York and northeastern Pennsylvania, the Weather Service forecast snow and localized wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour. Frigid temperatures also have the potential to freeze roads and cause whiteout conditions, making travel difficult.
Snow and freezing rain is expected from the West Coast to the Rocky Mountains. The heavy snow and ice have the makings for “poor to impossible” travel conditions in Oregon, Idaho, Nevada and Utah.
The National Weather Service warned that poor weather conditions and heavy snowfall created a “high avalanche danger in portions of the Sierra Nevada and Rockies.”
Such warnings in the West come on the heels of an avalanche that killed one person at a popular ski resort in Lake Tahoe, Calif., on Wednesday. The greater Lake Tahoe area was already under a winter storm warning.
Travel advisories have been in effect for most of the United States as conditions worsen.
Moving east from the Northern Rockies to northern Kansas and Iowa, wind chills will drop below negative 30 degrees, forecasters said, adding that dangerously cold weather “will persist and re-develop” over parts of the Midwest. As a result that region will again experience near-record low temperatures and subfreezing temperatures will be possible in the Deep South in the following days.
But parts of the South will see cold weather this weekend as “wintry precipitation,” including snow, sleet, and freezing rain, are forecast to develop across several states. Ice is also expected for parts of central Texas through the lower Mississippi Valley.
Texas will likely wake up on Sunday to below freezing temperatures, which are predicted to last until midday Wednesday. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, known as ERCOT, issued a weather watch though it stated on social media that the state’s electrical “grid conditions are expected to be normal.”