Huge winter storm barrels toward East Coast as snow and ice blanket large parts of US
Will Newton/Getty Images
- A huge winter storm has hit the US this weekend, bringing heavy snow and ice to millions.
- The storm is expected to spread more than 2,000 miles from New Mexico to Maine.
- Here's where the storm is set to hit hardest.
A massive winter storm is battering the US this weekend, bringing heavy snow, sleet, and freezing rain to millions of Americans.
The storm, which is set to stretch over 2,000 miles from New Mexico to Maine, hit the south-central US on Friday night and has since been making its way eastward.
The National Weather Service (NWS) warned it would move into the Mid-Atlantic states on Saturday night before pushing into the Northeast late on Sunday, leading to "considerable impacts" to much of the eastern half of the US.
Here's where the storm is set to hit hardest.
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Heavy snow is continuing to fall across large parts of the US on Sunday morning, but it is expected to concentrate in eastern regions by the evening.
The NWS has predicted that more than 12 inches could fall from the Ohio Valley through the northern mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Sunday, with almost double that possible in parts of New England and the inner Northeast.
The agency said power outages, tree damage, and dangerous travel conditions are also likely across parts of the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic as a result of freezing rains and lingering icing.
Major cities in the weather system's projected path include Atlanta, Charlotte, Richmond, Washington, DC, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she had "authorized all state employees to work remotely on Monday" in an effort to reduce travel.
"I encourage other employers to do the same, just to keep people off the roads and think about this," she said.
Some of the worst hit states so far include Arkansas, where some areas recorded around seven inches of snowfall through Friday night into Saturday.
The NWS said the state had so far experienced "wave one" of the storm, with a second wave due to hit overnight into Sunday.
Oklahoma, which saw several inches of snow on Friday night, was also bracing for a second round of snow into Sunday.
Speaking to Fox News on Saturday, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt said the state could deal with the snow and that he was more concerned with power outages.
More than 430,000 customers from New Mexico to Kentucky are without power as of Sunday morning, according to PowerOutage.us.
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Moving forward, the NWS said heavy snowfall is likely to lead to "widespread travel disruptions and closures" that could last a number of days.
Travel has already been hit hard this weekend, with airlines canceling thousands of flights across Saturday and Sunday.
Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina and Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International are the worst affected airports on Sunday, per flight-tracking site FlightAware.
Many airlines are waiving rebooking fees for flights to and from affected regions.