Winter storm hits eastern US; More than 60 million are experiencing blizzard conditions | Weather News

At least 62 million people are in the path of the storm as states of emergency have been declared in several US states.

A severe winter storm has hit the United States, with forecasters warning that more than 60 million people in the eastern part of the country are facing blizzard conditions and some areas will receive the heaviest snowfall in a decade.

The National Weather Service (NWS) has warned of ice, snow and strong winds for states from the central plains to the mid-Atlantic on Sunday.

States of emergency have been declared in Kentucky, Missouri and Virginia.

More than 60 million people are in the path of a dangerous storm that will plunge the eastern half of the United States into a deep freeze of Arctic air through Monday, severely disrupting travel.

A winter storm warning has been issued from western Kansas to the coastal states of Maryland, Delaware and Virginia, with an unusually large 2,400 km (1,500 mi) area under immediate threat.

“A devastating winter storm will affect the Central Plains into the Mid-Atlantic beginning Monday with widespread heavy snow and damaging ice accumulations,” the NWS said in its latest report.

The agency warned that areas from northeast Kansas to north-central Missouri would see the “heaviest snow in a decade.”

Scientists say extreme weather events are becoming more common and more severe as a result of man-made climate change.

Flights were canceled

The first major storm of 2025 was already disrupting travel, with Kansas City International Airport announcing on Saturday that it was shutting down flight operations “due to rapid ice accumulation.”

Flight operations later resumed after the airport’s runways and taxiways were treated, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said in a statement on social media.

Temperatures are expected to drop below Fahrenheit (-18 Celsius) in some places, while the US capital, Washington, is expected to receive five inches or more of snow.

Another major concern is freezing rain and sleet expected from Kansas eastward into Kentucky and Virginia, setting the stage for thick ice to cover roads, make travel dangerous, down trees and power lines and leave millions of customers without power during the cold weather. .

Conditions could be particularly dangerous in the Appalachians, where a deadly storm devastated communities and devastated many southeastern states, including Kentucky, in late September.

Many of those communities are still recovering from the effects of that hurricane.

Gov. Andy Beshear said in an emergency meeting that the new storm “will cause significant damage and dangerous conditions on our roads and could cause significant power outages just 24 hours before the weather really gets cold in Kentucky.”