(Washington) A dangerous winter storm hit the central United States on Sunday, where millions of people are threatened by blizzard conditions.
More than 60 million people are in the path of the storm, which will sweep the central to eastern United States with arctic air through Monday and cause severe travel disruptions.
The National Weather Service (NWS) has warned of the risk of ice, snow and strong winds from western Kansas to the coastal states of Maryland, Delaware and Virginia, over a strip of territory 2,400 kilometers wide.
The NWS specifies in its latest bulletin to expect “destructive frost and freezing rain”.
PHOTO TRAVIS HEYING, ASSOCIATED PRESS
A group of cyclists make their way through downtown Wichita, Kansas, during a severe winter storm on January 5, 2025.
The agency warned that some areas would experience their “heaviest snowfall in 10 years.”
Scientists say extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and more severe due to human-caused climate change.
The first major storm of 2025 has already caused the temporary closure of Kansas City International Airport on Saturday, “due to rapid ice accumulation.”
Flights then resumed after runway thawing operations, said Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas.
American Airlines issued an alert to its customers for 45 airports across the country affected by the storm.
Some locations in the eastern states of New York and Pennsylvania will face heavy snow from the Great Lakes, which could total 61 centimeters, according to the NWS.
PHOTO CARA ANNA, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
On January 4, 2025, winter weather intensified in Lowville, New York.
A blizzard is expected across the Central Plains early Sunday, making travel “extremely dangerous, with impassable roads and a high risk for motorists of becoming stranded,” the NWS predicts.
The United States capital, Washington, could be covered in a snowpack of 12 centimeters or more, with up to 25 cm in surrounding areas.
Temperatures are expected to plunge in some places to -18°C, with strong winds making the situation worse.
PHOTO JEFF ROBERSON, ASSOCIATED PRESS
A group of people run in St. Louis, Missouri on January 5, 2025.
The possibility of freezing rain also worries authorities, due to its potential impact on roads and the power grid. A large power outage would have devastating effects for residents who would be without heat in the middle of a winter storm.
The Appalachian massif, already hit by a cataclysmic hurricane at the end of September, is particularly at risk.
Severe thunderstorms are also expected in the Lower Mississippi Valley.
Will Canada be affected by this storm?
After crossing the United States, from the center of the country to the east, the system should reach the Atlantic Ocean without going up towards Canada, according to Nicholas Elder, meteorologist at Environment Canada.
“According to our projections, the system will pass south of Canada. So it’s not going to affect us,” he says in an interview with The Presssaying he was “fairly confident” about this prediction. “I would be really surprised (otherwise),” he adds.
Chloe Bourquin, The Press
