What to know as snow, freezing rain and bitter cold heads through much of the US

According to the National Weather Service, a major winter storm with heavy snow, significant ice and frigid temperatures is expected to hit the central U.S. on Saturday and move east over the next few days.

Here’s what you need to know about the storm that is expected to affect millions of people in the eastern two-thirds of the country:

A large system made landfall along the West Coast Friday afternoon, bringing rain to the Pacific Northwest and snow expected in the Cascade Mountains, according to meteorologists.

The system will be responsible for developing a major winter storm from the Central Plains into the Mid-Atlantic this weekend and into early next week.

Widespread heavy snow is likely Saturday evening in areas between central Kansas and Indiana, especially along and north of Interstate 70, where at least 8 inches of snow is likely to fall.

For places in the region that typically see the highest snow amounts, it could be the heaviest snowfall in at least a decade, meteorologists said.

The storm will then move into the Ohio Valley, where severe travel disruptions are expected. It will reach the Mid-Atlantic states from Sunday to Monday.

Wind gusts higher than 35 mph and heavy snow could lead to snowstorms Sunday morning, especially in Kansas and nearby parts of the Central Plains.

Whiteout conditions can make driving dangerous to impossible and increase the risk of stranding.

Dangerous sleet and freezing rain, especially damaging to power lines, are also expected to begin Saturday from eastern Kansas to Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and much of Kentucky and West Virginia.

Treacherous travel conditions are expected, with power outages likely in areas with more than half an inch of ice accumulation.

“It’s going to be a mess, a potential disaster,” said private meteorologist Ryan Maue.

Starting Monday, hundreds of millions of people in the eastern two-thirds of the country will experience this dangerous, frigid air and chills, forecasters said.

Temperatures could be 12 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (7 to 14 degrees Celsius) colder than normal as the polar vortex extends downward from the high Arctic.

“This could lead to the coldest January for the U.S. since 2011,” AccuWeather Director of Forecast Operations Dan DePodwin said Friday, noting that there could be “temperatures well below freezing for up to a week or more.” historical average.”

The biggest drop below normal will likely be in the Ohio Valley, but significant and unusual cold will extend south to the Gulf Coast, said Danny Barandiaran, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center.

A hard freeze is even expected in Florida, he added.

“The wind chills will be brutal,” said climate scientist Jennifer Francis of the Woodwell Climate Research Institute. “Just because the Earth is warming doesn’t mean this cold snap will go away.”

The harsh weather may be caused in part by a rapidly warming Arctic, a reminder that climate change is causing extreme weather events, said Judah Cohen, director of seasonal forecasting at the private firm Atmospheric and Environmental Research.

The polar vortex – ultra-cold air that spins like a top – usually stays over the North Pole, but sometimes extends as far as the US, Europe or Asia, bringing intense doses of cold.

Cohen and colleagues have published several studies showing an increase in the stretching or wandering of the polar vortex. Cohen et al I published a study last month with the cold outbreaks partly attributed to changes in an Arctic region that is warming four times faster than the rest of the world.