Winter is exploding across the country, with extreme weather forecasts on both coasts, while much of the middle of the country deals with extremely low temperatures.
Large areas of the United States are being alerted to the weekend’s conditions. Nearly 90 million people were under winter warnings or worse.
“As a cold air mass from the Arctic remains across much of the country, winter precipitation will bring risks to the Pacific Northwest, the southern plains, the Mississippi Valley to the Ohio Valley and the Mid-Atlantic to the Northeast in this weekend, at least early next week. Temperatures will remain 20 to 40 degrees below normal across the center of the country on Saturday, “said the National Weather Service on Friday night.
The governors of Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana declared an emergency in their states before a storm that is expected to bring a lot of snow, ice and rain.
The National Weather Service was warning of extremely low temperatures and near-snow conditions in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where six people were killed on Thursday in a pileup of 130 units on an icy interstate.
Forecasts pointed to up to 15 centimeters of snow and chills 15 degrees below zero.
In Harris County, Texas, which includes Houston, authorities asked residents to prepare for icy roads and even inches of snow during the weekend and beyond. “Wherever you are on Sunday night, you must be prepared to stay there at least until Tuesday,” said county officials.
A polar dip that hit much of the Midwest for days on Friday is expected to last well into the next week.
In Kansas City, Missouri, the maximum temperature was 8 degrees on Friday, and forecasters warned that it will drop to -20, with the thermal sensation considered, over the weekend.
The intensification of the cold wave across Southern Plains is so dangerous that the National Weather Service’s office in Pleasant Hill, Missouri, warned residents to be aware of the signs of hypothermia and ice bite.
“If you have heating shelters that need to make plans now it is time to prepare them,” said the office in a situation report on the intense cold.
“An almost stationary front at the forefront of the cold air mass will remain over the southeast until Sunday night,” the meteorological service said in a forecast discussion on Friday.
The Pacific Northwest began to see more snow and some freezing rain on Friday afternoon, after snow fell in parts of Washington and Oregon on Thursday.
The weather service issued an ice storm alert on Friday for Oregon’s Central Willamette Valley, including Salem and the Portland subway to the south, and a winter storm alert for the Portland / Vancouver, Washington areas. After 5 pm, freezing rain began to fall in places around the Portland metropolitan area, said the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office.
Meteorologists said the Portland area could see up to 20 centimeters of snow and the Cascades could receive another 30 centimeters until Saturday.
A winter storm alert is also in effect for the Seattle metropolitan area, where 5 to 20 inches of snow was expected, along with gusts of winds up to 40 mph. A winter storm alert for the Olympia, Washington area, predicted up to 30 centimeters of snow on Saturday, after the city received more than 15 centimeters in places on Thursday.
The weekend would also bring a harsh winter to the Mid-Atlantic, where an ice storm was expected.
The Washington, DC area was under warning, and Baltimore residents are preparing for an ice storm, with the possibility of a power outage and tree damage.
“Traveling can be next to impossible” from Saturday night until Sunday morning, warned the National Weather Service.
The Associated Press contributed.