Tens of millions of people across the Mid-Atlantic remained under winter weather warnings on Monday as the first major winter storm of the new year continued to move eastward, according to the National Weather Service—producing hazardous travel conditions, thousands of cancelled flights, multiple days of heavy snow and ice and potentially record-setting low temperatures.
A person dusts snow off of a car during a winter storm in Cincinnati on Sunday.
The storm first impacted the Central Plains—including parts of Kansas and Missouri—late Saturday, then moved across the Ohio and Tennessee valleys Sunday and is now expected to affect the Mid-Atlantic on Monday.
According to the National Weather Service’s early Monday morning update, the winter storm will continue to cause “severe travel delays” and “major impacts” are expected in parts of West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, Washington D.C., and Delaware.
A wide swath of the country stretching from central Kansas to parts of Maryland could accumulate more than a half-foot of snow between Sunday and Tuesday morning, according to NWS forecasts.
Southern Ohio and parts of the Mid-Atlantic—including the D.C. area—are expected to get six to 12 inches of snow, the NWS said, while some hard-hit areas of Kansas and Missouri under blizzard warnings may see over 15 inches—“the heaviest in a decade or longer.”
The storm will also bring heavy wind: The NWS issued blizzard warnings across central Kansas into southeastern Nebraska and northwestern Missouri, with wind gusts exceeding 40 miles per hour, and the Mid-Atlantic could face 20-25 mile-per-hour gusts in some cases.
Significant icing and freezing rain potential is forecast for central Kansas through the central Appalachians into Monday, and is expected to bring widespread tree damage and power outages, with some parts potentially experiencing more than half an inch of ice accumulation.
The snow is expected to largely wind down by Tuesday morning, the NWS says.
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Winter storm warnings stretch across 10 states and D.C. as of Monday morning, including sizable parts of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, southern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey. A small number of counties in the northern part of North Carolina are also under warnings. Kansas and Missouri remain under a cold weather advisory after parts of the two states were hit by a blizzard on Sunday night. The major metro areas facing winter storm warnings include Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Louisville, D.C., Baltimore and the southern reaches of the Philadelphia area—though the city of Philadelphia itself is only under a winter weather advisory.
Major public school districts in D.C., Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Maryland and Virginia have announced that classes will remain closed on Monday due to the severe weather conditions. Kentucky’s Jefferson County Public Schools said Monday’s closure will be treated as a regular “snow day” with no online classes.
At least eight inches of snow is forecast for southern Nebraska, much of Kansas, northern Missouri, central Illinois, southern Indiana, southern Ohio, northern West Virginia, southwestern Pennsylvania, northern Virginia, southern Maryland, D.C. and the Syracuse region in New York. The NWS also projected upwards of 15 inches of snow in parts of Kansas and Missouri, while portions of West Virginia could get over a foot. The New York City area could also get light snow on Monday, though the NWS says, “it's very possible the snow stays south and not much snow falls at all.”
Yes. The NWS said in a statement Sunday that travel could be “extremely hazardous” in areas with blizzard warnings, with some blizzard-prone areas facing “impassable” roads and “significant disruptions” likely in areas hit by heavy snow. Portions of I-70 and other some highways in Kansas were closed on Saturday and Sunday, while officials in several states—including Missouri, Ohio, Indiana and elsewhere—urged people in affected areas not to travel if at all possible.
Around 1038 U.S. flights have been cancelled early on Monday along with 460 delayed flights, according to FlightAware data. More than 1,800 U.S. flights were cancelled on Sunday while 8,500 faced delays. Airports in the D.C. area are the worst hit on Monday morning with more than 424 departing flights and 333 incoming flights in total cancelled across Reagan National, Baltimore/Washington International and Dulles International. On Sunday, 90% of all flights both into and out of the Kansas City Airport were cancelled and while St. Louis was also badly hit with a 67% cancelation rate.
Amtrak canceled dozens of Acela and Northeast Regional trains serving the northeastern United States on Sunday evening and Monday, with trains between New York, D.C. and Virginia especially hard-hit. More than a dozen other trains serving the Midwest—including routes connecting Chicago to St. Louis and Kansas City—were also cancelled on Sunday.
More than 87,000 customers are without power in Kentucky, along with over 64,000 in Indiana, 40,000 in Illinois and more than 30,00 each in Missouri and West Virginia, according to Poweroutage.us.
The cold temperatures accompanying the storm could produce the coldest January in the U.S. since 2011, according to AccuWeather expert Paul Pastelok, who noted the storm’s arctic outbreak will “involve many days and not just be a quick one-to-three-day event.”
NOAA’s winter outlook issued in October predicted fair to likely chances for above average seasonal temperatures this winter in the southwest, south and eastern U.S. It also predicted wetter-than-average conditions for the northern half of the continental U.S. and drier-than-average conditions from much of the southwest to the southeast, Gulf Coast and lower Mid-Atlantic regions. The forecasts follow the warmest fall experienced in the U.S. in NOAA’s 130-year climate record, with the average fall temperature reaching 57.6 degrees Fahrenheit, which was 4.1 degrees above average.
U.S. Winter Outlook: Warmer and drier South, wetter North (NOAA)