By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-19 21:36:18 | Updated at 2025-01-20 04:14:25
7 hours ago
Tens of millions of residents along the East Coast are bracing for several inches of snow on Sunday followed by dangerously cold temperatures that will take hold in much of the country from the Northern Plains to the tip of Maine.
Winter storm warnings issued by the National Weather Service have already gone into effect for parts of the mid-Atlantic until Monday morning, with the forecast projecting up to half a foot (15cm) of snow. Warnings will begin in New England on Sunday afternoon, with parts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Connecticut seeing as much as 10 inches (25cm) of snow.
Marc Chenard, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in College Park Maryland, projected that as many as 70 million residents will be under some kind of winter storm hazards warning in the coming days including in New England and the mid-Atlantic. Large cities such as Philadelphia, New York and Boston could see several inches of snow this evening with the highest totals being outside major cities.
“There will certainly be some more hazardous road conditions anywhere from DC up the whole I-95 corridor and then inland from there later today and tonight,” Chenard said. “Then it gets quite cold behind that. By Monday morning, any roads that haven’t been treated or cleared will still likely be some hazardous travel conditions.”
But the snow is just the start of a chaotic week of weather.
Much of the eastern half of the United States will be enduring some of the coldest temperatures this winter, if not for several years.
An area from the Rockies into the Northern Plains will see colder than normal temperatures starting on Sunday into the coming week, with temperatures dropping to to minus 55 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 48 degrees Celsius) on Sunday and Monday. Wind chills of minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 40 degrees Celsius) were already being clocked in parts of North Dakota and Minnesota. Sub-zero wind chills are forecast to reach as far south as Oklahoma and the Tennessee Valley.
