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Winter storm in US forecast to bring dangerous temperatures, weather

Published on January 13, 2024

Maybe you were hoping this El Niño winter was going to be a mild one with fewer ice scrapers and snow shovels in store for 2024.

If so, the events of the past few days and this holiday weekend’s forecast are surely a disappointment.

Meteorologists say much of the country is in store for a frigid − and potentially dangerous − three-day weekend, as a powerful winter storm is set to bring heavy snow from the Great Lakes to the Northeast, with another system blanketing an area from the Cascades through the Central Rockies.

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Developments:

∎ Blizzard warnings were in effect Saturday for areas of the Dakotas, northwest Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, according to the weather service.

∎ Roads across eastern Nebraska, northern Illinois and much of Wisconsin were “completely” covered with snow, slush or ice Saturday morning, according to a regional map of road conditions from the Iowa Department of Transportation. Iowa State Patrol issued a “Life-Threatening Winter Weather Alert” asking people to cease non-essential travel overnight.

∎ About 500,000 households were without power as of 9 a.m. Saturday, according to a tracker maintained by USA TODAY. Michigan had the most widespread outages affecting nearly 185,000 customers. More than 90,000 customers in Wisconsin were without power Saturday morning, with outages centered around Milwaukee. Further east, tens of thousands in Vermont and New Hampshire were also affected by widespread outages.

∎ Parts of Utah and Wyoming are expected to receive “impressive snowfall” over the weekend, the Salt Lake City National Weather Service announced. The region is under winter storm warnings, as northern Utah and southwest Wyoming brace for up to four feet of snow.

Saturday winter storm forecast

The winter storm that spawned blizzard warnings in the Great Lakes and Upper Midwest on Friday is forecast to move northeast on Saturday, with snowfall rates of up to 2 inches an hour possible as the system crawls out of the region.

Travel could be dangerous, particularly with strong winds creating blizzard conditions, and power outages are also possible, forecasters warned.

The Northeast and Mid-Atlantic will also see heavy rain through Saturday, making coastal and river flooding possible, according to the National Weather Service.

The storm’s snow production is expected to diminish Saturday, but lake-effect snow is forecast to remain in the region through mid-week, the weather service reported, with white-out conditions possible.

By Sunday, portions of the South could also receive wintry precipitation, the weather service warned Saturday. Snow, sleet and freezing rain are “likely to develop” in parts of eastern Oklahoma, northeast Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and much of Tennessee, the weather service said.

Brutally cold air coming early next week

Following this weekend’s storm, arctic air will descend from Western Canada and spread across the Northwest and Northern Plains early next week. The weather service forecasts multiple record-cold temperatures.

Sub-zero wind chills are expected to fall below negative-30 degrees from the northern Rockies and northern Kansas and into Iowa. Montana and the western Dakotas could see temperatures fall as low as negative-50 degrees, posing a risk of frostbite on exposed skin, as well as hypothermia.