A snow plow clears Main St. on January 16, 2022 in Greenville, South Carolina. Snow, hail and freezing rain is forecast in the area for the rest of the day.
Sean Rayford / Getty Images
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Sean Rayford / Getty Images
A snow plow clears Main St. on January 16, 2022 in Greenville, South Carolina. Snow, hail and freezing rain is forecast in the area for the rest of the day.
Sean Rayford / Getty Images
A major winter storm that is bringing snow and freezing rain over the southern US will cause temperatures to drop, cause dangerous road conditions and power outages and move up the East Coast in the coming hours.
The main system can leave more than a foot of snow and exceed a quarter of an inch of ice in some areas, National Weather Service warns.
Snowfall and freezing rain began before sunrise in parts of North Carolina. Regions of Georgia starting to see freezing rain and gusty winds early Sunday. States that don’t typically experience extreme winter weather like Arkansas, Alabama and Mississippi – also see heavy snow and ice.
The NWS predicts heavy snowfall throughout the day in the Tennessee Valley, the Appalachians, and parts of the Mid-Atlantic, with significant rainfall in parts of the Southeast as well as the Appalachians and mid-Atlantic.
Meteorologists say the storm system will move north from Sunday night into Monday morning.
Travel has become difficult
Officials from Georgia to the Carolinas and Virginia – all under a state of emergency – are urging residents to stay off the roads as snow begins to fall Sunday morning.
In addition to rapidly accumulating snow and the possibility of ice, strong winds can topple trees and power lines, making driving more dangerous.
More than 2,500 US flights were canceled on Sunday, flight tracking website FlightAware reported. Less than half of the canceled flights were at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina.
Before the storm, Amtrak also canceled dozens of trains on weekends and into Mondays.
Power failure has started to pop up
Strong winds and ice accumulation are bringing the risk of widespread power outages – possibly for several days – and power outages that began in the early hours of the storm.
More than 109,000 customers in Georgia lost power at one point Sunday morning, according to the website poweroutage.us. About 89,000 customers in South Carolina, 31,000 customers in Florida and another 16,000 customers in North Carolina were also without power.
The accumulation of ice means power outages could persist even after the storm has moved away from the area, authorities said.
With the potential for severe power outages across the region, officials have It is recommended that people only use gas generators and ovens outside to avoid the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Next stop: northern US
The NWS said the storm would head north from Sunday night through Monday morning, stretching from the Ohio Valley to New England.
Parts of the Ohio Valley, Lower Great Lakes and Northeast are likely to see heavy snowfall, while rain and freezing rain will fall over other parts of Northeast and southern New England.
New York City is expected to be less than an inch snow, but the towns of New York and New Jersey about an hour’s drive west can see about 5 inches. Washington, DC is Expect two to three inches snowfall, while areas of western Maryland are bearing up to 8 inches per foot.
There is a possibility of strong winds and flooding along the Atlantic coast.
Through Monday, the storm will bring heavy snow into mainland Maine with rain along the coast.
