Much of the country faces dangerous conditions, including heavy snow, strong winds and steep temperature drops. In Buffalo, meteorologists warned of a “once-in-a-generation storm.”
NASHVILLE — Much of the middle of the country was girding itself on Wednesday for an extraordinarily brutal mix of frigid temperatures, blowing snow and high winds set to arrive just at the peak period of Christmas-season travel.
The combination of a rapidly intensifying storm system called a “bomb cyclone” and a large Arctic air mass will bring blizzard conditions and extremely dangerous wind chills to the Plains and Midwest, as well as flash freezes and high winds that will disrupt travel across the eastern half of the country before the holiday weekend, forecasters said.
As the powerful storm approaches, the warnings have grown increasingly ominous. Even in places where bitter cold and heavy snowfall are facts of life this time of year, officials and forecasters have cautioned residents to expect something particularly severe.
In Buffalo, the National Weather Service described the coming event as a “once-in-a-generation storm.” In Cheyenne, Wyo., forecasters said the cold front had swept in and immediately broken records as the temperature dropped from 43 degrees to 3 degrees in a half-hour.
“First of all, it’s wintertime — we expect snow, we expect cold weather,” Gov. Jim Justice of West Virginia said in a briefing as he announced that he had mobilized emergency resources in the state. “It’s going to get pretty tough,” he said. “That’s all there is to it.”
The conditions arrive at a particularly inopportune moment, coming during a busy week of holiday travel, toward the end of Hanukkah and extending through Christmas Day on Sunday. The storm could most likely lead to substantial flight delays and cancellations at some of the nation’s busiest airports and create havoc on the roads.
Wind chills as low as 70 degrees below zero are possible in the High Plains, and subzero to single-digit temperatures are expected throughout much of the Midwest, forecasters said.
How Much Snow To Expect
In the Central and Southern Plains, a cold front is expected to sweep through the region from Wednesday to Friday, causing dramatic temperature declines of as much as 20 degrees within hours, which could bring flash freezes to roads, the National Weather Service warned. Light to moderate snowfall is expected in the Midwest, Great Lakes region and parts of the Northeast. The Great Lakes may see more than a foot of snowfall between Wednesday evening and Friday.
In West Fargo, N.D., Ostrom’s Hardware has been quickly selling through its supply of snow shovels, snowblowers and ice melt. “Yesterday, we had no shovels on our racks,” said Levi Kraig, the store’s assistant manager.
Cities across the Midwest, including Cleveland and Peoria, Ill., prepared to open warming centers to allow residents to seek shelter during the storm.
In North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper signed a state of emergency on Tuesday to begin preparations for icy conditions and high winds expected to arrive on Friday and continue through the weekend.
In Texas, forecasts have evoked the lingering trauma from a monster winter storm last year that shoved the state’s power grid to the brink of collapse, stranding millions of people without electricity amid freezing conditions, and contributing to the deaths of nearly 250 residents.
On Wednesday, state officials sought to assure residents that a repeat disaster could be avoided because the power grid could withstand the jump in demand as people hunkered down in their homes. Demand is projected to be at its highest on Friday morning, officials said.
Texas was not expected to see much, if any, snow or ice, but temperatures were expected to drop into the single digits in parts of the state’s panhandle, forecasters said.
“I think trust will be earned over the next few days as people see that we have ultracold temperatures and the grid is going to be able to perform with ease,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in a news conference on Wednesday.
The storm is expected to hit hardest in places that are accustomed to serious winters.
“We had a blizzard last week with between 24 and 30 inches of snow,” said Emily Larson, the mayor of Duluth, Minn. The coming storm is not expected to bring nearly that much snow, but it will bring strong winds, which, when combined with the snow already piled on the power infrastructure, could greatly raise the risks of major power outages.
“I’ve been mayor for seven years, and I think we’ve had four storms that have severely impacted our community in ways that have been scary,” Ms. Larson said. “It isn’t a great feeling when people don’t have power and heat.”
In Milwaukee, where forecasters have warned that strong, snow-blowing winds will be the primary hazard of the coming storm, city officials gathered at a fire station on Wednesday to prepare residents for storm and cold.
“It is Wisconsin — we do have these exceptional cold snaps, so we do have plans in place to work through these things,” Assistant Chief Joshua Parish said. “But those things take time.”
While a bout of extreme cold grips western Canada, Ontario and its eastern provinces are bracing for a major winter storm expected to hit on Friday. Forecasters there said the region could expect a mix of snow and rain on Thursday followed by plummeting temperatures, the prime conditions for a flash freeze.
Already, heavy snowfall near Vancouver International Airport on Tuesday prompted an “unprecedented number” of canceled flights, the airport said.
In Kentucky, as Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency and warned residents of the potential danger, he noted that it threatened to add to the litany of catastrophes that have struck his state in recent years. “After tornadoes and floods, pandemics, multiple ice storms just these last three years,” he told residents, “I don’t want to lose one person to this Arctic front that’s coming through.”
In eastern Kentucky, communities that have already been hobbled by decades of economic decline are now trying to claw their way back from devastating floods this summer.
Gwen Johnson, who runs a community center in one of the hollows that was particularly ravaged by the summer flooding, said that most of the people she knew had power but that many houses had not been completely rebuilt to withstand the coming onslaught of cold.
“We had substandard housing before the flood. Then it about knocked out what we did have,” she said. “So a lot of people haven’t gotten their places put back.”
She and others at the center have given out lots of blankets and propane heaters, and she has plans to make a big Christmas dinner for anyone who can make it on Sunday. It was a reflection, she said, of what people there have always done in hard times — rely on each other.
“If there’s no power, the ones that do have power usually take in people,” she said. “We’re no strangers to this.”
Jesus Jiménez and Vjosa Isai contributed reporting.
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