Millions of people across the US are bracing for more brutal winter weather as a severe coast-to-coast storm descends across the northern part of the country, unleashing furious winds, bitter cold, threats of flash flooding and heavy snow.
Meanwhile, pockets of the south-east will be cooking, with record-breaking warmth expected to stretch into the mid-Atlantic spiking temperatures more than 40F higher than normal and creating weather that feels more “like June than February”, according to the National Weather Service.
California could see the coldest conditions of the season this week, after being hammered by rain and snow at the start of the year, and even low-lying areas far into the southern part of the state could see a dusting.
“This is shaping up to be a very unusual event,” climate scientist Daniel Swain said in a virtual briefing on Tuesday morning, noting that low-elevation snow will stretch from “the Oregon border to the Mexican border – it’s just a question of how low”.
The extreme and errant weather system prompted the National Weather Service to issue a weekend blizzard warning for the mountain areas of the typically balmy Los Angeles and Ventura counties – the first one forecasters said had ever been issued for the region – warning that mountain snow could pile up to 5ft and be accompanied by wind gusts beyond 55mph. Residents recall the last time some hillsides in southern California saw snow was more than 30 years ago.
“Extremely dangerous mountain conditions coming,” the National Weather Service said on Twitter, adding that travel in those areas “will be a mess”. The “major snow event” could potentially reach into the foothills near Los Angeles, with several inches predicted even for elevations as low as 1,000ft, the agency said.
Daytime temperatures in southern California are unlikely to get out of the low to mid-50sF and potentially damaging winds reaching 50mph were predicted along the central coast, with gusts of 70mph possible in mountains.
More torrents of rain are also in store for the already-sodden state, which is still recovering from the onslaught of severe storms at the start of the year. According to AccuWeather forecasters, the system brewing could deliver “a month’s worth of rain and possibly two times that amount or more in some locations”, with the potential to trigger flash floods and debris flows.
The first in a pair of storms expected to hit the state already wreaked havoc in the northern part of the state on Tuesday night, as powerful winds pulled down power lines and toppled trees. By Wednesday morning, more than 109,000 Californian customers were without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us.
Downed trees blocked major highways in the San Francisco Bay Area during rush hour on Tuesday evening and left a one-year-old child critically injured, after a redwood crashed onto a home in Boulder Creek, a community in the Santa Cruz mountains south of San Francisco, KTVU reported.
The massive storm also delivered blizzard-like conditions across much of the northern part of the US this week, shutting down roadways, closing schools and businesses, and prompting warnings for people to stay home.
Even in regions accustomed to cold conditions, officials warned of the dangers of “whiteout conditions”, with the potential for historic snowfall in the midwest.
More than 20in (50.8cm) may pile up in parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin, the National Weather Service said. The Minneapolis-St Paul area could see 2ft of snow or more for the first time in over 30 years.
An NWS meteorologist, Frank Pereira, said the system was expected to affect about 43 million people.
Temperatures could plunge as low as -20F (-29C) Thursday and to -25F (-32C) Friday in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Wind chills may fall to -50F (-46C), said Nathan Rick, a meteorologist in Grand Forks.
Wind gusts may reach 50mph (80km/h) in western and central Minnesota, resulting in “significant blowing and drifting snow with whiteout conditions in open areas,” the weather service said.
“Sometimes it’s physically impossible to keep up with Mother Nature,” said North Dakota highway patrol sergeant Wade Kadrmas.
Schools throughout the Dakotas, Minnesota and Wisconsin were called off on Wednesday. Offices closed and so did the Minnesota legislature. The South Dakota governor, Kristi Noem, shut down state executive branch offices in several parts of the state. In Wyoming, virtually every road was impacted. Officials warned closures could last for days.
The storm will make its way toward the east coast later in the week. Places that do not get snow may get dangerous ice. Forecasters expect up to a half-inch of ice in areas of southern Michigan, northern Illinois and some eastern states.
In the south-west on Wednesday, a more than 200-mile stretch of Interstate 40 from central Arizona to the New Mexico line closed due to wind gusts up to 80mph, plus snow and rain. Thousands were without power in Arizona.
Few places in the country will be untouched by the wild weather, as some areas prepare for the opposite extreme. Record highs were forecast from the mid-Atlantic states down through Florida, with some places expected to reach up to 40 degrees above normal.
While highs in Virginia hover in the 80s, they will drop to single digits in Maine, the NWS noted in Wednesday’s forecast. According to meteorologist Frank Pereira, “we could see record highs being set everywhere from Pittsburgh to as far south as Fort Myers, Florida”.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
