A powerful winter storm sweeping east from the Plains was expected to intensify over the United States, bringing a mix of hazards that included heavy snow, freezing rain, thunderstorms, and strong winds through the busy holiday travel period. The storm’s impacts were expected to vary by region, with forecasters describing it as an organized system that combined heavy snow in some areas with stronger winds and colder temperatures as the cold front passes.
Bob Oravec, a lead forecaster at the National Weather Service office in College Park, Maryland, described the storm as a connected system rather than separate weather events. He said, “Part of the storm system is getting heavy snow, other parts of the storm along the cold front are getting higher winds and much colder temperatures as the front passes,” and added, “They’re all related to each other — different parts of the country will be receiving different effects from this storm.” Oravec said those effects were expected to develop and spread over the next 48 hours.
In the Upper Midwest, the National Weather Service warned that snow and strengthening winds could create whiteout conditions and possible blizzard conditions that would make travel difficult in some locations. Forecasters expected snowfall totals to exceed a foot (30 centimeters) across parts of the upper Great Lakes, with up to 2 feet (60 centimeters) possible along the south shore of Lake Superior.
Forecasters also warned about dangerous lake conditions. Waves on Lake Superior were projected to top 25 feet (7.6 meters) by dawn Monday, with towering waves also projected for the other Great Lakes. Ben Warren, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Marquette, Michigan, referenced a prior lake storm in describing the risk, saying, “Since the infamous Edmund Fitzgerald storm in ’75, we’ve had zero major incidents on the lake.”
The storm outlook comes with a reminder of the 1975 Lake Superior tragedy involving the Edmund Fitzgerald. The weather service had forecast waves of up to 16 feet (4.9 meters) shortly before the iron ore freighter sank on Nov. 10, 1975, and forecasters later cited improved wave forecasting performance since then.
As the storm system progressed, the National Weather Service warned of dangerous wind chills as low as minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 34.4 degrees Celsius) in North Dakota and into Minnesota from Sunday night into Monday. Forecasters said the cold was arriving as frigid air pressed south from Canada while unusually warm air had lingered across parts of the southern United States.
The storm was also expected to reshape weather in the South after a prolonged stretch of unusually mild conditions. In the South, meteorologists warned that severe thunderstorms would accompany the arrival of a sharp cold front, sometimes called a “Blue Norther,” bringing a sudden drop in temperatures and strong north winds that would end days of record warmth.
The record warmth was visible in high temperatures such as Atlanta’s. The National Weather Service said the high temperature in Atlanta was around 72 F (22 C) on Sunday, continuing a warming trend after Atlanta reached 78 F (about 26 C) to shatter the city’s Christmas Eve record high. Forecasters said the abrupt change was expected to drop Atlanta’s low temperature to 25 F (minus 3.9 C) by early Tuesday morning, and that colder temperatures were expected to persist through New Year’s Day.
In other parts of the South and central U.S., forecasters projected similarly rapid swings in temperatures. In Dallas, Sunday temperatures in the lower 80s were expected to fall to the mid 40s by Sunday night into Monday, and in Little Rock, highs around 70 F (21 C) on Sunday were expected to fall to the mid-30s on Monday.
The storm was already affecting holiday travel, with flight delays and cancellations reported earlier this weekend across the Northeast and Great Lakes regions due to snow. Delays and cancellations were continuing Sunday, as thousands traveled between Christmas and New Year’s, while California saw a comparatively dry weekend after recent storms battered the state with heavy rains, flash flooding and mudslides.
On the back end of the system, forecasters said the cyclone was expected to produce heavy snow and blizzard conditions in the Midwest and Great Lakes, freezing rain in New England, thunderstorms across the eastern U.S. and South, and widespread strong winds as it moved east and intensified. Willingham reported from Concord, New Hampshire, while Martin reported from Kennesaw, Georgia.