Over half the U.S. faces extreme weather threats from heat to blizzards

From a surprising heat wave in California to blizzards burying parts of the Midwest and storms rolling into the East Coast, chaotic weather on Monday put more than half the nation’s population in the path of severe conditions, the Associated Press reported.

The AP said airport delays and cancellations piled up in some of the nation’s largest airports, with more than 4,700 canceled across the U.S., while many schools in the mid-Atlantic closed early as high winds were forecast.

Other impacts included torrential rains that flooded homes and washed out roads in Hawaii, and dry and windy conditions in Nebraska that were building the risk around the largest wildfire in the state’s history, according to the AP account.

In Washington, the AP reported that the House and Senate postponed votes and that federal agencies told workers to go home early as rough weather was expected. But by late afternoon, the anticipated conditions had failed to develop, and a tornado watch expired, the AP said.

In an AP interview, National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Hurley said over 100 million people were experiencing some kind of severe weather. The AP also cited AccuWeather calculations that more than 200 million people were under threat Monday of dangerous weather, spanning heat and wildfire advisories as well as flood and freeze watches from the National Weather Service.

The AP described a storm system that dropped snow by the foot in the Midwest, creating whiteout conditions in some areas, and then barreled toward the East Coast with heavy rain, threats for high winds, and multiple tornado warnings. The biggest severe-weather threat, the AP said, stretched from New Jersey to Virginia.

In New York City, officials warned of the potential for swift wind gusts overnight that could knock down tree limbs, the AP reported. It also said four people, including a child, died Monday afternoon in the city after a fire in a three-story apartment building spread during heavy winds.

Farther west, the AP said the National Weather Service confirmed four tornadoes in Missouri on Sunday that caused roof and tree damage, with no injuries reported. The Upper Midwest and Great Lakes saw continued blizzard conditions Monday after the storm walloped parts of Wisconsin and Michigan with several feet of snow, the AP said, including nearly 3 feet (91 centimeters) in the northern Wisconsin town of Mountain since Saturday.

The AP reported that another round of snow and gusts on Monday could bring another foot of snow across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It also said forecasters expected triple-digit heat over much of the Southwest, with Arizona facing temperatures in the 100s for most of the week.

In California, the AP reported that the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento were expected to see temperatures pushing toward 90 F (32 C) by midweek. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said, “This is technically still winter,” adding, “This is not normal for March, obviously,” and called it a sign of how climate change is affecting the city, the AP reported.

The AP said while temperatures were expected to reach 100 F (37.8 C), the wildfire threat around Los Angeles was relatively low because winds would be light. Phoenix was expected to have five straight days of triple-digit temperatures, and the AP said only once before, in 1988, had the city recorded a 100 F day in March. AccuWeather meteorologist Dan DePodwin was cited as saying, “This is a heat wave that we have not seen before in recorded history in the Southwest.”

In Nebraska, the AP reported that three fires had consumed more than 1,140 square miles (about 2,953 square kilometers) of mostly grassland. The AP also quoted Gov. Jim Pillen as saying, “Mother Nature is throwing a doozy at us.”

On Maui and across Hawaii, the AP said unrelenting rains over the weekend triggered landslides, washed away roads, and flooded homes and farmland. It reported that spots on all the islands saw more than 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain, while parts of Maui received double that amount, according to the weather service.

While the worst of the storm had passed, the AP said Maui Mayor Richard Bissen reported there were no reports of injuries or deaths and that crews were assessing damage as more heavy rain was expected later this week.

Looking ahead, the AP reported forecasters expected storms along the East Coast to leave sharply colder weather in their wake. It said the storm was expected to stick around parts of the Northeast until Tuesday morning and that wind chills below freezing could reach the Gulf Coast and the Florida Panhandle, with warnings in effect across the Southeast and in part of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas.

To the north, the AP reported rain was expected to change over to snow behind the cold front, with heavy snow possible in the central Appalachians of West Virginia.

The AP said the story was updated on March 18, 2026, to correct that 91 centimeters of snow fell on the northern Wisconsin town of Mountain, not 61 centimeters.