Governors in Kentucky and Virginia declare states of emergency
05 January 2025 - 16:06
byRich McKay
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
A driver makes their way through a flooded street at high tide during a winter storm in Gloucester, Massachusetts, US, in this December 23 2022 file photo. Picture: BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS
Millions of Americans from the Plains to the East Coast faced the threat of blizzards, heavy snow, treacherous ice and freezing rain through Monday, the National Weather Service (NWS) said on Saturday.
Governors in Kentucky and Virginia declared states of emergency ahead of the winter storm.
“The storm is still taking shape,” meteorologist Rich Bann of the NWS’s Weather Prediction Centre said. “But this thing has multiple hazards from heavy snows in the Plains to significant icing covering roads farther south.”
He added that more than 60-million people in the US were affected by winter weather warnings, watches or advisories this weekend.
A swath extending eastward from Nebraska and Kansas through Ohio, Indiana, southwestern Pennsylvania and northwestern Virginia could see from 2.55cm to 30cm of snow. Ice could knock out power lines and cause widespread outages.
A wintry mess of freezing rain and ice will hit southern Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee on Sunday, Bann said, likely making roads hazardous and downing power lines.
“It’ll be nearly impossible to drive in some areas,” he said.
The Kansas City International Airport in Missouri closed temporarily on Saturday afternoon due to rapid ice accumulation, officials said on social media.
Bann said that the storm should move past the East Coast and into the Atlantic Ocean by late on Monday, but a new blast of Arctic air will bring frigid cold to the eastern two-thirds of the US by the middle of next week.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Millions in US brace for huge winter storm
Governors in Kentucky and Virginia declare states of emergency
Millions of Americans from the Plains to the East Coast faced the threat of blizzards, heavy snow, treacherous ice and freezing rain through Monday, the National Weather Service (NWS) said on Saturday.
Governors in Kentucky and Virginia declared states of emergency ahead of the winter storm.
“The storm is still taking shape,” meteorologist Rich Bann of the NWS’s Weather Prediction Centre said. “But this thing has multiple hazards from heavy snows in the Plains to significant icing covering roads farther south.”
He added that more than 60-million people in the US were affected by winter weather warnings, watches or advisories this weekend.
A swath extending eastward from Nebraska and Kansas through Ohio, Indiana, southwestern Pennsylvania and northwestern Virginia could see from 2.55cm to 30cm of snow. Ice could knock out power lines and cause widespread outages.
A wintry mess of freezing rain and ice will hit southern Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee on Sunday, Bann said, likely making roads hazardous and downing power lines.
“It’ll be nearly impossible to drive in some areas,” he said.
The Kansas City International Airport in Missouri closed temporarily on Saturday afternoon due to rapid ice accumulation, officials said on social media.
Bann said that the storm should move past the East Coast and into the Atlantic Ocean by late on Monday, but a new blast of Arctic air will bring frigid cold to the eastern two-thirds of the US by the middle of next week.
Reuters
Judge in Trump hush-money case says his sentence skips jail
White House mum on Biden blocking US Steel sale to Japanese buyer
Texas man who backed Isis acted alone in New Orleans, FBI says
Trump loses appeal against $5m Carroll defamation finding
Jimmy Carter, former US president and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, dead at 100
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Most Read
Related Articles
Cuba’s electrical grid collapses again leaving millions in the dark
Brazilian farmers fight to remove trees as climate change hurts crops
Climate change-driven insurance crisis threatens more US states
Published by Arena Holdings and distributed with the Financial Mail on the last Thursday of every month except December and January.