Major Winter Storm Threatens Millions in Midwest and Northeast

The system, which has already deluged the West, is expected to snarl travel over the three-day holiday weekend. Winter weather advisories for the coming days stretched from the Dakotas to Maine, and meteorologists were warning people not to drive during the height of the storm, when wind will blow the snow around and reduce visibility.

“Where you show up Saturday night, you should plan on staying there until Monday morning,” Derek Schroeter, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Gray, Maine, advised people in the Northeast.

As the storm sweeps east and then north, Des Moines, Iowa, is expected to get 5 inches of snow; Youngstown, Ohio, 10 inches; Allentown, Pennsylvania, 6 to 8 inches; Albany, New York, 16 inches; and Bennington, Vermont, 20 inches.

Schroeter said the area he covers, which includes New Hampshire and Western Maine, could get 12 to 18 inches of snow, with the heaviest snowfall early Sunday morning, he said.

“Some places could see around 9 to 10 inches of snow in a six-hour period,” he said, adding that, with snow falling so fast, plow trucks would struggle to keep the roads clear.

The storm will be followed by numbing temperatures, 15 to 25 degrees below normal across the Plains and the Upper Midwest. All together, tens of millions of people will experience subfreezing temperatures at some point during the weekend.

“The concern would be, if you do lose power, the cold’s going to be pretty significant Sunday night and Monday,” Schroeter said, adding that he was not expecting major power failures in his area, because the snow was unlikely to be wet and heavy enough to bring down trees.

The National Weather Service, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is one of the agencies affected by the partial government shutdown. Some employees have been furloughed, but many forecasters are among those considered essential and are working without pay.

“What I can say is, we are all working business as usual to ensure that we’re adequately providing forecasts and effectively issuing warnings to protect life and property,” Schroeter said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.