A powerful winter storm began hammering the central United States on Saturday, with meteorologists warning that millions in the east of the country would face blizzard conditions, treacherous ice, frigid temperatures, and severe travel disruptions.
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More than 60 million people are in the path of the dangerous storm, which is set to plunge the eastern half of the United States into a deep freeze of Arctic air through Monday.
The National Weather Service (NWS) has warned of ferocious weather, including gale-force winds in states from the central plains to the mid-Atlantic.
Winter storm warnings have been issued from western Kansas clear across to the coastal states of Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia, an unusually broad 2,400-kilometre swathe under immediate threat.
“Disruptive winter storm to impact the Central Plains to the mid-Atlantic through Monday with widespread heavy snow and damaging ice accumulations,” the NWS said in its latest report.
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The first major storm of 2025 was already wreaking havoc on travel, with Kansas City International Airport announcing the closure of its flight operations on Saturday “due to rapid ice accumulation.”