Jan. 5 (UPI) — The new year is ushering in a major winter storm across a wide swath of America, blasting much of the region with heavy snow and dangerous ice. More than 60 million people in 30 states are under winter weather warnings.
More than 4 million people are under blizzard warnings through Sunday night in parts of Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri, according to a customizable online map posted by the National Weather Service.
Travel conditions in parts of the heartland, including Kansas, Kentucky and Indiana were treacherous.
The National Weather Service has warned of “considerable disruptions to daily life,” including “dangerous or impossible driving conditions and widespread closures,” making travel “very difficult to impossible” throughout the day. The NWS lists all of the weather alerts for the country.
All inbound and outbound flights at Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky have been canceled, according to the airport’s website.
Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia are among the major cities preparing for snowy and icy conditions Sunday into Monday, with parts of Virginia expecting as much as a foot of snow.
Officials announced on social media that schools in Washington, D.C., will be closed Monday.
Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi are facing thunderstorms and severe cold, temperatures residents are not accustomed to in some places in the south. Parts of Mississippi were under a tornado warning for parts of the day Sunday.
Nearly 80,000 utility customers were without power across the South and Midwest as of 4 p.m. Sunday, according to Poweroutage.US. About 30,000 of them were in Missouri, 18,000 in Texas, and 10,555 customers in Louisiana, Kentucky and Illinois were without power.