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A big winter storm blew across the center of the US on Monday, threatening millions of people with heavy snow, freezing rain and flooding.
The National Weather Service warned that there would be “numerous, widespread, and impactful weather hazards in the heart of the country this week”.
Across the Rockies and into the Northern Plains and parts of the midwest, people were warned to prepare for blizzard-like conditions. Those farther south in Texas and Louisiana could get heavy rains with flash flooding, hail and tornadoes by Tuesday.
The storm will continue south-east into Florida later in the week, forecasters said.
“It will be a busy week while this system moves across the country,” said Marc Chenard, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s headquarters in College Park, Maryland.
Officials in western South Dakota told residents to brace for 6in (15cm) or more of snow: “Get your shovels handy, get your groceries, and check other needed supplies. The roads will be hard to travel.”
A swath of country stretching from Montana into western Nebraska and Colorado was under blizzard warnings Monday, and the National Weather Service said that as much as 2ft (61cm) of snow was possible in some areas of western South Dakota and north-western Nebraska.
