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More than 200 million people in nearly every US state are under various winter weather alerts, including for wind chill, ice and heavy snow, as a huge winter storm system threatens travel chaos and one of the coldest Christmas days on record.
The coast to coast alerts extend as far south as Florida, with blizzard conditions expected in the Great Lakes region, up to 2in (5cm) of rain and a flash freeze on the East Coast, and wind gusts of 60 miles (100 km) an hour on the Mexican border.
Thousands of homes have been left without power, and governors in at least 13 states have drawn up emergency response plans, including National Guard deployments, for the holiday weekend, with heavy snow and ice creating treacherous road conditions and some drivers stranded.
The National Weather Service (NWS) said it expected a weather phenomenon known as a bomb cyclone – a rapidly strengthening storm that drops 24 millibars of pressure within 24 hours – to develop as it moves into the Great Lakes on Friday.
The cyclone, with a pressure likely to match that of a category 2 hurricane, could bring snowfall of half an inch (1.3cm) an hour, the weather service said, leading to “dangerous, at times impossible, land and air travel” up to the holiday weekend.
“The ongoing major winter storm will continue to produce areas of heavy snow, strong winds, and life-threatening wind chills through Saturday.
