Forecasters say over half of the U.S. population could be affected by snow, ice or bitter cold as a winter storm sweeps across the county.
It was too cold for school in Chicago and other Midwestern cities Friday as a huge, dayslong winter storm began to crank up that could bring snow, sleet, ice and bone-chilling temperatures as well as extensive power outages to about half the U.S. population from Texas to New England.
Forecasters warned that the damage, especially in areas pounded by ice, could rival a hurricane. At least 177 million people were under watches or warnings for ice and snow and more than 200 million were under cold weather advisories or warnings and in many places they overlapped.
Maricela Resendiz went shopping Friday in Dallas ahead of the storm moving in there. She picked up chicken, eggs and some pizzas to get her, her 5-year-old son and her boyfriend through the weekend.
“It’s going to be a big storm,” she said, adding her weekend plans are “staying in, just being out of the way.”
Ice and snow could begin falling later Friday in Texas and Oklahoma. The storm was expected to slide into the South with freezing rain and sleet leaving behind a thick tree branch and power pole shattering layer of ice.
Then it will move into the Northeast, dumping about a foot of snow from Washington, D.C., through New York and Boston, the National Weather Service predicted. Boston declared a cold emergency through the weekend with wind chills predicted to dip well below zero.
The first factor to fall into place for the storm was Arctic air spilling down from Canada.
