A wintry mess was bearing down on mid-Atlantic states Tuesday with forecasts of significant snow and ice accumulations prompting warnings of potential power outages.
Travel will become treacherous Tuesday through early Wednesday in much of Virginia and West Virginia the National Weather Service said.
Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Monday declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm, allowing state agencies to assist local governments. Schools and government offices throughout Virginia were closed Tuesday.
The heaviest snow, up to 10 inches (25.4 centimeters), was forecast in portions of northern and central Virginia and eastern West Virginia. Ice accumulations could range from a glaze in Kentucky and West Virginia to a half-inch (1.3 centimeters) in the Roanoke Valley of southwest Virginia, the weather service said. Power outages and tree damage were likely in places with heavy ice buildups.
“Did you think winter was over? Think again!” the weather service’s office in Blacksburg, Virginia, said in a post on the social media platform X. Snow mixed with sleet spread into western Virginia and North Carolina early Tuesday, with snow expected to quickly worsen road conditions in the morning before freezing rain moves in during the afternoon, the office said in posts Tuesday.
Appalachian Power, which serves 1 million customers in West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee, said it has requested 700 additional workers from neighboring utilities to assist with problems by Tuesday morning.
In East Tennessee, forecasters warned that the flood threat will increase throughout the week, with up to 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rain possible by Sunday. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it was taking steps to capture runoff and mitigate flood risk, including lowering some lake levels and emptying storage reservoirs.
In northern Virginia, the National Park Service closed a portion of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, a narrow highway that winds its way through woods along the Potomac River. The parkway connects multiple small national park sites and has historically been a trouble spot during winter storms for abandoned cars that created a slalom course for snowplows and other vehicles.
Winter storm warnings extended from Kentucky to southern New Jersey, and a flood watch was posted for a wide swath of Kentucky, Tennessee, southwest Virginia and northern Georgia. The snow-and-ice mix was expected to become all rain as temperatures climb by Wednesday afternoon.
A separate storm system is set to bring heavy snow from Kansas and Missouri to the Great Lakes on Wednesday, the weather service said.
Dangerous cold was forecast Tuesday from an Arctic air mass stretching from Portland, Oregon, to the Great Lakes.
In Detroit, two children under age 10 likely died from exposure to the cold after they were discovered with other family members Monday in a van in a casino parking garage, police said. Their family may have been living in the van, police said.
“This was unnecessary. It didn’t have to happen this way,” police Capt. Nathan Duda told WJBK-TV.
Officials in Oregon’s Multnomah County — who already confirmed a hypothermia death earlier this month — said three severe weather shelters with over 230 beds will open in the Portland area Monday night, when a state of emergency is set to take effect. The regional office of homeless services was also set to enhance its outreach program to distribute warm clothing, blankets and hand warmers to an estimated nearly 4,000 people living outside in the metro area.
Morning low temperatures could drop under 20 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 6.7 Celsius) through Wednesday, and gusty winds could make temperatures feel under 10 degrees (minus 17 Celsius), the weather service office in Portland said on X. Freezing rain may hit the area from Wednesday night through Thursday night, with another system possibly bringing more precipitation over the weekend.
Severe winter weather has paralyzed Portland in the past. The city, which is more used to rain, only partially treats its street grid in the event of snow and ice and does not plow side streets. Such weather in the region can also prove deadly. Last year, snow, freezing rain, ice and frigid temperatures were blamed for at least 10 deaths in Oregon from hypothermia and falling trees or utility poles.
The temperature was expected to bottom out Tuesday morning at minus 33 degrees (minus 36 degrees Celsius) in Butte, Montana, where over the past two winters at least five people died due to cold exposure, said Brayton Erickson, executive director of the Butte Rescue Mission. Advocates for the homeless in the city of about 35,000 planned to be out on the streets distributing sleeping bags, jackets, mittens and other cold weather gear to anyone who needs them, Erickson said.
“When it gets this cold, we kind of pull out all the stops,” he said. “Having all those resources available literally can save their life or keep them from frostbite.”
In addition to the winter storms, forecasters are also looking at an atmospheric river expected in California starting Thursday, according to Brian Hurley, a senior meteorologist with the weather service’s Weather Prediction Center. It is expected to bring heavy rainfall along the coast and into the central valleys and several feet of snow in the Sierras through Saturday.
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