70 million Americans under warnings for snow, bitter wind chills

Tens of millions of residents along the East Coast are bracing for several inches of snow Sunday followed by dangerously cold temperatures that will grip much of the country from the Northern Plains to the tip of Maine.

Winter storm warnings issued by the National Weather Service went into effect for parts of the Mid-Atlantic through Monday morning, with the forecast projecting up to a half foot of snow. Warnings will begin in New England on Sunday afternoon, with parts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Connecticut seeing as much as 10 inches of snow.

The National Weather Service projected that as many as 70 million residents will be under some kind of winter storm warning in the coming days including in New England and the Mid-Atlantic. Large cities such as Philadelphia, New York and Boston could see several inches of snow Sunday evening.

But the snow is just the start of a chaotic week of weather.

An area from the Rockies into the Northern Plains will see colder than normal temperatures over several days with temperatures dropping to minus 30 degrees to minus 55 on Sunday and Monday. Wind chills of minus 40 were already recorded in parts of North Dakota and Minnesota. Sub-zero wind chills are forecast to reach as far south as Oklahoma and the Tennessee Valley.

Minnesota residents were urged to wear appropriate clothing and carry a survival kit for travel. 

The cold weather forecasted for Monday for Washington, D.C., prompted President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural ceremony to be moved inside the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, due to temperatures in the 20s with wind gust upwards of 30 mph.

As happened earlier this month, this latest cold snap comes from a disruption in the polar vortex, the ring of cold air usually trapped about the North Pole.

The cold air will moderate as it moves southward and eastward, but the Central and Eastern U.S. will still experience temperatures in the teens and 20s Monday into Tuesday. The Mid-Atlantic and Northeast also will have highs in the teens and 20s, lows in the single digits and below zero degrees and wind chills below zero.



(AP Photo David Zalubowsky)