Snow, sleet and power outages: 150m Americans brace for massive winter storm

A powerful winter storm that has more than 150 million Americans in its crosshairs had started sweeping across much of the US on Saturday – packing heavy snow and sleet as well as freezing rain, and the risk of widespread power outages.Snowfall was already being reported on Saturday morning across parts of the plains, the south and the midwest, including in areas of Oklahoma, Iowa, Tennessee, Kansas, Texas, and Missouri.The US National Weather Service (NWS) warned on Saturday morning that the powerful winter storm is “underway” with “precipitation already impacting” south-central regions of the country.Forecasters have said that more than 160 million Americans are expected to be affected by the winter storm. Weather officials warn that widespread, extended power outages are possible – along with major travel disruptions, extensive tree damage and dangerous conditions.Heavy snow is expected across a large area from the southern Rockies and plains through the mid-Atlantic and into the north-east through the weekend, the NWS said. The NWS added that snowfall totals were likely to exceed 12in across the Ohio valley, mid-Atlantic and north-east.Widespread freezing rain and sleet are forecast for the southern plains, the lower Mississippi valley, the Tennessee valley and the south-east.The NWS warned of “catastrophic ice accumulation” from the southern plains to the mid-Atlantic and the south-east. It added that the catastrophic impacts are expected where freezing rain amounts exceed a half inch, with totals of more than 1in possible in parts of northern Louisiana, central and northern Mississippi, southern Tennessee, and the southern Appalachians.And in the wake of the storm, the agency said that communities from the southern plains to the north-east can expect to contend with “bitterly cold temperatures and dangerously cold wind chills”.On Friday, the agency said that power outages “are certain for some, especially in areas where the heaviest ice will accumulate on trees and powerlines”.The service urged Americans on Friday to “take this storm seriously”.As of Saturday morning, about 80,000 customers were without power nationwide, according to PowerOutage.us, including 32,500 in Texas.Donald Trump on Friday night said on his Truth Social platform that he had been “briefed on the Record Cold Wave and Historic Winter Storm that will be hitting much of the United States this weekend”.“The Trump Administration is coordinating with State and Local Officials,” the president said. He declared the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) “fully prepared to respond” less than a month after reports that his administration had drafted plans to eliminate thousands of the entity’s staff.“Stay Safe and Stay Warm!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.Ahead of the storm, at least 16 states had declared states of emergency, along with Washington DC.Kentucky’s governor, Andy Beshear, warned on Saturday morning that the winter storm is “moving through” the state “with areas expecting up to 15 inches of snow, ice accumulation and dangerously cold temperatures”.He urged residents to avoid travel and to prepare.The storm has already disrupted air travel, with more than 9,000 flights within, into or out of the US cancelled for Saturday and Sunday, according to the website Flight Aware.New York City’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, meanwhile, said that the city was forecast to get between three and 16 inches of snow this weekend.