Half a million lose power as storm lashes US from midwest to east coast

Half a million US homes and businesses were without power on Tuesday morning after a potent storm system brought a mix of snow, strong winds, cold temperatures and rainfall to areas from the midwest to the east coast.As of Tuesday morning, there were about 107,000 power outages reported in Michigan, according to poweroutage.us. In New York, there were 68,000 power outages; 65,000 were registered in Pennsylvania and 50,000 in Massachusetts.The National Weather Service (NWS) said early on Tuesday that a “deep cyclone together with a potent cold front continue to move through New England early this morning where very gusty winds, brief heavy downpours and sharply falling temperatures are still in progress”.The cyclone, the weather agency said, was expected to move into eastern Canada as Tuesday progressed. But, the NWS added, circulation will “allow strong and gusty winds” to continue into Tuesday night across New England before diminishing on Wednesday.Over the past few days, several states including Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan, have seen snowfall well into the double digits. Snowfall was reported in the southern state of Alabama, too.The system also triggered multiple tornado warnings across several states, and tornadoes were recorded in Missouri, Illinois, North Carolina, Arkansas and Mississippi. No injuries were reported.Travel has also been disrupted, with thousands of flights cancelled since Sunday. About 930 flights within, into, or out of the US scheduled for Tuesday were cancelled as of the morning, according to Flight Aware.The NWS in Detroit, Michigan, has warned that conditions are expected to remain cold on Tuesday, “with wind chills to [about] 0 degrees”. They also warned that “scattered light lake effect snow showers and flurries” would continue on Tuesday.In Minnesota, “light snow showers” were forecast in parts of the state on Tuesday, “with a couple inches of accumulation expected”. And in New York City, officials warned of “blustery and cool” conditions, with wind gusts up to 55mph expected.Farther north, in Buffalo, residents are bracing for periods of “lake effect snow” eastward and bitter cold temperatures through Tuesday night. And in Virginia, scattered snow showers were expected to continue on Tuesday across the mountains.Freeze warnings – which are issued when temperatures are forecast to go below freezing for a long period of time – were in place on Tuesday morning in parts of Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana and North Carolina. Meanwhile, high wind warnings were in place in parts of South Dakota, Montana, Maine, Vermont and Wyoming.Forecasters with the NWS also said that “an unusually early heatwave will be expanding eastward across the western US as the week progresses”. High temperatures reaching the “century mark” – 100F – were expected to begin appearing Tuesday afternoon across portions of southern California.By Wednesday afternoon, “high temperatures will soar well up into the 100s across much of the Desert Southwest,” they said. “Temperatures this hot so early in the year could shatter high temperatures records by as much as 10 degrees.”